Island of Bones(112)

He was seeing exactly what was there. Then suddenly he saw what wasn’t there.

Four lines connected Ana del Bosque’s children to her. The same four lines connected to Mateo del Bosque. There was no line between Ana and Mateo. Mateo wasn’t Ana’s husband, as she had told Horton. He was her brother.

“Incest?” Louis said. “That’s what this is all about?”

Frank looked up, wiping his face. “I didn’t know any of this for sure until yesterday.”

“When you were talking to your mother in Latin,” Louis said. “That’s when she told you?”

Frank nodded. “I always suspected it. I mean, I didn’t have a father. Mama told us his name was Eli and that he had died and was buried with the rest of the family in the cemetery, but I never saw a marker with that name on it.”

“So Mateo was your father, too?”

Frank nodded woodenly. “My grandparents had died, so it was just the three of them living here by then —- Mama, Mateo, and Alfonso. Mateo started raping Mama when she was just fifteen. She gave birth to my brother Edmundo. It didn’t stop, and she had me and Emilio. Mama was twenty-two when Taresa was born. She shot Mateo soon after that.”

Louis looked down at the Bible. “And Alfonso?”

“Mama told him the blood had to be purified, that he had to go off the island and bring back a wife. He was the first to do it.”

Louis was silent, thinking, putting the pieces together. “And the baby girls? They were killed to prevent more incest?”

Frank hesitated then nodded. “To keep it from happening again.”

Louis turned away, shaking his head. After a moment, he turned back to Frank. “Did you know about the babies?”

“No, we were not told until it was necessary. I didn’t find out until Sophie got pregnant,” Frank said. “A few weeks before she was due, Mama came to me and told me she would take care of birthing the baby.”

Louis didn’t say anything.

“But I couldn’t stay away,” Frank said, his voice soft. “I snuck out to the birthing house and waited. It took forever. Then I heard a baby cry and Mama came out carrying my daughter. I asked her where she was going and Mama told me the baby had to be given back to God.”

Frank looked up at Louis. “I couldn’t let it happen. I told Mama we would leave, that I would take my wife and baby to the mainland and live.”

“She just let you go?”

Frank nodded. “But I was never to come back. That was our agreement.”

Louis took off his glasses and put them away. He went slowly to the open door, drawing in a full breath. He remembered the cabin where he had found Angel. It was isolated, away from the family compound, away from the eyes and ears of the other women. Maybe so they could deny it was happening? Ana del Bosque had told Horton that she had smothered the babies.

But then Louis remembered how Rafael had looked as he led Angel to that cabin. Had it become the man’s responsibility to kill the newborn if it was a girl?

Louis closed his eyes. Responsibility. Jesus, was that even the right word?

The rain had stopped and it was quiet for a moment. Louis could see the cops outside in their yellow slickers standing under a tree, laughing as they lit up cigarettes.

“Why didn’t you tell the police any of this?” Louis asked, turning back to Frank.

“I wanted only to stop it,” Frank said. “Besides, you have an old woman to put on trial. What more do you want?”

Louis shook his head.

“Diane doesn’t know any of this,” Frank said.

“You need to tell her.”

Frank shook his head.

“She has a right to know, Frank.”

When Frank looked up at him there was a spark of anger in his eyes. “About what? About the incest? About what I carry in my blood, what I have passed on to her? She told me once she never wants to have children. Can you imagine hearing that from your own child, can you imagine how that makes you feel?”

His eyes welled. “Relieved. I feel relieved.”

Frank looked away quickly. Louis didn’t know what to say. He started for the door.

“You won’t tell her, will you?” Frank asked.

Louis turned back. “No.”

Frank nodded slowly. “Good. I just want her to be happy and have a normal life. If I stay away from her, she still has a chance.”

“Where will you go?” Louis asked.

“My place is here,” Frank said, closing the Bible. “Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores. The wolf changes his skin, not his habits.”





CHAPTER 51




When Louis came out of the restaurant, he saw a man coming around the side of the building. He was carrying a large plastic evidence bag, but it was the way that the man was holding it that told Louis what was in it.