A Death in the Family

by Michael Stanley

  “He’s a Nigerian. Maybe you didn’t know his name. His address is…” Mabaku consulted his notes and read it out. Julius shook his head again.

  “That’s strange,” Samantha put in. “He certainly recognized you. Picked you out from a selection of photographs with no trouble.”

  Julius shrugged.

  “Do you own a gun?” Mabaku asked.

  Julius hesitated and whispered to his lawyer. Kubu leaned forward, but of course that didn’t help to hear. “Yes,” he said at last.

  “So,” Mabaku commented. “I asked you that question once before, and you lied to me.”

  “I don’t have a permit for it. I wanted it in a hurry. There were threats made on my life, so I bought it illegally.”

  “You are admitting obtaining and keeping an illegal firearm?”

  “Yes. I was scared. People had threatened to kill me!”

  “And who were these people?”

  “I’m sure it was the people opposed to the mine expansion. They knew I wanted what was best for Shoshong, but they had their own interests to serve.”

  “Did you report this to the police?”

  “No. They wouldn’t have done anything.”

  “So you took matters into your own hands. Did you ever fire this gun? At a shooting range, for example?”

  “No.”

  “Did you carry it with you?”

  “No.”

  “So you didn’t feel that threatened.”

  “I thought they would come for me at home!”

  “The mysterious ‘they.’ Where did you obtain this firearm?”

  “I bought it from that man—Emfeely, whatever his name is.”

  “So you lied about that too.”

  “I didn’t remember his name. I’m being honest with you here.”

  “Honest?” Mabaku said. “Hardly.”

  Kubu frowned with frustration. “He should be much more aggressive. He’s letting him squirm out of it.”

  Ian shook his head. “Mabaku knows what he’s doing, Kubu. Give him time. He’s building a trap.”

  Yes, Kubu thought. He’s already caught him in a lie. But I want it done. Over with. He just nodded in response to Ian’s comment and shut up. He realized he’d missed Mabaku’s next question.

  “No!” Julius said. “I did not pay him to cause trouble at the kgotla. That’s a lie! I paid him for the gun and nothing else.”

  “Don’t you think it’s odd that the two men Emefiele approached—and paid a thousand pula each—both identified him? Why would they lie about it?” Samantha chipped in.

  “Maybe someone else paid him to do that. The mine people for example. You’ve arrested Hong and Shonhu for what they did to Kunene. Why not bribe someone to cause trouble also? Why don’t you ask them?”

  “He’s clever,” Kubu said. “He admits the things he knows they can prove and denies everything else.” Ian nodded but didn’t comment.

  Mabaku changed tack. “How much did the mine people pay you for your consulting? For convincing your father?”

  “They paid me for advice! I didn’t bribe anyone. My father didn’t listen to me anyway.”

  “Let’s get back to the gun. Did you have it at the kgotla? In case you were attacked?”

  “No.”

  “You’re lying again. You used it to shoot and kill your father!”

  “No! That’s not true!”

  “What about your jacket?”

  “It got torn.”

  “How?”

  “Maybe my father grabbed it when he fell. Or perhaps it was when the mob reached us. It all happened so quickly!”

  “So what was torn?”

  “The pocket was ripped off. I had to get it repaired.”

  “Oh, the pocket. That’s what was torn off.”

  Julius was silent, perhaps realizing that he’d said too much.

  “They’ve got him, Ian!” Kubu said. “He shot him through the jacket, then replaced the pocket. He’s practically admitted it!”

  “Has he, indeed?” asked Ian dryly.

  The lawyer came to life. “Rra Mabaku, where is this going? My client has admitted to owning an illegal firearm. He was in fear of his life. Now you are making a fuss about a jacket pocket. Do you have a point?”

  “Indeed I do, rra. You see your client fired his gun through that pocket. Our forensics people found gun residue on the inside of the pocket. So it’s hardly surprising that he had to have it replaced afterward, is it?”

  “That’s not true!” Julius burst out.

  “So how did the residue get onto the jacket?”

