6. Six #2
I managed to refrain from sighing. “Charlie, you and Jack just bought a really expensive house in a ritzy area. You’re right in the heart of the French Quarter. It doesn’t matter what other people think. You’re living the dream. The only thing you should care about is what you think.”
Jack looked so grateful for what I’d said I worried he might throw himself across the table to hug me.
Charlie nodded. “I’ll have an iced tea, too.”
Once the server was gone, I focused on Lex. “You need to get rid of that hangover. We have a situation.”
“We do?” Lex didn’t look impressed. “Wait, did you sleep with Knox Cullen last night? Is that our situation?”
I couldn’t believe he’d actually asked. “No!” I almost screeched. “Why would you even ask me something like that?”
“You were sitting together for a long time, and you used flirty body language.”
“We did not.” That was outrageous. “I don’t have flirty body language.” Wait, what did he mean by flirty body language? I was confused, but there was no way I was asking.
“I wasn’t so busy with my little mistake that I didn’t see the two of you interacting,” Lex fired back.
“You guys leaned into each other constantly. You did that thing where you tuck your hair behind your ear and bat your eyelashes. That’s a dead giveaway that you want him to pay the toll to cross your bridge. ”
I refused to think about that too hard. “We were forced to sit at the same table because they ran out of tables. Nothing more.”
“That’s not what Toni says.” Lex’s smile was smug.
“You and Toni don’t even get along. I know you weren’t talking about me.” I paused a beat, convinced I was right. Then doubt swarmed me. “What did she say?”
“Let’s just say we have a pool for when you and the bounty hunter finally get it on. Sooner works better for me. Toni is convinced you’ll drag it out.”
This was so embarrassing. “They’re making that up,” I explained for our lunch companions’ benefit. “There’s nothing between Knox and me.”
“Nothing but a big hot lava eruption of hormones,” Lex sang out.
“Do you want me to find the woman you hooked up with last night and give her a list of your hangouts? Because I will,” I warned him.
His shoulders slumped. “If you’re not here to talk about Cullen, what are you here to talk about?”
I took advantage of the conversational shift and jumped. “You’re not going to believe it.” I told him the full story. When I finished, he looked confused.
“We’re not thinking this is the real Axeman?” he asked, his eyes on Jack. That wisdom was working overtime today. Lex barely knew them, yet he obviously trusted Jack right out of the gate.
“The odds seem long,” Jack replied. “The assailant would be too old.”
“Only if we’re talking about a human,” Charlie countered. She wasn’t smug as much as thoughtful. “Is it possible the original Axeman was a paranormal?”
Jack said nothing, but he worked it out in his head.
Lex, however, swung his eyes to me. “Do you remember when we did all that reading on the Axeman? We never even considered that he might be anything other than human.”
“I know.” I felt stupid about that. “At the time, we assumed all serial killers were human. That was moronic.”
“Why would you assume that?” Jack asked as our server returned with our iced teas.
I waited until she left to answer. “All the serial killers I’d read about were obviously human. It didn’t even occur to me — I was kind of an idiot when I was a kid — that there are paranormal serial killers out there who were never caught.”
“Or even those who were caught but dealt with quietly by the paranormal community,” Lex added. “I was right there with her. We both read about serial killers a lot because … .” He trailed off as he regarded me.
“Because our hunch for a time was that Holly was taken by a serial killer,” I volunteered. There was no point hiding it. Charlie and Jack weren’t the types to judge us. “We’ve had a lot of hunches over the years.”
I almost jumped out of my skin when Charlie reached over and grabbed my hand. Her gaze was seeking. “There are worse things than death,” she said in a low voice. “At least with death, you know. There’s a body, and you can grieve. Not knowing is the worst thing in the world. Believe me.
“I didn’t know why I’d been dropped in the system the way I was,” she continued. “I had no idea why I had magical powers. My adopted parents — they were the best people in the world — didn’t know what to do with me. Until the day they died, they lived in fear.
“So, trust me.” Her smile was soft but welcome. “There are worse things than dying. I get it better than anyone. Hunches come with the territory, and you’re not stupid for exploring them.”
Her words, strangely, bolstered me. “Thanks. Either way, I can’t help but think it’s possible the Axeman was a paranormal.”
“And what?” Jack asked. “Do you think he fled town back then? Serial killers — true serial killers — have difficulty quitting. That’s not to say they don’t.
The BTK killer proved that a lot of the assumptions we had about serial killers were wrong.
But in general they don’t stop unless they’re caught or die. ”
“Maybe something else happened,” I suggested. “Maybe the killer was trapped or something, or locked away.”
“Or maybe the new killer is an ancestor,” Charlie added. “Maybe it’s a grandson who went looking for information about his grandfather and found proof that he was the Axeman.”
It sounded simplistic, and yet it wasn’t weak by any stretch.
“We won’t be able to figure this out without more information,” Jack said, looking down at the napkin he’d wadded on top of the table. “Unfortunately, to get that information … .”
“Other people have to die,” I finished for him.
He was grim when he snagged my gaze. “Yeah. That’s exactly what needs to happen.”