Louis turned the page. Frank had underlined the next paragraph:
Nowadays, along the old borders of the Roman Empire, remnants of the lupercalia still persist. In Asturias, villagers still celebrate “Beleno Ride” where the single young men descend from the mountains down to the village on horseback, following a leader who wears a wolf costume and is allowed to indulge in bold actions such as whipping village girls with a swollen animal bladder tied to a stick. Anthropologists call it a rite of passage, which marks the difference between the “mozos" (the unmarried men) and the “paisanos ” (the adult men with families).
Jesus. Louis closed the book.
He rose slowly and went to the kitchen. He started to the refrigerator to get a beer then changed his mind and just filled a large glass with tap water and gulped it down. He stood in the dark kitchen, trying to gather his thoughts. The air seemed as thick as his mind. Images of wolves speaking some gibberish language, bodies caged by dark mangroves, and blind detectives feeling their way around one last case.
And the damn Latin was swirling in his brain, like a fog obscuring everything.
Hicks... hicks salute... no, no, that wasn’t it. Think... try to hear him saying it. Hick solute... solutio. Solutio. Solution? Could that be what Frank meant?
Louis went back to the table and pulled out the large Oxford Latin Dictionary and put on his glasses. It only took a minute to find solutio under the S’s.
He ran a finger down the long entry of definitions: 1. Loose or relaxed state; 2. The discharge of a debt or breaking up of a structure. His finger stopped at the third definition: The unfastening of a knot, the solving of a puzzle or dilemma; the answer.
He flipped quickly back to the H’s. Hick solutio...
Hic. Here.
The answer is here?
Louis snatched up the phone and punched in Landeta’s phone number. It rang six times before Landeta answered.
“What?” His voice was groggy.
“Mel. I found it. The answer is here.”
“What? What the hell? Louis?”
“Yeah.”
“I was sleeping.”
“I’m sorry. The answer is here.”
“What? Where?”
“Here! That’s what Frank was trying to tell me. Hic solutio est. The answer is here, on the island.”
“You’re on an island?”
“No, I’m at home. The answer is on the island.”
“Cayo Costa? The island Frank was hiding out on?”
“No, no. The other one.”
“What other one?”
“The one he went to before he drowned himself,” Louis said. “The one with the restaurant. You questioned them. What did they say?”
Landeta was quiet.
“Mel, what did they say?”
Landeta still said nothing.
“Mel? You there?”
“Yeah.” Louis heard him pull in a deep breath. “I didn’t get out there.”
“You didn’t —- ” Louis stopped. He knew why Landeta hadn’t gone back out there. He couldn’t go alone; he needed help.
“All right, all right,” Louis said. “Forget it. Let’s get back to Frank and what he told me.”
“What do you think he meant?” Landeta asked.
“I don’t know. I called you before I thought about it. Maybe it’s where he buried the women.”
There was a long pause on Landeta’s end. Louis figured he was about to tell him to hold his thoughts until tomorrow, and he was about to apologize again for waking him, but Landeta spoke first.
“Tell me about the island.”
“Now?” Louis asked.
“Yeah. Tell me what it looks like.”
“It’s all mangroves. There’s this old restaurant out there and you can only get there by ferry. The tourists unload at the dock, and after lunch they make you get right back on the ferry.”
“It’s privately owned? Who owns it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s the restaurant like?”
“It’s just an old house, white weathered wood, real rustic, a coral rock fireplace, fishing nets, stuffed fish on the walls. It almost looked neglected, but I think they want it like that for the tourists.”
“Did you see Frank talk to anyone there?”
“Yeah, a man working at the bar. And there was a kid, about ten. His name was Roberto.”
“How did you learn the kid’s name?”
“Frank asked him.”
“What else, Louis?”
“Nothing.”
“There must be something else.”
Louis jumped up and began to pace. “I didn’t look at anything else,” he said. “I was keeping my eye on Frank.”
“What was Frank keeping his eye on?” Landeta asked.