pack of cigarettes from the ample hip pocket in her loose-fitting skirt.
“Are you a smoker, Commissioner?”
Van In could hardly believe his ears. “Yes, thanks,” he said.” Leo refused the offer with a resolute gesture of the hand.
While Van In was enjoying his first greedy puff, Hannelore said unexpectedly: “Strange that someone who knew the alarm code didn’t know the combination of the safe.”
Leo looked at Van In with the words pretty-and-intelligent-who-would-have-thought written all over his face.
“My compliments, ma’am. As my old school teacher used to say: a good score, my boy, is a step closer to the front of the class.”
“Why didn’t we think of that,” said Van In.
“Because women just happen to be sharper than men, Commissioner,” she bragged and beamed. “And not to forget the Latin puzzle, Commissioner, eh?” She slipped the paper across the table to Leo. “You studied Latin at school if I’m not mistaken, Mr. Vanmaele?” Van In didn’t understand why they kept up the pretence and didn’t just use first names. But Leo didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
“That’s correct,” he smirked, pushing up his glasses and subjecting the piece of paper to a detailed examination.
“If we’re talking about revenge,” said Hannelore, “then it seems logical to me that we should be looking for the perpetrator or perpetrators in the immediate vicinity of the Degroof family. Revenge is an extremely personal matter. It’s more commonly associated with crimes of passion than with burglaries, at least if you can call this a burglary.”
She stared at Van In in expectation.
“I’ll try to put together a profile of the culprit tomorrow,” he said. It annoyed him that he couldn’t speak freely. “The guys from missing persons might be good for ideas. But I’m personally not convinced we’re dealing with a psycho.”
“But just then you said …”
“That was just then, ma’am.”
“Okay, everyone’s entitled to a change of opinion. But what makes you think it’s not a psycho? Intuition?”
“Indeed,” Van In smiled, “male intuition in this case.”
Bulls-eye , thought Leo. He had been listening in while trying to decipher the Latin text. The meaning of “rotas,” “opera,” and “tenet” was obvious, and he had also noticed that “arepo” and “sator” were “opera” and “rotas” in reverse. But he still couldn’t figure what it was about.
“Not easy, Van In,” he said, removing his glasses as a sign that he had given up. “It was all so long ago. I think we’re going to need to consult a philologist. And if we translate it, does that mean we’ve figured it out? Did you notice that ‘rotas’ and ‘opera’ are also written backward, both vertically and horizontally?”
“So you also think it’s a sort of puzzle?” said Van In, leaning forward and taking the paper from Leo.
“But there has to be some kind of meaning behind it. Criminals don’t just leave messages behind for no reason, do they?” She brushed her hair behind her ears with both hands.
“Except in American pulp,” said Van In, straight-faced. “Then anything’s possible.”
“Come on, gentlemen. Stop messing me around,” she said indignantly.
“All we can do is wait for the results of the investigation. Face it, ma’am. We don’t have any other option.”
“And what about the radio appeal?” she asked angrily. Hannelore Martens clearly did have a volatile temperament.
There she goes again, Van In sighed. She was right, of course. Someone must have seen or heard something.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I’m sure the chief commissioner will agree to your proposal. But at this moment in time I think I’d be more useful back at the station. There’s a load of paperwork involved in this, and I can’t let sergeant Versavel deal with it alone.”
“Fine, Commissioner, but I’ll be following the case closely.”
“Mr. Vanmaele probably wants to hang around
“Are you a smoker, Commissioner?”
Van In could hardly believe his ears. “Yes, thanks,” he said.” Leo refused the offer with a resolute gesture of the hand.
While Van In was enjoying his first greedy puff, Hannelore said unexpectedly: “Strange that someone who knew the alarm code didn’t know the combination of the safe.”
Leo looked at Van In with the words pretty-and-intelligent-who-would-have-thought written all over his face.
“My compliments, ma’am. As my old school teacher used to say: a good score, my boy, is a step closer to the front of the class.”
“Why didn’t we think of that,” said Van In.
“Because women just happen to be sharper than men, Commissioner,” she bragged and beamed. “And not to forget the Latin puzzle, Commissioner, eh?” She slipped the paper across the table to Leo. “You studied Latin at school if I’m not mistaken, Mr. Vanmaele?” Van In didn’t understand why they kept up the pretence and didn’t just use first names. But Leo didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
“That’s correct,” he smirked, pushing up his glasses and subjecting the piece of paper to a detailed examination.
“If we’re talking about revenge,” said Hannelore, “then it seems logical to me that we should be looking for the perpetrator or perpetrators in the immediate vicinity of the Degroof family. Revenge is an extremely personal matter. It’s more commonly associated with crimes of passion than with burglaries, at least if you can call this a burglary.”
She stared at Van In in expectation.
“I’ll try to put together a profile of the culprit tomorrow,” he said. It annoyed him that he couldn’t speak freely. “The guys from missing persons might be good for ideas. But I’m personally not convinced we’re dealing with a psycho.”
“But just then you said …”
“That was just then, ma’am.”
“Okay, everyone’s entitled to a change of opinion. But what makes you think it’s not a psycho? Intuition?”
“Indeed,” Van In smiled, “male intuition in this case.”
Bulls-eye , thought Leo. He had been listening in while trying to decipher the Latin text. The meaning of “rotas,” “opera,” and “tenet” was obvious, and he had also noticed that “arepo” and “sator” were “opera” and “rotas” in reverse. But he still couldn’t figure what it was about.
“Not easy, Van In,” he said, removing his glasses as a sign that he had given up. “It was all so long ago. I think we’re going to need to consult a philologist. And if we translate it, does that mean we’ve figured it out? Did you notice that ‘rotas’ and ‘opera’ are also written backward, both vertically and horizontally?”
“So you also think it’s a sort of puzzle?” said Van In, leaning forward and taking the paper from Leo.
“But there has to be some kind of meaning behind it. Criminals don’t just leave messages behind for no reason, do they?” She brushed her hair behind her ears with both hands.
“Except in American pulp,” said Van In, straight-faced. “Then anything’s possible.”
“Come on, gentlemen. Stop messing me around,” she said indignantly.
“All we can do is wait for the results of the investigation. Face it, ma’am. We don’t have any other option.”
“And what about the radio appeal?” she asked angrily. Hannelore Martens clearly did have a volatile temperament.
There she goes again, Van In sighed. She was right, of course. Someone must have seen or heard something.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I’m sure the chief commissioner will agree to your proposal. But at this moment in time I think I’d be more useful back at the station. There’s a load of paperwork involved in this, and I can’t let sergeant Versavel deal with it alone.”
“Fine, Commissioner, but I’ll be following the case closely.”
“Mr. Vanmaele probably wants to hang around
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