They’d been fast friends since they’d met, all but crashing into one another while in line for coffee at Café du Monde. They had both wanted enough coffee to stay awake to work long days during a long-ago Mardi Gras. She loved him and thought him incredibly talented.

“Hey!” he said, greeting her. He smiled at Dan. “Good to see you with Katie. I saw you give the press conference. I hate to think about her running around the city alone. Wait, I hate to think about me running around the city alone! But I’ve been the ghost of Andrew Jackson for several hours now, and I’m beat.”

“Benny’s place is just a block up,” Katie said.

“We can watch you get there,” Dan offered, shaking Benny’s hand.

Benny apologized for the white that came off. Dan shook his head, laughing.

“No problem.”

“I was offered a role in a play at a theater near Disney World,” Benny said. “I’m going to take it—get out of here for a bit.” He made a face. “I’m all on my own here.”

“You’re always welcome at my house,” Katie assured him. “But if it’s a good role—”

“It is. I’ll tell you about it later. It’s not just the murders, it’s that people in the city are too tense. A girl this afternoon... I’ve seen her telling fortunes at Jackson Square—you know, in that area between the park and the cathedral—just absolutely lost it. She had cards, not tarot cards but a regular deck of cards, and she was running up and down by the shops that line the park, screaming that they were all the number six! Crazy, man. And this is New Orleans!”

“If you need help with anything, let me know,” Katie told him.

Dan handed him one of his business cards. “Call if you need help, if you see anything, hear anything...or are worried about anything, even people being weird about fortune-telling. What was she saying about the number six?”

“Random stuff! ‘Six, it’s the time of six! Repent!’ Ah, well, I’m exhausted. I need to get out of costume, chow down a giant bowl of chocolate ice cream and get some sleep.”

He waved to them. Dan was silent as he headed down the street. Then he murmured, “Six.”

“Bizarre, huh? But, hey. We do get people in the city all the time who think that it’s a den of nothing but sin. So-called Christians carrying signs about gay people going to hell. Whether it’s your faith or not, hate was not something preached by Christ. The world is filled with fanatics, and yes, I guess we’re a place where most people shake their heads at whatever and keep on moving.”