The sky was a greyish-pink in the east when Kate turned off the tarred road into the Tuli Block, the large section of eastern Botswana which was made up of farms for the wealthy. After the first gate, she slammed on her brakes letting a small group of duikers jump gracefully across the road. It was beautiful country. Tall morula trees lined the road, some with troops of baboons underneath searching for any fallen fruit. Dark storm clouds were building in the distance and Kate saw streaks of lightening chasing each other across the sky.

According to the directions Motlokwa had given her, the farm should be just after the turn ahead. Kate’s heart began to jump, fearful of what she might find there. Would Helen still be alive? And who would be with her? She regretted having acted on impulse. She shouldn’t have come alone without letting anyone know exactly where she was going. She had no back-up if things went wrong. Using her cell phone, she tried to call the Mahalapye police for help, but there was no signal in this sparsely populated part of the country. Echoes of John’s words rang in her ears.

Turning left off the road, Kate spotted the house. In a quiet place like this a car could be heard from far off, so she decided to hide her car behind a clump of trees and walk the kilometre or so to the farm. She stuck her gun in her waistband and locked the car. Just as she was making her way down the dirt road, the long awaited rain began to fall and a loud crack of thunder jolted Kate’s already stretched nerves.

At the house, Kate crept close to the walls, looking for a crack in any of the curtains that would let her see inside. Any noise that Kate made was drowned out by the heavy, pelting rain coupled with the thunder. She was drenched but hardly noticed. She couldn’t see any cars or people around. The house seemed abandoned. Maybe Motlokwa had sent her on a wild goose chase, she thought. If he had, she would make him live to regret it. At the back of the house, she found an unlocked door and nervously crept inside.

The kitchen was dark, but through the open door, she could see the glow of a paraffin lamp in a room near the front of the house. Somebody was there. Kate slowly crept toward the light, trying to stay in the shadows and make no noise.

At the doorway of what appeared to be a sitting room, Kate peered in. She spotted Helen, slumped in a chair, tied up, her mouth sealed with duct tape. She’d been beaten and Kate saw a deep cut running along her forehead as well as a black, swollen eye. Kate couldn’t be sure if Helen was dead or just unconscious. She tried to hear if there was someone else in the room.

Just then, Helen moved and looked Kate’s way. She was alive. Kate made to move towards her, but Helen’s eyes became huge and looked in the direction of the corner of the room. Kate stopped just in time when she realised that Helen was trying to warn her. There was somebody else in the room.

“So, you thought you were going to put an end to my plan, did you, you stupid, stupid woman,” a voice said from the corner. “I will not be stopped by you or your silly detective friend. I’ve been planning this for months. Now it’s all in a mess because of you.”

The person stepped forward and slapped Helen across the face, whipping her head to one side.

Kate stepped out of the shadows, her gun aimed at the person’s back. “No, I don’t think the mess was caused by Ms Segole. This mess was caused by you, Mrs Motlokwa.”

Renée Motlokwa spun around to see Kate standing with the gun aimed at her. “Perfect. That’s even better. Now I’ve got you both here,” she said not affected at all by Kate’s appearance or the gun.

“So, it was you and your husband then?” Kate asked.

Renée threw her head back and laughed a wild laugh. “My husband? Bernard? Bernard doesn’t have the stomach for this. He’s a coward. Bernard wouldn’t have known anything at all about my plan, if it wasn’t for this hideous woman,” she said pointing towards Helen. “We were going to get the money from that tender and be gone, gone for once and for all. Free of this place and that vile, little man.”

Kate was not sure if Renée was still sane. She behaved so casually as if her game was not yet over, despite the fact that Kate had a gun pointed at her. Maybe she was losing it, Kate thought. “Move over there, Renée. And turn around,” Kate said pointing to the corner she’d come from.
“Ooh… the big Detective Gomolemo is going to arrest me now. How exciting,” René taunted.

Kate clipped handcuffs around Renée’s wrists and started to untie Helen. Just when she was about to remove the duct tape, she heard a car pull up outside. She pushed Renée into the dark corner and she waited there with her.

The rain was still pounding on the corrugated iron roof, interspersed with flashes of lightening and booms of thunder. Kate told Renée to shut up and placed the gun in the small of her back to ensure that she complied. Kate could barely hear the car door slam above the rain. She listened closely to hear which door the person would use to enter the house.

“Renée?” a man’s voice called from the front door. He entered and said to Helen, though he knew she couldn’t answer, “Where’s Renée?”

At that moment, Renée cried out, “She has a gun!”

In a split second, Minister Sesinyi pulled out his gun and aimed it at Kate. The sound of gunfire rang out above the storm outside and a body fell to the floor.