“Right. One couple disappeared. Supposedly. One man, George Calabria, showed up on a beach delirious, dehydrated, and a mess. His wife, Anita, was found dead, hacked up and stabbed, along with Louis and Virginia Delaney, the couple who owned the boat. Their daughter had been out diving. She was the one who reached the Coast Guard. She and George Calabria both claimed there was another couple who were on the boat and had simply disappeared—a Dr. Neil Browne and his girlfriend, Jennie someone—neither the kid nor George Calabria remembered her surname. He believed the other couple who had been on the boat had to be dead, floating in the ocean somewhere, food for the fish. I never believed his story. Neither did anyone else. The couple seemed to be nonexistent. Well, you know. I was just a rookie back then, on the periphery. But we all heard about it. Then it was my case, the similar murders that happened six years later. At that time, the killer or killers came in through a sliding glass door at the Orlando home.” He paused. “It wasn’t even jimmied. The family had forgotten to lock it. Or they had let the killer in.”

“Let’s head to the station. One of our community outreach officers has been contacting the family. I have officers out canvasing the neighborhood, but this happened late last night, probably right before bedtime.”

Dan nodded. The tinny smell of blood was almost overwhelming. He’d seen what he needed to see.

Dr. Vincent was trying to instruct his assistants on how to move the bodies onto gurneys without the bodies falling apart or without leaving bits of them behind.

Crime-scene investigators were still working. They would be doing so for hours.

As Dan and Ryder left the house, reporters were moving in.

“Detective Stapleton, Detective Stapleton!” a woman with a microphone shouted. “Is it the Axeman? Has the Axeman returned to New Orleans?”

Ryder lifted a hand. “The man who committed heinous crimes in this city over a hundred years ago is certainly long dead. So no. He hasn’t returned to the city. Murders were committed. We are just beginning our investigation. I beg that you allow us to investigate and not create a sensationalist panic in the city. That’s all for now. You’ll have information when we have it, if it doesn’t hamper our work. Excuse me now, please.”

Dan was proud of Ryder. That was well-handled.

They made their way to his unmarked car.

“You’re coming with me?” Ryder asked him.

“Took a cab to get here. But I’ll hang outside the station for a few minutes. I have a few calls to make myself.”

Ryder looked at him with a frown.

“I just need to know where a few people might be at this moment,” Dan told him.