  “Well, it must’ve been when my father was shot. Maybe the shooter was right behind me! I heard a bang, but I thought it was the police. Maybe he used a silencer.”

  “We shouldn’t have given him the weekend to get his story straight,” Kubu muttered.

  Mabaku leaned back. “And crouched to get to just the right angle next to your pocket? Which was later conveniently ripped off? You seem to have an answer to everything, rra. What would your answer be if I told you that our pathologist found fibers from your jacket in the bullet wound?”

  “Ian!” Kubu exclaimed. “Brilliant! How did you manage that? I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.”

  “Probably isn’t, Kubu. The bullet would burn a hole in the material, and, anyway, it would never carry fibers to the victim.”

  “But Mabaku said…” Then Kubu realized the director hadn’t really said that, and Julius was floundering with the hypothetical question.

  “Maybe the bullet went through my jacket,” Julius said at last.

  “And you didn’t notice? Come on!”

  Julius was silent, and Kubu was concerned that the lawyer would interrupt, but he didn’t. Push your advantage, Jacob, Kubu silently encouraged.

  “Look, Koma, we’re wasting time. This is cut and dried. One, you obtained an illegal gun. Two, your father was shot with that caliber gun. Three, no one else had the opportunity. Forget about the mysterious assassin with the silenced gun. We have the photographs, remember? There wasn’t anyone else close enough to fire a shot from that angle, let alone take out your pocket in the process. So we know you bought the gun from Emefiele. We know you fired the shot that killed your father through your pocket. Actually, two shots. You even left the spent cartridges in the revolver cylinder. We even know why you did it.”

  For a long moment Julius said nothing. At last he repeated, “Why I did it?”

  “Your father was going to throw you off the council of elders, wasn’t he? You knew he’d turn down the mine’s offer. But that wasn’t the real reason, was it? You were going to lose all that money from the mine. And even that wasn’t the main reason.”

  “It wasn’t?” Julius was transfixed now, as though watching a snake.

  “No, the real reason was for the people of Shoshong. To preserve the town you loved and its young people. To make a future for them. That’s why you did it.”

  Slowly Julius nodded. “Yes,” he said as though recognizing a revelation. “That is why I did it.”

  The lawyer started to say something, but Julius brushed him aside. “There was no other way. I respected my father, but we had to move forward. There was no other way, was there?”

  Kubu leaned forward, almost touching the glass. His mouth was slightly open.

  Mabaku shook his head. “No other way. He wouldn’t listen to you, would he? He wouldn’t accept that Shoshong would die without the mine expansion. Perhaps I would’ve done the same in your place.” Mabaku nodded slowly.

  “He’s overdoing it,” Kubu muttered. “Julius is too smart. He’ll wake up.”

  But he didn’t. Over the next half hour, he told a rambling story. How his father had always despised him, always blocked his ideas, always lived in the past. How Julius had seen a way forward with the mine. It was a story he wanted to tell. His lawyer was flabbergasted and tried to shut him up, but Julius ignored him, and so the whole story came out.

&nb
sp; “That was brilliant,” Kubu said at the end, breathless. “How did the director know?”

  Ian thought for a moment. “Julius needed a justification for his hatred of his father, Kubu. Mabaku gave it to him, and he couldn’t resist it.”

  CHAPTER 57

  Mabaku allowed them all a half-hour break and suggested to the lawyer that he advise his client to get everything off his chest. The lawyer nodded nervously, wondering what further revelations lay ahead. Julius was turning out to be a nightmare client.

  Samantha came into the viewing room with a big smile and accepted Kubu and Ian’s congratulations, telling them that Mabaku had gone to phone the commissioner. Julius’s confession would finally put the kgotla riot case to rest, but the tension around the mine expansion and the issue of the new chief would remain, of course.

  The break was soon over, Samantha rejoined Mabaku, and Kubu realized that the main act was about to begin. He felt a little light-headed as he anticipated knowing at last what was behind his father’s brutal murder. However, things started slowly.

