“I just know they were steered toward the arena by cops.” He frowned. “But, again, do you think that someone here managed to get followers to kill for them? Wait, I guess it has happened before. But...someone got someone to Florida to murder Katie’s mom and dad and Anita Calabria, kill people again in Orlando, and then come here? I mean, it’s not like they would have been working up to kill Lou. Lou was murdered twelve years ago.”

Dan took a deep breath himself. “Whoever this person is, they might have made sure they were anonymous. From what I’ve heard, Lou Delaney wouldn’t have kept his own identity a secret. I doubt if they exchanged pleasantries, but somehow the man found out who Lou was. Maybe the man could have gone to someone else involved and lied and said something like ‘Oh, who was that? I have to thank him for what he did for me!’ And there was something that had already begun in his mind or a plan he had in his head. I’m not even sure how to explain this. There had to have been something he had going. If he revered the Axeman and Allan Pierce and had figured that the disaster was a way to manipulate people and situations, it might have seemed to him like a grand design for life, and power was falling into place. Kill Lou and the others, kill again in six years, and then come back to New Orleans six years later for his end game, his grand finale.”

Jeremy nodded gravely. “How could he have known? This killer...how could he have known Katie would move here? Is he targeting Katie? Katie! You need to relocate to Europe or Australia. Somewhere far, far from here.”

Katie shook her head. “Jeremy, if we’re right, this killer has money. He sent henchmen to do the deeds he wanted done in Florida. He would have done his research. You’re my closest relative. He probably knows about you as well as all about me.”

“And now Dan?” Jeremey asked.

“Probably,” Dan said. “Maybe we’re part of the end game, and maybe we’re not. But we know this isn’t random. And now we’re prepared.”

“And I can’t spend my life running. I just can’t,” Katie said and hesitated. “Jeremy, you have to be careful. You could be in danger, too, if this does have anything to do with what you and my dad did here after the storm. You have to be careful.”

“I have an alarm system on the house, remember,” Jeremy told her. “And I have a gun and a permit,” he assured Dan.