“I think so,” he said. “Not sure where you’re going, but I’m following so far.”

“Pierce had a bet with one of the old men he played checkers with. He said he could make something happen by saying so. As it happened, I stopped by the old fellows on the stoop one day when he predicted that people could be made to do just about anything. He said, ‘Take the number six. If I just tell people the number six matters, that it’s important, they’ll believe it. I can even convince them I’m some kind of an angel or demon, and six is the number of days a man must work, must wait, must do everything, because man was created on the sixth day.’”

“Did you think he was the Axeman?” Dan asked her.

“I didn’t think anything of it at the time. And no, I don’t think Allan Pierce was the Axeman. But I later found out he had convinced a lot of people—mainly poor immigrants—that he was something preternatural, maybe a demon, and they all did his bidding, down to stealing, striking others and starting fights.” She paused, drumming her fingers on the table. “The man did love jazz, too. I don’t know if he could have been the Axeman. I know the people arrested for being the Axeman were not. I don’t know...it might have been the fellow Mrs. Pepitone supposedly killed in Los Angeles, but how did they both just wind up in LA? I just don’t have the answers to all that.” She watched him eat for a couple bites, then continued. “But back to the number six. I know Pierce had a young apprentice, you might say. And the kid went on to say he could do all the same things... Convince people about the number, and you’d get them awed or scared enough to believe they were doing the right thing by doing the wrong thing. I’ve been all around the city, and I do believe someone is running around getting the rumor going that there is something in that number. I heard a lady down by the square recently claiming the Time of Six was coming again and that people needed to repent. There was a book written in the thirties, I believe. They might be able to help at the library. Anyway, it has chapters on the various strange beliefs embraced by people in this city at times. There is a chapter about Allan Pierce in it. You might find it interesting. Because, when I heard about the slain goats, I wondered if someone wasn’t taking Pierce’s concept to a new level. Then again, remember, Allan was doing it just for fun. He was a bitter man and liked to manipulate others.”

“I’ll look for the book,” he told her.