19. Nineteen
NINETEEN
We were just finishing breakfast when Jack got a text. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know.
“Where?” I asked.
“Central City,” he replied. “Second Street and LaSalle.”
I pictured the residential area and nodded. “How many victims?”
“Another couple,” Jack replied. “I don’t have names, but I can get them on the way if you want to drive,” he said to Charlie.
She looked surprised at the offer. “You’re trusting me with your truck?” She cocked her head to the side, making a face I’d never seen before. “Since when do you trust me with your truck?”
He matched her expression. “I trust you with my heart, don’t I? It’s not that I don’t trust you to drive, it’s just that I prefer driving.”
“Uh-huh.” Charlie didn’t look convinced. “I’ll drive.” Her smile gave Jack pause, and he turned to me.
“Or you could drive,” he said. “You know the way.”
Charlie made a protesting sound. “That’s so mean.”
He managed a smile but didn’t offer her another chance behind the wheel. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
I DROVE BECAUSE THAT SEEMED TO make Jack more comfortable. He let Charlie sit up front with me as he worked in the back seat.
“Beverly and Anton Mason,” he said after a few minutes of searching. “Both retired and in their 70s.”
“Kids?” I asked.
“Two, both live in the state. Neither in New Orleans. The son lives in Baton Rouge, and the daughter lives in Alexandria.”
I nodded. “This area is older homes. You’re not going to find opulent houses, like in the Garden District.”
“Is that important?” Charlie asked.
“Not really, but I wanted to make you aware. It’s not a dangerous area, but it’s not one of the areas that gets a lot of attention.”
“Because the tourists don’t visit?” Jack guessed.
That was exactly why. “The French Quarter and Garden District get the most attention. Treme and Marigny are fairly popular, as is the CBD, if only for business purposes. Bywater is considered the up and coming neighborhood, which means they’re going to try to gentrify it.”
Charlie looked upset at that prospect. “Do you really think that will happen? Bywater is unique.”
“Probably. It’s close to the water, and that’s a huge selling point.” I shrugged. “The developers will come in, buy up all the property that’s run down first, tear it down, and then rebuild. Then the more expensive property will gain value, and the process will repeat.”
“That’s kind of a bummer,” Jack said. “Do you think the same will happen in the other neighborhoods?”
“It depends on the neighborhood.” I pulled onto Second Street. There were cop cars everywhere. “I’m not sure it will happen here. Not anytime soon.”
I parked Jack’s truck and handed him his fob. He pocketed it without paying attention. His eyes were scanning the crowd, looking for Detective Barry. “There,” he said, pointing.
Barry was on the porch. In this neighborhood the homes had small yards — very small. Cops were talking in small clusters in the front yard. Barry gestured for us to walk under the tape and join him.
“It’s pretty much the same scene,” he said grimly. “I don’t know if you want to see it.”
“Of course we do,” Jack said. “We need to see all of it.”
Barry nodded. “You can come in. They’ve already taken the bodies.” He gestured toward the cops on the lawn. “There’s not much else for us to do here. It’s not any different from the other scenes.”
“We still need to see it.” Jack put his hand to Charlie’s back and nudged her forward. Briefly, his eyes met mine. He was probably thinking the same thing I was. Barry wasn’t happy to see us. He’d only called because he felt he had to.
I kept my distance from Barry as we entered the house.
“It appears we have the same issue as the previous incidents,” Barry started in what was close to a monotone. “They got a call at about 11 o’clock last night. They were told to play jazz.”
“How do we know they got the call?” I asked.
“They told the neighbors. Everyone was hanging out in the backyard when the call came in. They laughed it off and assumed it was someone playing a joke.” Barry paused a beat. “You should know that there has been a rash of these calls in every neighborhood. People are pranking their friends.”
“Are you getting calls?” I asked.
He nodded. “We’re being overrun with them.
I think we got something like one-hundred and fifty calls last night from people terrified they’d gotten calls.
