Dan rose. “We don’t know for sure,” he said. “This isn’t a demon or anyone from hell or with a superpower, no immortality. This is simply a very sick human being. And I don’t think he always knows what he’s doing from day to day, and we don’t even know if more than one person is involved.”

“He was big, like a super being,” Mona said gravely.

“Lots of men are big,” Axel said as he stood.

Katie scrambled to her feet to join them; they were leaving.

Again, they thanked the couple with both Dan and Axel leaving their cards behind should the couple think of anything else.

When they reached the car, Dan turned to Katie. “Will you call Jeremy again, please?”

“I... Sure, but—”

“Please.”

She got Jeremy on the phone and handed it over to Dan as Axel drove.

Dan asked Jeremy about the day in the French Quarter after the storm when they’d had trouble.

“Among the people there... Was there anyone large?”

He listened to what Jeremy had to say and then ended the call.

“What?” Katie and Axel inquired in unison.

“Well, there are many tall men in New Orleans,” Dan said.

“But...what did Jeremy say?”

“The man your father had the altercation with was average-tall, maybe six one, six two. But he thought one of the guys hanging around in the background—he’s not even sure if he was with the group or not—seemed to be taller. Notably bigger. It’s the only reason he remembers.”

“Okay, the Axeman then and now is a big guy, on the taller side of average, and he runs around the city in a long dark coat and slouch hat,” Katie said. She shook her head. “We don’t know! Mona might have thought the man was taller than he was. And—”

“There’s still possibly more than one person involved in this,” Dan said. “Six if Nathan Lawrence was telling the truth. They were short one person, and for some reason they thought he might be the right guy to fill their ranks. Maybe because he has family money but is in truth a mild-mannered teacher who is so gullible he’s unaware his wife is out to get him. Either that, or he’s a damned good liar, and he’s laughing his ass off at us right now, or hurrying to tell his god or demon or leader that we fell for everything that he said.”

“There’s someone calling the shots. The others adhere to him. Nathan Lawrence may be hapless and innocent, which means someone else was contacted after him,” Axel said. He glanced over at Katie, in the passenger’s seat next to him. “We got a social website from him. We’re trolling it, trying to see if we get a bite.”

Katie nodded. “So now...” she mused.