“You do?” she asked. “Even with George saying they existed, it seemed the cops back then thought he had made them up, and I was a kid and didn’t know better and agreed. While he was never arrested for my parents’ murders, he was under suspicion. The hospital stated his condition was critical when he was first found, and there was no hard evidence he committed the crime. His story of being hit and sent flying overboard chimed with the forensic evidence they did find.”

He shrugged, looking out at the night. “I’ve come across people like the man you described. They’re charming. Pleasant, polite, devious and cold-blooded. Psychopaths. Killing someone is no different than squashing a bug to such people. Sometimes, people they kill are just in the way, preventing what the person wants. And sometimes they become fixated on an idea, and to them people need to die because of that idea. People—and statistics—show most such killers are men, but I’ve seen the work of misfired minds come in male and female. I think...”

“Yes?” she asked.

He was looking toward the road in front of her house beyond the gate.

“I’ll tell you another time,” he said. “Axel and Adam are waiting. They’re not impatient types, but it is late, and tomorrow the autopsies are starting at 7:00 a.m.”

“Yes, of course, go ahead.”

“I will tell you,” he promised, “when I see you next.”

He waved, heading down the walk and out to the waiting car.

CHAPTER FIVE

Dan’s morning started at the morgue with Axel and Ryder.

Adam Harrison was working at the local offices, where he could remain in contact with their main offices and gather any intel from research he could find.

Dr. Vincent was going to handle all three bodies. While the New Orleans morgue had more medical examiners—good ones—on staff, it had been agreed he would oversee the autopsies on all three victims.

And if such attacks should arise again, he would oversee the autopsies done on those victims, too. Any little detail could become important, and the medical examiner on one case might see that same detail in another.

It would be a long morning.

Despite so much that was obvious, Dr. Vincent carefully went over each body. And Dan could only imagine the scene as it had unfolded.

Dan had read Ryder’s reports on the victims, and he couldn’t help but think about them as their wounds were described in detail and the customary autopsy procedures were performed.