  “My client has nothing more to say,” the lawyer announced. “He’s told you the circumstances behind his father’s death. That’s it.”

  Mabaku ignored the lawyer and focused on Julius.

  “Tell us about Wilmon Bengu,” he said.

  “I’ve told you everything before,” Julius said, and went on to summarize the story of their meeting.

  “What about the second meeting?”

  “I didn’t see him again.”

  “We found Rra Bengu’s blood on a belt you were wearing. How do you explain that?”

  Julius seemed thrown by the question. Kubu leaned forward so far that he almost touched the glass.

  “All right, there was a second meeting. But I didn’t kill him! I found him lying on the ground. I thought he’d collapsed, so I tried to help him up, and my hand came up covered in blood. That must’ve been how I got it on my clothes.”

  “He’s lying!” Kubu said. “Why can’t he just tell me what happened? I have to know!” Ian put his hand on Kubu’s shoulder. Julius glanced up at the mirror, as if he’d heard something. Then he returned his attention to Mabaku.

  The director stared at him for so long that eventually Julius dropped his eyes and looked away.

  “Start from the beginning. How did you arrange this second meeting? I thought Rra Bengu wasn’t too keen on your visits.”

  “The same way as before. But I told him the chief himself wanted to meet him. That if he proved what he said, the chief would use it to block the mine’s expansion. That’s what they all wanted, these old men…”

  “And did Chief Koma know about all this?”

  “Of course not. I wanted to see it myself.”

  “What was it you wanted to see? What Rra Bengu claimed? And what was that?”

  Julius put his head in his hands. They came away wet with sweat.

  “The deed. The deed that he had rights to use much of the land where the mine was going to expand. My father had said he remembered such a usage grant, and Bengu confirmed it the first time I met him.”

  “Did you tell your father that?”

  “That would’ve been crazy! He’d have used it as an excuse to block the mine! But Bengu was an old-timer. He had great respect for the chief, so he agreed to meet with him and discuss the situation. So I set up the meeting, and he promised to bring the document to show the chief.”

  “Go on.”

  “I’ve told you! When I found him, he was dead. Murdered.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us this before?’

  “You wouldn’t have believed me.”

  “No,” Kubu muttered. “You’re damn right about that. And I don’t believe you now, you bastard.”

  Mabaku took his time. “Did you tell anyone else about this land title?”

  Julius hesitated. “I told Hong.”

  “Why did you do that?”

  “They needed to know. It was important information for them.”

  Julius didn’t sound convincing to Kubu, and clearly Mabaku felt the same way.

  “No, it was important for you, Rra Koma. If you could get your hands on that document, the mine would have to negotiate with you to keep it secret.”

  Julius shrugged. “Shonhu must’ve got to him before I did. Killed him and took the document. Probably he destroyed it. There wasn’t any other record of the land grant. I checked.”

  “Did you know his house was searched the next day? Was that also Shonhu?”

  Julius waited for so long that Kubu thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he did answer, he said it almost too softly for the mikes to pick up. “No, that was me.”

  “Why search his house if you believed Shonhu already had the document?”

  “I thought maybe the old man had left it at the house by mistake. He was senile. It was possible; worth checking before his wife found it. And I knew the house would be empty after the murder.”

  “And did you find anything?”

  “No. So Shonhu took the document. He probably destroyed it.”

  “Did you ask him?”

  “No. I was scared of him. By then I’d learned that they’d stop at nothing to get what they wanted. That’s the real reason I got the gun. I was scared of Shonhu!”

  Kubu shook his head and said to Ian, “He’s forgotten that having the gun for protection was part of the other set of lies. We’re long past that.”

  “When did you tell Hong about the second meeting with Bengu?”

  Julius shook his head. “I was going to look at the document and see what to do. Then I would have spoken to Hong. Maybe the whole thing existed in the old man’s head. I didn’t want to get them upset for nothing. I told you they’re dangerous!”

  “So how did they know where to find Rra Bengu? How did they know he’d have the document with him?” It was Samantha who delivered this question.