We managed to track down a lot of them and warn people that it wasn’t funny.
The problem is, when the real call comes in, we have no idea if it’s true or not. ”
“Did the Masons call in and report they’d been contacted?” Jack asked.
“No.” Barry didn’t look as if he’d slept in days. He had pronounced deep shadows under his eyes, and even his jowls looked more pronounced. He was growing haggard. This sort of case could take it out of you fast, I realized. “The fake calls have made the news, and that’s only increased the volume.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and tilted his head back. “I have no idea what to do with any of this.”
I turned away from him and focused on the blood spatters on the wall. The symbol was clearly present under the streaks. “Have we figured out if someone is doing this barehanded?” I asked.
“You mean fingerprints?” Barry shook his head. “Either they wore gloves, or they don’t have fingerprints.” He let loose a hollow laugh. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have fingerprints. Maybe you do.” His eyes landed on me.
I held up my hand. “I have fingerprints. Most paranormals do, except for maybe demons.” I had to think about that. “Yeah, demons might not.”
“What about ghosts?” Barry asked the question in a straightforward manner. “Because a lot of people think that the Axeman’s ghost has come back.”
“Ghosts should not be able to wield axes,” I replied. “Even if they could make a magical phone call — and this isn’t a movie like The Ring — they shouldn’t be able to kill multiple people with an axe. I don’t see how that would be possible.”
“Then what are our options?” Barry demanded. “I’m going to be honest with you, we have nothing. No DNA. We can’t track the phone number.”
Jack stirred. “Why not?”
“It’s not assigned to anyone. We’ve been in contact with every provider and they all claim that they have no one in their records with the number.”
“We’re certain it’s the same phone number for all of the incidents?”
“Yes.” Barry dragged a hand through his hair. “It’s not possible, and yet it’s happening.”
Jack flicked his eyes to me. “Know anything about magical phone calls?” He didn’t look hopeful.
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t even know how to set about doing something like that,” I admitted. “It could be a spell, but this whole thing is beyond my scope.” I looked around the room, my gaze falling on the symbol again. Liberté. The word on the base of the statue.
“Maybe the Axeman’s soul was captured, and he was locked away for a time,” I said. “Maybe that symbol means freedom because someone went out of their way to free him.”
“Why do you think that?” Barry asked.
“I saw the symbol once before, on a statue. I haven’t been able to find it since.” I held out my hands in defeat. “I don’t know the answer to any of this, but I need to figure it out.”
I linked my fingers and rested them on the back of my head as I looked around the room.
“Run me through it,” I ordered. “How it happened.” There was a lot of blood on the floor, and I couldn’t picture how the two people had been killed.
It was obvious where they’d been killed, but that was all I could ascertain. “Where did the killer enter from?”
Barry nodded, as if understanding. “We believe the killer entered through the back door,” he started, pointing in the direction of the kitchen, which I could see peeking through at the end of the hallway.
I headed in that direction and walked straight out the back door so I could look at the yard. It wasn’t like the Marigny house or the Bywater house. It had an actual backyard, and it wasn’t fenced.
“Someone could have entered the yard this time,” I said as I looked around.
Barry nodded. He was in the kitchen but hadn’t come to the door with me. “It’s not as hard to imagine the killer getting into this house.”
I exhaled heavily. “Was the back door locked?”
“We believe so. It was locked when we got here.”
I tilted my head. “It was locked when you got here, which means if the killer used the door, he locked it behind him.”
“Why is that important?” Charlie asked.
“We don’t know that it is,” Jack replied. “It’s another detail, and Freya is right, it’s a weird one.”
“We’re talking about a very messy axe attack,” I said. “Someone drew in blood on the wall again. And yet there’s no blood on the door.” I stared down at the steps. “There’s no blood in the yard that I can see or scent.” I scratched the back of my neck. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I believe we’ve all come to that conclusion,” Barry said dryly.
“I don’t suppose you could come up with something that’s actually helpful?
