SHORTLY BEFORE FIVE O’CLOCK, Mma Makutsi left her house in Extension 2 and walked down to the end of the road to catch a minibus. Her destination was Phuti’s aunt’s house. This aunt lived on a small road off Limpopo Drive, in an area known as Extension 22, on the eastern boundary of the town. Mma Makutsi knew very little about her, and indeed was not sure that she even knew her name; Phuti simply called her Aunty, although sometimes he used the term No. 1 Aunty. Mma Makutsi had seen the house before, as she had once driven past it and Phuti had said, “That place in there is the house of my No. 1 Aunty. That is her car.” Mma Makutsi had not liked the look of the car, an old brown vehicle with very small windows; it was not a friendly car, she felt.
The minibus dropped her at the end of Limpopo Drive and she walked the last half a mile or so to the aunt’s house. The aunt would not be expecting her, and she was worried about the reception she would get. Phuti had not telephoned, and that worried her, but she had assumed that he had been adjusting to being out of hospital and would get round to phoning in due course.
As she stood in front of the house, noting, with regret, that the unwelcoming brown car was parked prominently before the veranda, she asked herself why she should not visit her fiancé. Even if he was staying with a relative who clearly did not like her, she was his fiancée and she was entitled to see him. She was not going to encourage him to leave the aunt-it was probably a good place for him to stay while he was recovering, as it would be difficult, if he moved to her place, for her to give him her full attention while working. And yet the aunt was jealous, and hostile, and this visit would not be easy.
She opened the gate and began to walk up to the front veranda. There was a mopipi tree in front of the house and a wild fig, a moumo, to the side. There were aloes too, in flower: a bed of flaming red planted right up against the house, like a row of angry spears. She remembered that being used as a purgative: her own aunt knew all about the traditional uses of these plants, and would recommend aloe when purging was required. Phuti’s aunt might benefit from a dose of aloes, she said to herself, and smiled at the thought.
There was a button to the side of the door with RING HERE written beside it. This was unusual: people did not bother with bells, usually, being content with an old-fashioned knock. She pressed the bell, but no sound came from within. She pressed it again, and then knocked loudly, calling out, “Ko! Ko!”
It took a couple of minutes for the door to be opened by the aunt. She was clearly surprised, and for a moment she did not reply to Mma Makutsi’s greeting. Then, when she did, her tone was hostile. “I am sorry. You cannot see Phuti. He is sleeping now. I am very sorry that you have had a wasted journey.”
Mma Makutsi tried to look over the aunt’s shoulder into the room beyond. There was a radio playing somewhere in the background, Radio Botswana. Phuti listened to Radio Botswana -but so did everyone.
“I can wait until he wakes up,” said Mma Makutsi.
The aunt pursed her lips. “There is not room for you to wait. I am very sorry.”
Mma Makutsi glanced behind her. “I can wait on the veranda, Mma. There is a chair.”
The aunt indicated that this would not do. “That is a private chair, Mma. I’m very sorry. We can’t have anybody sitting in that chair.”
Mma Makutsi drew in her breath. “A private chair?”
The aunt nodded. “That is what I said.” She looked at her watch. “It is now time for me to do something else, Mma. I shall tell Phuti that you have called to see him, and I’m sure that he will be very happy to hear that.”
Mma Makutsi struggled to control herself. The lenses of the large glasses she wore were beginning to mist up. That did not happen very often, but it was a bad sign when it did.
“But I am his fiancée, Mma,” she said. “We are engaged to be married, as I think you know.”
The aunt stared at her. Mma Makutsi found it difficult to read the emotion in the other woman’s gaze. Was it hatred? It did not look quite like it. And then she realised: this was fear. It was just as Mma Ramotswe had said.
“So I think that I have the right to see him. I really think that, Mma. Not some time in the future, but now-now.” It was a bold statement, and she felt her heart pounding within her as she spoke.
The aunt shifted slightly on her feet. “You say you are engaged, Mma. That is very interesting. I do not recall any lobola being agreed, or maybe my memory is going. I do not think that this family has agreed to pay any lobola to…”-she paused, looking squarely at Mma Makutsi-“to any other family.”
