He also told her about the axe left at Katie’s house.

“You must take serious care for that young woman!” Mabel said.

He nodded. “Yes. Mabel, please—”

“Back to the number six,” she said. “A few years back, they found six goats with their throats slit, drained of blood.”

“I know that,” he said, a little disappointed.

“Everyone cried out it had to be a voodoo thing, but it wasn’t. The city is host to many Latin Americans, so they cried Santeria. Then they blamed it on the city’s Wiccans, and then the so-called vampires.”

“Yes, I heard.”

She shook her head. “Here’s where I may be able to help you.” She took a deep breath. “I didn’t really think this meant anything at the time, but...in my day, there was more of a...well, a bigger difference between the rich and the poor. The city was filled with immigrants, but we had the old guard, too. There were still older people living who remembered the Civil War, and some hated the North for the invasion of the South, and most hated the South for slavery and the death toll of the war. And we were involved in another war, World War I. But there was a man named Allan Pierce who was, to the best of my knowledge, born and raised here. He...he was fascinated by the legends of Marie Laveau, the famous voodoo priestess. You know about her, of course.”

“Yes, of course. People still perform little rites at her tomb, even those who do it just for fun. They leave her coins and do three circles and the like,” Dan said. He was growing a little impatient—he was so desperate for help, and she was telling him NOLA tales.

He’d ordered the shrimp and grits. When they arrived, she leaned back, smiling and closing her eyes for a minute, as if she could inhale the aroma of the dish he’d ordered.

“Mabel, you know my dad was from here, his family... I’ve known NOLA since I was a kid,” he reminded her.

“Pay attention. Yes, it’s a long story, but it may help you. Okay, so... Allan Pierce had delusions of grandeur. His family had lived in the city during the Civil War but owned a plantation down the river, and they had been very rich. Then they’d lost it and been all but penniless. I met him because he used to play checkers with some of the oldsters I knew. He used to talk about Marie Laveau, saying how she had powers of second sight and the ability to tell the future because she was the world’s best listener. Also, she was excellent at making a prediction that was more of an instruction—if you’re expecting something, it just might happen because you make it. Are you following me?”