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We’ll
continue this conversation some other time.”
    Duke rose. “Fair enough, bro. Only
that other time is going to be tomorrow night at dinner. I’m convening the
posse. Claudia, Rita, you and I are having dinner. You might as well be ready
to tell it all or we’ll drag it out of you. Three against one won’t even be a
fair fight. By the way, I’m glad you didn’t knock that blonde up. One of these
days you’re going to realize that Rita’s the woman for you.”

CHAPTER 10
     
     
    After a nap Parke changed into black
jeans and a black shirt. He left his knife on the dresser and returned to the
coffee shop. The sun was disappearing, leaving Jackson Square shimmering in its
last rays. The group this time was a little larger than the one in the
afternoon. Jennifer bounded from the coffee shop and took tickets. She looked
at the killer. “Now let me think. You’re Paul, right? So you want to help me
find some ghosts?”
    Parke smiled when he handed her his
ticket and trailed the group on the same tour he had taken that afternoon. He
didn’t really listen. He just wanted Jennifer to move along and get to the
cemetery. Finally, they arrived at the gate.
    “Now we’re entering the St. Louis
Cemetery.” Her voice started to crack in feigned fright. “This is the most
haunted place in New Orleans. You must keep your eyes open because you may very
well see a ghost. People have been known to enter this hallowed ground at night
and never be seen again. I’ll need to take a head count now and then on the
other side to make sure that everyone gets through the graveyard and safely out
the other gate.”
    Jennifer arrived at Queen LeVeaux’s
tomb and told the same story, this time emphasizing Zombi, suggesting that
everyone carefully watch where they step so as not to wake up the boa. When she
led the tourists to the gate, Parke stepped behind the tomb. Once through the
gate and on the street, Jennifer paused to count heads. She did it once and
then a second time. Hiding her own nervousness about someone missing in the
cemetery, she said, “Uh, oh, we’re one short. You folks stay here. I’ll go back.”
    One man volunteered to go with her. She
declined, citing company policy. Another man turned to his wife and suggested
that this was all part of the tour. Some shill from the coffee shop had stayed
back and would soon come out with Jennifer, telling tales of seeing Queen
LeVeaux or some other ghost.
    Parke was waiting in the shadows of
the tomb. Once he heard about the boa that afternoon, he knew he could change
his routine. Jennifer would be choked and left in front of the tomb. The voodoo
believers would be convinced that it was Zombi that did it.   He heard her voice. “Hello. This is Jennifer. You
need to catch up.”
    Jennifer approached the tomb and
walked past. Parke stepped behind her and put his right arm around her neck,
grabbing his right wrist with his left hand. He had never killed someone this
way. Jennifer struggled and tried to cry out, but she had no breath and could
barely make a sound. She was really no problem for the killer. He was six feet
tall and in excellent shape. She was five feet and a hundred pounds. Parke felt
her body go limp. He put her body on the steps of the tomb and felt for a
pulse. He smiled. She was dead. He used his cell phone to snap a picture of her
body and noticed a small silver cross on a chain around her neck. He jerked it
off and put in in his pocket as a memento of victim nine. Then he turned and
walked back to where they had entered the cemetery, trying to decide if he
should try to get a table at the Commander’s Palace or Galatoire’s.
    Fifteen minutes later the man who had
volunteered asked another man to go with him to look for Jennifer. They used
the flashlight features on their cell phones. When they spotted Jennifer’s
body, one checked for a pulse while the other dialed 911.
    The next morning Parke was watching the
news while having room service