Mma Makutsi recoiled at the way she said family, dwelling on the word, filling it with contempt. Mma Makutsi was not the only one being insulted here; this was an insult to her people in Bobonong, to her uncles; to the uncle with the broken nose, to the uncle who experienced difficulty in finding the right word.
The aunt now continued. “You are a secretary, I hear, Mma.”
“Assistant detective.”
The aunt laughed. “So that is the new word for secretary. They are always inventing new words for old things. So that is what they call a secretary today-an assistant detective.” She was enjoying herself, and stopped to relish her own words. “And what do they call a cook these days, I wonder? Is he also a detective, do you think? Or do they call him a pilot, or a general? What do you think, Mma?”
Mma Makutsi felt flustered. “I am not talking about any of that,” she said. And then the response came to her. “Actually, I do not know what they call a cook, Mma. But I do know what they call an aunt who has only bitterness in her heart. They call her a cow. That is what they call her.”
She turned on her heel and left the veranda. As she passed the unfriendly brown car, with its small, mean-spirited windows, she heard the aunt shouting behind her. But she was not going to stop; she had seen enough village shouting-matches up in Bobonong to know that the thing to do was to walk away. Phuti would not get her message, she suspected, but the aunt could not detain him forever. He would run away if she tried. Or hop, she thought, bitterly; the aunt might take his new leg and hide it and he would have to hop. She did not like to think about it.
SHE WENT STRAIGHT from the aunt’s house to Mma Ramotswe’s house on Zebra Drive. She did not like to trouble Mma Ramotswe at home, and rarely did so, but there were times when only the company of her employer, that wise, good woman, would do. This, she felt, was such an occasion, and she knew that Mma Ramotswe would understand.
She found her on the veranda, as she had hoped she would, drinking a cup of red bush tea.
“I have just come back,” said Mma Ramotswe. “I had a long talk with Herbert Mateleke. Now I need some tea to recover.” She indicated for Mma Makutsi to sit down.
“So this chair is not a private chair,” said Mma Makutsi, as she lowered herself into it.
“What?” asked Mma Ramotswe. “What is this about private chairs?”
Mma Makutsi explained that she had been to see Phuti, and had been denied the opportunity to sit on the veranda and wait. “There was a chair there,” she said. “But the aunt said that it was a private chair.”
Mma Ramotswe let out a hoot of laughter. “A private chair? What a silly thing to say! Can I give you some tea, Mma, in one of my private cups? Or perhaps they are not private. Perhaps they are public.”
Mma Makutsi grinned. The encounter with the aunt had been traumatic, but now Mma Ramotswe was reminding her that it was really rather ridiculous. “And then I called her a cow. And I walked away.”
Again Mma Ramotswe laughed. “If she is a cow, then she is a very thin cow,” she said. “Perhaps she will get fatter now that the rains have arrived and there is more grass. I hope that Phuti finds good grazing for her.” She was smiling, but then she stopped. “It is funny, but maybe we shouldn’t laugh too much, Mma. She is a poor, unhappy woman.”
“She is stopping me from seeing Phuti.”
“Then phone him. He has a mobile phone, doesn’t he?”
Mma Makutsi expla
ined that she had tried to do so, but that she had not got through. “I think that the battery is flat,” she said. “He was always forgetting to charge it, and I do not think he has been able to do that since he was in hospital.” She thought of other possibilities. “Maybe he has lost the phone, or it was stolen in hospital. There are always thieves in those places.”
Mma Ramotswe looked thoughtful. What Mma Makutsi said about thieves in hospitals was quite true. Recently she had heard of a thief who had become ill and had to spend a couple of weeks in hospital. He not only stole food and money from other patients in his ward, but he took the soap from the bathrooms and several bottles of aspirin from the nurses’ cupboard. Finally he lifted a stethoscope from the pocket of the doctor attending him and was caught trying to sell it to another doctor.
“Whatever has happened,” said Mma Ramotswe, “you know that sooner or later Phuti will be in touch. He will telephone. He will send a message. He’s not going to ignore you, is he?”
Mma Makutsi knew that this was probably true, but she was worried that the aunt would try to prevent him from getting in touch. She had shown her cards, and they did not favour Mma Makutsi.
