“I can call him, but if he’s working, his phone will be off. It will vibrate. That way he knows he needs to check his phone when he takes a break. But he was going to be Satchmo today... The same woman told him he should be Satchmo. Louis Armstrong.”

Dan smiled warmly. “Yeah, I know Louis Armstrong was Satchmo. Home here in the city, remember?”

“Sorry.”

“No worries. Can you go ahead and call Benny, leave him a message?”

“Sure. And we can leave here and maybe have time to swing down to Decatur Street. You can always see him on his little stand, and find out if she did give him a card, and if so, if he still has it. Do you think there might be prints on the card? That’s why you asked about his appearance, if he was wearing gloves?”

Dan shrugged. “Might be hard. Greta would have held the cards, some people might have handed them back, whoever did hold them would have left something behind, but...yes. Anything right now is a hope.”

Katie pulled her phone out and called Benny, who didn’t answer. She left him a message.

Ryder returned to the office.

“Where did you take her?” Dan asked.

“I let her go,” Ryder said. “But I feel like I should have taken her to the police psychiatrist. I’m no professional, but I’d say she’s suffering from delusions.”

“Hypnotism,” Dan said.

“What?”

“I think our guy is a talented hypnotist. He took a good look around the square, and he had a great deal of fun with Greta. She was susceptible to hypnotism.” Dan shrugged. “I know one young woman who works down there a lot. She reads tarot cards. But what she really reads is people, which I believe is the same talent our famed Marie Laveau possessed. Lacey, the young woman I know, was a psychology major. A lot of the locals bring their young adult children to her. She knows how to fathom a problem someone might be having and then she points out possible solutions. But Greta was an easy mark. She likes the feeling of being a medium, and she loves believing the world is full of mysticism.”

“Maybe she can be dehypnotized,” Ryder said, shaking his head sadly. “I mean, we’re free people, right? Free to believe as we like. But it’s just not great when someone is running around spouting the mantra of killer!”

“I hope she can...be helped, I guess. Except that...”

“That what?”

“I believe I’m paranoid, but with good reason. If the person who saw her was the man we know as Neil Browne, and Neil Browne is doing the killing, Greta might now be in danger.”