605: The Green Wave

Synopsis

The investigators wake at about nine or ten in the morning in Dr. Isaiah Calhoun's safe house above the Golden Lily. Calhoun brings up breakfast of grits, eggs, po' boys and strong coffee. He knows nothing about Professor Armand beyond seeing his name in the paper. As far as he knows, the murdered detective was not working the Axe Man case, which makes Devin Black wonder whether the detective was killed for something else. Calhoun does not know of any police on the Invisible College's payroll in the city.

Rolling a critical success on his credit rating, Dr. Shrimp Puerto Rico turns out to be a close friend of the president of Tulane University, Crotted Costa Rica. He phones the president from Calhoun's office. The president tells him that Armand taught comparative mythology and was killed by the Axe Man on the street at night, outside a liquor store on Bourbon Street. He does not know what Armand was working on but invites Shrimp to come to the university. Tallahassee asks the president to write the foreword to his upcoming book, "Tallahassee and the Axe Man."

The group splits up. Shrimp and Tallahassee, still in clothes borrowed from Calhoun, take a cab toward the Hotel Couronne Creuse to collect Tallahassee's belongings, but find the street blocked by police cars and a coroner's van. They watch a single, lumpy sheet-covered gurney carrying the remains of Michelle Casey being wheeled out, decide to come back for the clothes later, and head on to Tulane.

Major Bakersfield, Grant Jameson and Devin go to Brigitte Girouge's shop, La Maison Rouge, Curios and Conjurations, on Dumaine Street off Burgundy. It is a narrow storefront half hidden behind Spanish moss, with shuttered windows and a wrought-iron gate hung with charms, dried alligator tails and bones. Inside is a maze of shelves holding jars of roots, powders and preserved animals, Catholic icons, candles and a few shrunken heads, which she later says are fake. Brigitte, whom they also call "the Duchess," is younger than they expected, in her late thirties, wearing a floral peasant dress and a bandana and jangling with jewelry. At first she does not recognize Corbitt's photograph and refuses to discuss dark conjuring. She warns that she is no dime-store bokor.

Devin shows her his stump, and after his extreme success at fast talk she opens up. Corbitt came to her on December 5. He did not give his name. He wanted to contact the spirit of a man named Nathaniel, one of the Axe Man's victims from seven years earlier, whose tomb is in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. She refused because she sensed a darkness in him, so he went to the Doucet twins, bokors who would take any job, however dark. The next morning the twins were found chopped to pieces at the cemetery in the middle of a summoning. She believes whatever they did there woke the Axe Man, who had been sleeping for years, and she suspects he has killed more people than anyone knows. She has heard of the death of the detective, Russo, but did not know him.

She puts on a jazz record before discussing the creature and explains that the horse head was more likely hollowed out and pulled over a normal human head than the man's head being shrunk. When Devin names Amduceus, she hushes him and refuses to say the name. She believes the entity is very old and has been trapped here until someone woke it. To be rid of it, she says, they must seal it back the way it came or find something bigger and scarier to drive it away. She refuses to contact Nathaniel for them, fearing she would end up like the Doucet twins. A psychology roll suggests she is being honest. The Major's group leaves word that they can be reached at Dupree and Sons Fine Clothiers by asking for Devin Black, then heads for Tulane University to rejoin the others.

Funny Moments

The investigators wake up in a big cuddle pile, except Jameson, who fell asleep in a cupboard.
"Imagine a sock": the horse head over the human head becomes the running metaphor of the episode, ending in "Schrödinger's foot sock."
Shrimp rolls a 1 on credit rating, and the president of Tulane becomes his best friend, "President Crotted Costa Rica."
Shrimp has to be handed the telephone because he cannot reach it.
Tallahassee asks the president to write the foreword to "Tallahassee and the Axe Man."
Shrimp cannot reach the cab door handle, and the cab keeps rolling forward.
Devin keeps his severed hand in his pocket and has the Major show it to the Duchess: "Talk to the hand."
"Much easier scoop out horse neck. Everybody know that."

Notable Quotes

"I don't think the ax man comes out in the day." —Tallahassee Turner
"I don't have a baby hand. I just have a stump." —Devin Black
"I know everybody there. I know every single professor there." —Dr. Shrimp Puerto Rico
"We had ourselves a run in with the ax man last night." —Devin Black
"Don't they teach you nothing at those fancy northern universities up there?" —Brigitte Girouge