“It’s very unfair, Mma. It really is. That woman has kidnapped him-that’s what she’s done.”
Mma Ramotswe took Mma Makutsi’s arm and patted it reassuringly. “I don’t think it’s kidnapping, Mma. He’s an adult, and he must have gone with her of his own free will. That is not kidnapping, Mma.” She searched her assistant’s face and found only anxiety.
“Listen, Mma,” Mma Ramotswe went on. “You need to take your mind off all this. We are going to go up to Maun, and, if you like, we can go up a day or two early. Then, when we come back to Gaborone, I’m sure that Phuti will be ready to see you. There will be a message, I’m sure there will.”
Mma Makutsi was not entirely persuaded, but she felt calmer now. Talking to Mma Ramotswe had that effect, she had noticed: everybody felt calmer when they had discussed things with her. It did not have to be anything important-although Mma Ramotswe was always willing to talk about weighty matters-you could talk to her about something as simple as the weather or the price of sausages, and you would come away reassured. Perhaps the weather was not going to be as dry and hot as everybody feared-perhaps there really would be good rains; perhaps sausages were not as expensive as they appeared to be, given that they contained all that meat, and there was no wastage with a sausage.
“A day or two early, Mma?” she asked. “When…”
“The day after tomorrow,” said Mma Ramotswe impulsively. She had a case to work on the next day, but after that she would be free. “We now have our boots, don’t we? Then we are ready. All you need to do, Mma, is to pack a small bag of clothes and we can go.”
Mma Makutsi closed her eyes. She felt a delicious anticipation. Maun, she thought. The day after tomorrow! And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have Mma Makutsi, Dip. Sec., Chief Detective at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, photographed recently while working on an important investigation in the Delta. Mma Makutsi is wearing a pair of special safari boots purchased from a high-class retailer in Gaborone. The traditionally built lady at the back of the photograph is Mma Makutsi’s assistant and secretary, Precious Ramotswe…
She opened her eyes. Mma Ramotswe was looking at her with curiosity. She could not have read my mind, Mma Makutsi thought, dispelling a pang of guilt over the fantasy. Of course not…
But her shoes had known what she was thinking. Fat chance, Boss, they suddenly said. In your dreams!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN. MR. JOE BOSILONG, LLB, ATTORNEY
THE CASE that Mma Ramotswe had to deal with before leaving for Maun was that of Mr. Kereleng. She had been putting it off because she was convinced that it was hopeless, but now that she had sorted out the Mateleke inquiry she felt that she had no excuse for ignoring this tricky Kereleng-Sephotho matter. And tackle it she did the following morning, when she went to see her old friend Joe Bosilong, an attorney who had acted for her in one or two disputes over unpaid bills. He had won these disputes not because of any great forensic skills on his part, but because Mma Ramotswe’s case was so strong. But she gave him the credit for this, calling him, to his evident amusement and pleasure, the finest attorney south of the Limpopo River.
“So it’s Mma Ramotswe,” he said heartily as she came into his waiting room in the modest office building near the Private Hospital. “Is this a business call or a social one? Both are equally welcome-from you.”
She greeted him warmly. “It is a call for advice. Not for me, you’ll understand, but for one of my clients.”
“Your friends are my friends,” said Mr. Bosilong. “Your clients are my clients. Or maybe not, but you know what I mean. Come in, Mma Ramotswe.”
He led her into the office beyond the waiting room. His desk, unusually for a lawyer, was devoid of papers. On the wall behind him, neatly shelved, was a set of the Botswana Law Reports and the Statutes of Botswana. He noticed her looking at them. “So many laws,” he said, shaking his head. “Our legislators sit there dreaming up so many laws. It’s difficult enough getting on top of them as a lawyer-imagine what it’s like for an ordinary person. How can an ordinary person know what the law is?”
“It is very hard,” said Mma Ramotswe. “I’m an ordinary person, and I can assure you, it’s very hard. Mind you, I think that most people know whether or not they’re doing wrong.”
“In some cases, perhaps. But there are lots of ways you can break the law without knowing that you’re doing so. And ignorance of the law is no excuse, as Professor Frimpong taught me at law school all those years ago.”