  Julius looked at her as though noticing her for the first time. Then he looked back to Mabaku and spoke to him. “They must’ve tapped my phone.”

  Samantha spoke again. “No, Rra Koma. You never called Rra Bengu from your phone, or we’d have been onto you long ago.”

  Julius glanced at her and again addressed Mabaku. “I don’t know how they found out! I don’t know. Why don’t you ask them?”

  Mabaku folded his arms. “Oh, we’ll do that, Rra Koma. But they won’t know either, because that’s not what happened at all. You set up the meeting, and you did meet Rra Bengu, and you did ask him for the document. But he didn’t trust you, did he? He wanted to see the chief. He wouldn’t show you the document. In fact, he hadn’t brought it with him. You discovered that after you killed him. That was a mistake, wasn’t it? Because after that you couldn’t ask him where it was!”

  “No, no! You’re wrong. I didn’t—”

  “Come on, Julius, get it over with. You’ve already admitted killing your father. What does one more old stick-in-the-mud matter? Let’s finish this now.”

  However, that seemed a step too far for Julius. He denied it and denied it. And he kept glancing at the mirror as though he knew Kubu was there, waiting to pounce when the words of admission finally came out of his mouth.

  At last Mabaku called it a day. “Rra Koma, I’m charging you with the murder of Rra Wilmon Bengu, an old man who’d done you no harm, but who you thought stood in your way, so you killed him. Be glad his son isn’t sitting here instead of me. He’d tear you apart. I’m tempted to do that myself.”

  He rose to his feet and signaled Samantha that they were leaving. “Take him back to his cell,” he called to the guard as he slammed the door.

  In the observation room, Kubu sat stunned. “He didn’t admit it. He admitted killing his own father, but not my father. Why not?”

  Ian shook his head. “Humans are strange, Kubu. Who knows what goes on in their heads? But it doesn’t matter. Mabaku painted him into a corner. Julius set up the meeting, and his story about telling Hong makes no sense.
So no one else knew about the meeting. He admitted being there with Wilmon’s body. Obviously, he demanded the document and stabbed Wilmon when he refused to give it to him. He must’ve searched the body—that’s how he got blood on his clothes—and the next day, he searched the house. Maybe he found the document and destroyed it, but I don’t think so. He’s a hoarder. He even kept the coat he used when he shot his father. He would’ve kept the document in the safe with the gun.” He paused. “You never heard about this land grant? Maybe it didn’t even exist.”

  Kubu shook his head. He had no idea how to answer.

  Then Mabaku came in with Samantha, and Kubu realized that the last act of the performance was over.

  CHAPTER 58

  Kubu felt a pang of loss as he and Joy climbed the stairs to the veranda of his parents’ home. It was the first time since Amantle had moved back to Mochudi that his family had driven up for their weekly Sunday visit. Normally his father would be sitting there, quietly awaiting their arrival, but today his chair was empty.

  Ilia, too, knew something was different. She yapped excitedly as she bounded ahead of Kubu to where Wilmon usually sat, but then stopped and looked around for the man who loved to rub her ears. When she didn’t see him, she sat down and whined.

  “Hello, Mother. We’re here,” Kubu shouted as he was overtaken by Tumi and Nono, who ran straight into the house.

  A few moments later, Amantle appeared, each girl clinging to a hand, pulling her outside.

  “Dumela, Mother. How are you?” He wanted to hug her, to help close the void he’d felt since his father’s death. Instead he extended his right hand, touching his right forearm with his left hand in the traditional way.

  “Dumela, my son,” Amantle said, letting go of the girls and taking his hand. “You are welcome in our home, and…” She stopped abruptly, then continued, “You are welcome in my home, and…”

  It was too much for her. She hung her head in confusion and burst into tears. Before Kubu could react, Joy took her in her arms.

  “Don’t worry, my mother,” Joy said. “It doesn’t matter. For us, it will always be your and Wilmon’s home. He’s here in spirit anyway.” She patted Amantle on the back. “Come, let’s go and prepare lunch. I’ve brought some cold meats and a potato salad.”