The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid (25 page)
Read The Pot Thief Who Studied Billy the Kid Online
Authors: J Michael Orenduff
But who uses
sub specie aeternitatis
in everyday English?
I knew
it meant literally ‘under the aspect of eternity’
. But like
many other phrases, the literal translation is
probably not the real meaning.
Alma mater
latino Linotype"> literally means ‘nourishing mother’, but what it really means for us is the school we graduated from.
I didn’t see how
sub specie aeternitatis
was related
to coincidences, so I just set it aside and asked Father Groa
z
what I should do about the corpse.
“You should say a prayer of forgiveness.”
“I did that immediately after I covered the hand
and tamped down the soil
.”
“S
hould
you
also
report it to the police?
”
“I discussed
that
with my lawyer. He says I have no obligation to report it.”
Groaz
looked perplexed. “Why does he say this?”
“Because the point of reporting a body is so the police can di
g
it up, try to identify it and see if it di
e
d of natural causes or foul play. Since the body is no longer where I found it, that intent cannot be met.”
“Hmm. You are satisfied with this advice?”
“I wouldn’t be sitting here if I were.”
“Perhaps you remember the Biblical story of David
leading the
hungry into the Temple
to
eat the holy bread on the Sabbath. David broke the law
s of Moses, but Jesus said David was
s
not wrong. You have to look beyond the letter of the law.”
“So I should report it to the police?”
“
I don’t know. But y
ou should
l
earn from David. Do w
h
ot you think is right, Youbird.”
“I will. As soon as I figure out what th
at
is.”
26
Fletcher showed up a
t
four as we had agreed.
“Case you don’t know it, Hubert, we cops
are
like doctors. We don’t make house calls
no more
, so this better be something good.”
I pointed down to my cast
.
“You called me to report a broken foot?”
“It’s not broken. It’s sp
rained.”
“It still ain’t a
police matter unless someone sp
rained it while assaulting you.”
“I sp
rained it by accident, but that wasn’t the point. The point is that I couldn’t come to the police station because of this cast.”
“We got ramps, automatic doors,
little bells in the elevator to let you know
what floor
you’re on
, B
rail
le
tags,
you name it. It’s that accessibility law. A
deaf
and
blind guy with no legs can make it in there.”
Whit is not politically correct, and some would say he’s a bit slack as regards ‘to protect and serve’. I’ve known him a long time
. H
e’s relentless in going after the bad guys. His
police procedures and his English are both occasionally improper, and he’s been known to make a buck or two on the side when no one is likely to be damaged as a result of it.
“
The reason I called you was I need to find out something about missing persons.”
“Like what?”
“Like if there’s one from a certain area.”
He stood a little straighter.
“What’s this about, Hubert?”
“You know I don’t dig in graves, right?”
“That’s what you tell me.”
“Well, it’s true. But a lot of other pot hunters do. And one
of them was recently surprised to find a body.
”
“
Finding a body can’t be much of a surprise to someone digging
i
n a grave.”
“The surprise was not the body. The surprise was that it wasn’t prehistoric. It was someone who died recently.”
“So you was out digging for pots and found a fresh corpse.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“Right. It was a guy you know.”
“Right.”
“What’s his name.”
“Se
e
, that’s the problem. He told me
about finding the dead
guy
because he wanted the police to know
. B
ut he d
oesn’t
t supposed to be digging in
a prehistoric
site.
So I can’t give you his name.
”
“
Okay, Hubert, I’ll play along. Where did this guy find the stiff?”
“I can’t tell you that, either.”
“What
can
you tell me?”
“The dead guy was probably from
Taos or Rio Arriba County. Or maybe Sandoval. Maybe even Los Alamos.”
“Well, that narrows it down.”
I
walked with him over to the
pot I’d bought from Alvar Nuñez
.
I was ge
tting better at using crutches.
“This pot was found in the same place as the body.”
“Was it found
under
the body? Cause it’s busted
and most of it is missing.”
“I don’t know where it was found because I didn’t find it.”
“Right. The guy you know found it.”
“No, it was found by a teenager.”
“Let me guess – you don’t know his name either.”
“I don’t. But
it passed from the teenager to
someone
I do know named
Alvar Nuñez
. And Alvar sold it to me.”
Whit looked at the card with the price on it.
“Three thousand dollars
?
The thing is just a couple of pieces gluedf p thousand together.”
“Right. Think
what
one like it would bring
i
f it w
asn’t
broken.”
“Gimme an idea, Hubert.”
“Ten thousand dollars.”
He let out a low whistle. “Are you trying to tell me there may be one like that where you dug up the dead guy?”
“A guy I know dug him up.”
“Right. And that guy might be able to find a pot like that if he could clear up this dead guy thing?”
I nodded.
“Well
w
hy didn’t you just say so in the first place?”
27
“Your reading is weird, Hub
ie
. No one read
s
Spinoza, especially in Latin.”
Martin had joined us at Dos Hermanas. He was having a Tecate. Susannah and I were having our usual
margaritas
.
“It was your suggestion, remember? You wanted me to read
The Burglar who Studied Spinoza
by that Block guy.”
“And did you?”
“Part of it,” I said weakly.
“And then you
not only
switched to the actual Spinoza
, but
in Latin
to boot
.”
“I wanted to see if I could still read in Latin.”
“And?”
“I gave up and went to the English translation.”
“And that’s when you ran across
‘
subspecies eternity
’
. It sounds like a lower breed of animal
s that live
forever.”
Martin laughed.
“It’s not ‘
subspecies eternity
’
,” he said
.
“
It’s
sub specie aeternitatis
.
”
“
Father
Groaz
used it to support your belief
that there are no coincidences,
”
I said.
She brightened. “Yeah? How so?”
“I didn’t
ask him
.”
“I can guess,” Martin said.
“Give it a shot,”
said Su
s
annah
.
“
To see something
sub specie aeternitatis
is to see it as God sees it, outside of time. Humans arime
true
the next. But God is outside of time and unchanging. H
e
sees things as they really are.
So if you can see everything at once and not have to wait for it to unfold in time, there are no coincidences. Everything is part of a grand plan.”
Susannah and I stared at him for a
few seconds
. We looked at each other. Then we looked back at him.