She smiled. “I’ll keep cruising different areas of the city by day. I may hang out at your friend’s place at night. Though... Well, you were rather dense when we met. I hope you’d hear me if I were to give you warning.”

He smiled, inclining his head. “Dense. Thanks.”

“But you’re handsome, darling. So cute.”

“Thank you for that, too, but you needn’t worry. Katie can see...um...”

“The dead, honey. Spit it out. I’ve been accustomed to it for a very long time. But you say she’d see me, too? Of course, like that charming friend of yours, the Native American boy.”

Dan didn’t think Axel Tiger often thought of himself as a boy.

“Yes, like him, too,” he said.

“Charming. Well, I’m delighted about Miss Delaney.” She paused. “Worried, as well. You are staying with her, and you’re taking care that she’s safe? I mean, this is a maniac or psychopath who has an agenda and doesn’t care who he hurts.”

“I’m staying at the house, and I don’t believe he wants to take chances with anyone who might hurt him instead. Like the old Axeman, he found vulnerable people.”

“Even you have to sleep, darling.”

“I wake easily. And cameras are being installed that send video straight to the police station. There will always be a cruiser within close range.”

“Isn’t she scared? Doesn’t she want to leave?”

He sighed. “If she wanted to leave, I’d encourage her. Except I don’t think she wants to live her life in fear. Mabel, her parents were killed twelve years ago. Now, a bloodied axe was left at her back door. She could leave—and if this guy wasn’t caught, a year from now, six years from now, twelve years from now—and the whole thing could start again. It has to end here.” He paused, frowning. “I wonder if it could have begun here?”

“You said it began in Florida.”

“Yes, but the infamous Axeman of New Orleans struck here first.”

“You think someone planned to go to Florida and kill people and then kill here twelve years later?” she asked, a frown creasing her forehead.

“I don’t know what I think. We must look at every angle. Our only clue so far is a strange woman named Jennie. Katie met her in Florida, and she’s finally seen her again on the streets here, in New Orleans.” He shook his head. “And while he may be imitating a killer from a hundred years ago, he’s learned modern forensic techniques. He wears gloves and leaves no fingerprints. The ground hasn’t been wet, but so far, no footprints. Not a hair, not a fiber.”

“But eventually he’ll leave something,” Mabel said. “It’s impossible... Someone had a theory on that.”