It was already past four when Kate got back to the university to see Margaret. She had a meeting with university staff and Kate had a pile of administrative things to do surrounding the new murder case. Kate entered the Counselling Centre and found Margaret with a young girl who was just leaving.

“Oh Kate, my gosh, is it four already?” Margaret asked looking at her watch. “Sarah and I were having such a lovely talk I completely lost track of time. Kate this is Sarah Sechele, one of our first year students. This is Detective Gomolemo, she’s working on the murder of Keletso Thapo. I think you know about that right?”

The young woman nodded. “Who doesn’t? The whole thing sends a shiver down your spine. Do you have anyone yet?”

“No, I’m afraid not, but we are working on it,” Kate said. “In the meanwhile, you and your friends should try not to walk alone at night.”

“Oh Kate, do you really think that it’s that serious?” Margaret asked. “I think it will end up being a one off thing. I doubt the person will murder again. This is Botswana, we don’t have those types of people here.”

Kate hesitated but then realised that Olebile’s murder would be on BTV news that night and in all of the newspapers the next day. “Margaret, things have become a bit more complicated. There’s been another murder. A young girl again, a former UB student. She was murdered and raped; everything is pointing to the same killer.”

“Oh my God no!” Margaret said. “Who could be doing such a thing?”

“Who’s the girl?” Sarah asked, her face having gone pale.

“You know Sarah, I don’t feel comfortable talking to you about this just yet. Just, please stay home at night, and tell your friends to do the same. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” the stout girl said to Kate and then turned to Margaret. “I need to go, Margaret. I’ll check you next week, if that’s okay?”

“Perfect, Sarah.” She walked the girl to the door. She closed it and then leaned against the back of it as if to keep intruders out. “Kate, I’m scared.”

“I know Margaret. We’ve never had anything like this in Gaborone. Worse still, Ntoko believes that the killer is working to a pattern, killing a girl every 14 days. If it is the case, we’ve got 12 days before he strikes again.

Margaret pushed her fingers through her big Afro hair. “God, I can’t believe this is happening, not here. I need tea.” She walked past Kate into her office. They were alone now, it seemed that the receptionist had knocked off.

Kate followed Margaret to her office and sat down on one of the comfortable sofas. “The girl’s name is Olebile Raymond.”

Margaret let out a small gasp at the corner where she had been filling the tea kettle. “No, not Olebile too.” She turned at looked at Kate. “Kate, I knew her! She was here two years ago but had to drop out. She and her sister were alone and money was an issue. The mother died.” Margaret’s face looked pale, she was afraid. “I knew both of these girls, Kate.” She slumped into a nearby chair. “Olebile…. She had such a tough life but she wasn’t bitter at all, she was so hopeful, always hopeful, despite everything.”

“Yes, her sister told us about their situation. Margaret, please if there is anything that you can give me. I have to admit that we’re stumped. The sister had mentioned a boyfriend, a man named Clicks, but he seems to have a pretty tight alibi. We interviewed Kadambo again, but it’s a long shot. We’ve got nothing and like I said we may be working on the killer’s time clock.”

Margaret gained her composure and came and sat next to Kate on the two seater sofa. “Kate, I don’t even know what to say. I don’t remember any Clicks. How do you know a killer? What does he look like? How does he act? Is he just stalking people like a wild animal?”

“It almost appears that way. But he’s a clever wild animal. We have almost no evidence at the crime scene. There are only the claw marks.”

“Claw marks?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Both bodies had three deep claw marks down the length of their bodies. We’ve pretty much determined that they didn’t come from an animal.”

Margaret held her head in her hands. Still looking down at the floor she said, “What kind of person could do that?” She looked up at Kate, her eyes full of tears. “These poor, poor girls. And it must be somebody at the university. This animal is here… among us.”

“This is why I really need your help. Anything at all, we can’t know what is important and what isn’t at this point. Anything could help.”