That’s why you were brought in. Although, to be fair, you were never invited in.
Just them.” He pointed to Charlie and Jack.
There was anger in his eyes when I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Listen, I get this is difficult.” I used my most no-nonsense tone. “None of it is easy. We’re doing our best. I get that you don’t like me —”
“It’s not about not liking you,” Barry interjected. My standing up to him had given him a tangible enemy, and he planned on taking his anger out on me. “I don’t know you. All I know is that your sister went missing and you stick your nose in cases.”
I didn’t respond. I just let him rant.
“Your parents made the department’s life hell for two years after your sister disappeared, and I get it. It’s hard to lose a child. We did what we could. We’re doing what we can here, too. It just … .” He started shaking his head. It was as if he’d just run out of words.
“You’re getting grief from people left and right,” I guessed. “You have no way of fighting this — just like you had no way of finding Holly — and you know that you’re going to wake up to more bodies tomorrow. You can’t even sleep.”
All of the life drained out of Barry’s face. “It’s not your fault.” He held up his hand. “It’s not your fault, and I’m sorry that I blamed you. I’m frustrated. When my captain told me to bring your team in, I was against it. But I thought you might help.”
I took pity on him. “We’re doing the exact opposite.”
“The exact opposite would be hindering,” he clarified. “It’s not my place to blame you. I just … I’m tired, and I’m sad to the point I want to retire. I won’t because we have to stop this. It’s been a really long few days.”
He turned his back so I couldn’t see his red-rimmed eyes. That’s when I switched my gaze to Jack. He looked as hopeless as I felt.
“We have to track down the symbol,” I said. “Seeing this scene won’t help us. We know what the scenes look like. We know what happened. What we don’t know is who — or rather what — we’re dealing with.”
“Freya is right,” Jack said. “We need to refocus. The symbol will crack it for us.”
“How are you going to find the answer to the symbol?” Barry asked listlessly.
“By asking people who do this sort of thing for a living,” I replied, motioning for Jack and Charlie to follow me through the back door. “We’ll be in touch when we figure it out,” I promised Detective Barry. “Keep us updated if you find anything.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything. I cast one more look at him over my shoulder before leading Jack and Charlie around the side of the house.
“That is a man on edge,” I said. “He’s going to fall apart soon.”
“I’m worried about that too,” Jack admitted. “Were you serious about the symbol? Do you think that’s where we need to focus our attention?”
I slowed my pace. “Do you have a better idea?”
“No, but maybe he does.” Jack pointed to his truck, which was parked down the block. Leaning against it was a tall, strong frame that I recognized.
Knox Cullen.
“Oh, geez,” I muttered as I started in that direction. I couldn’t believe he’d tracked us to Central City. “What are you doing here?” I demanded in a voice that was a lot less friendly than he probably deserved.
Knox, his arms folded over his chest, gave me a long once-over. “I think you know what I’m doing here.”
“Did your mom send you?”
His lips twitched, but he didn’t offer a full-on grin. “No. I came myself.”
“Why?”
“Why are you so dedicated to this case?” he challenged. “You’re not getting paid for this.”
“Maybe I’m interested in stopping what’s happening,” I shot back. “Have you considered that?”
“Yes, because that’s what I’m interested in too.”
That slowed me and made me feel like a righteous ass.
“You’re not the only one who loves this city, Freya,” he said. “I want to help. You can either work with me or against me. We both know that working against one another will split our focus.”
I exhaled heavily, all of the fight leaving me. “Fine. Let’s work together.” I flicked my eyes to Jack and Charlie. “I mean, if that’s okay with you guys.”
Charlie broke into a wide grin, and I knew Knox joining the team would mean trouble. “It’s a great idea,” she enthused. “I love when the team expands.”
That was such an odd thing to say. Behind her, Jack hung his head, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
“Let’s go to lunch and talk things out,” I suggested. “After that, we’re going to figure this out. I don’t care how we do it, just that we get it done.”