Mma Ramotswe nodded. “So I believe.” She knew that Mr. Bosilong liked to talk at great length about anything, and she would have to move the conversation on if she was to get the advice she wanted.
“Tell me, Rra,” she said. “If I buy a house and I put it in the name of another person, and I then change my mind, is there anything I can do?”
Mr. Bosilong frowned. “You’ve bought a house, have you, Mma Ramotswe? What about Zebra Drive?”
“Not me,” she said. “Remember, I told you that this question was for a client. I have a client, you see, who bought a house and put it in the name of-”
She was about to say “in the name of Violet Sephotho,” but the lawyer beat her to it. “Violet Sephotho.”
Mma Ramotswe’s eyes widened. Gaborone was a small town in many ways, and people talked. It was perhaps not all that surprising that he should have heard of this. “You have heard of this, Rra?”
Mr. Bosilong hesitated. “You put me in a very awkward position, Mma. I am not sure what to say. Indeed, I’m not sure if I should say anything at all.”
She looked at him quizzically. And then it dawned on her: he had acted for Violet Sephotho, or possibly for Mr. Kereleng. Again, this should not have surprised her. There were only so many lawyers in Gaborone, and only so many clients; the odds that he should have acted for either of them were small enough. Yet that gave rise to an immediate problem: as an attorney, he was bound by the rules of confidentiality, and he would therefore not be able to say anything about the matter.
“I do not want you to break a confidence, Rra,” she said. “I am a detective, and I understand professional confidentiality.”
The lawyer sighed. “Oh dear, Mma Ramotswe. This is very difficult. I have acted for this man, Kereleng. When he bought the house initially, it was in his name. Then he came to see me about some other problem he had-a problem with the manager of his bottle store-and he asked me about transferring the house to his fiancée. She is called Violet Sephotho, as you may know. I told him that there would be no problem about that. Then the fiancée came to see me and asked me to draw up the deed for him to sign. When I did that, I was acting for her, not for him. She was my client. That’s important, you know.”
Mma Ramotswe looked puzzled. “Why? What difference does it make?”
“Well,” said Mr. Bosilong, “she wa
s my client, you see, and that meant I owed a duty to her. So when Mr. Kereleng came to see me later and said that he had changed his mind, I had to tell him that it was too late. He was not the client-she was. He asked me to give the deed back-it had not yet been sent to the land registry. I said I could not, as I had done that job for another client, Miss Sephotho.”
Mma Ramotswe was interested in one thing he had said. “You told me that the deed was not yet registered. Is that so?”
“Not yet,” he said. “I suppose I’ve been putting it off.” He paused, looking into Mma Ramotswe’s eyes. “Mma Ramotswe, can I trust you?”
“Of course you can, Rra.”
“No, I mean absolutely, completely trust you. One hundred per cent?”
“One hundred per cent, Rra. Anything you say to me will go no further.”
Mr. Bosilong looked about him, as if searching his office for eavesdroppers.
“What I am about to say must remain between us,” he said. “I think that this Miss Sephotho is dishonest. I think that she has prevailed on this man to give her this house pretending that she will marry him. But it is only a pretence.”
Mma Ramotswe laughed. “But I knew that all along, Rra. Everybody knows that-or just about everybody. Mr. Kereleng didn’t at first-now he does.”
Mr. Bosilong shook his head ruefully. “I am an honest man, Mma Ramotswe. I cannot abide wicked people.”
“None of us can,” she said.
“And it makes me very sad when I see a legal technicality allowing bad people to get away with it.”
“There is nothing worse than that,” she agreed, “because that means that not only does the wicked person get away with it, but people lose respect for the law of Botswana. That is not a good thing at all.”
Mr. Bosilong signalled that this was his feeling too. But then he said, “Of course, sometimes things go wrong in the law. Attorneys make mistakes. They file the wrong papers. They forget to do things.”
“Every one of us makes mistakes, Rra,” said Mma Ramotswe. She was not sure exactly what he was going to propose, but she wanted to encourage him. “And sometimes,” she went on, “a mistake is for the best.” She hesitated. “In fact, sometimes it is best to make an intentional mistake…”
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