Margaret went to the file cabinet. “Let me get their files.” She pulled out two files and went behind her desk. She paged through them. “I’d forgotten, but Olebile did mention the boyfriend, Clicks, even when she was here. They’d only just started dating, everything was still rosy. Also, she was frightened of Kadambo, but most girls are here. Her big problems were money, also being without her parents troubled her a lot.” Margaret was silent for a while as she read. “Okay, here’s something. There was a guy named Ontiretse Setle. She had made a complaint against him to the university students’ affairs committee.”

Margaret put the file down. “I know this boy, Kate. He’s a student here. He has some pretty disturbed views about girls and quite a few have made complaints about him. He allegedly raped a girl, too. I had to do a psychological review of him for the student affairs board and I did let them know he should be seen by a counsellor regularly. They included that in his disciplinary action. His father is very wealthy and I understand he sees a private psychologist here in Gaborone.”

“What problem did Olebile have with him?”

“He was interested in her but the feelings were not mutual. As soon as that was known, he started stalking her, showing up at her work place, at her home. He also threatened her with violence.”

“Did he ever carry out the threat?”

“Not that I know of.” The tea kettle went off and Margaret got up to make their tea. Back at the desk she opened Keletso’s file to give it another look through. “Wait.. wait what is this?” She picked up the file to get a closer look at a certain passage.

“What is it Margaret?” Kate asked.

“It’s Keletso, she also had a problem with Ontiretse. I can’t believe I forgot this. He had shown her some interest and she was quite excited. Even though she had her boyfriend at home, she was flattered by Ontiretse’s attention. He’s charming at first and quite handsome. He also has plenty of money to throw at a girl. In our sessions, I warned her to stay away from him, though I didn’t give her the exact reasons, I couldn’t, of course. There’s nothing in here to say what happened and I can’t remember her telling me. I completely forgot the entire thing. Kate do you think he’s the killer?”

“We can’t jump to that conclusion just yet, but the information is definitely important.”

Just then they heard the door in the outer office open. “Margaret?”

“It’s Goitsemang,” Margaret said to Kate. “We’re back here!” she called out.

Dr. Basupi entered. He wore a long back caftan which fell to his ankles. It was embroidered with white and silver threads. A matching hat sat on his head. Kate could not deny that he was a very attractive man. “Detective Gomolemo, I didn’t expect to see you here.” He turned to Margaret and gave her a friendly peck on the cheek. “So how is your murder investigation going?”

“Not so great,” Kate admitted.

“There’s been another murder, Goitsemang. Another young woman, Olebile Raymond, she did her first year about two years ago and then had to drop out. Did you know her?” Margaret asked.

“Maybe I’m not sure, I’d have to see a picture to be certain. But that is awful.” He leaned on the edge of Margaret’s desk, his hands pressed together and held at his lips in his characteristic way.

“Yes,” Kate said. “We’re hoping we’ll soon get a break. Maybe your wife has helped.”

“I hope so. This kind of thing is certainly not a good advertisement for the university.” He stopped and rethought what he’d said and added, almost as an afterthought. “And, of course, the girls, the tragedy of it.”

“Who cares about the image of UB? Just like you to think of the university first. You and your politics,” Margaret said. Though she spoke with a smile, Kate sensed a bitter edged one. There was some tension between these two. Kate supposed being married and working together was quite hard on a relationship. And she knew the University had a lot of politics. She doubted she and John could manage it. Him at the farm and she in town at the police station was working out just fine.

“Well I need to be off. Margaret, thanks again for your time and your valuable help. I can let myself out.” Kate headed for the door.

“Ah….. Detective Gomolemo, I wondered if you might be interested in attending a poetry reading with us tomorrow night. I’ll be reading some of my work and some of my colleagues are participating as well. I think even a few students. We could maybe go for dinner afterwards,” Dr. Basupi said. “I can see you and Margaret are becoming good friends and I’d like to get to know you a bit better.”

“Can I bring a friend?” Kate asked.

Dr. Basupi smiled. “Of course, Margaret and I would love to meet your friend.”

“Okay, great. It’s a date then.”