Kate drove out the Western Bypass highway. It was lunch hour and the traffic was heavy moving at a crawl. Though it was early August, the sun was hot and Kate opened her window to get a bit of air. “It’s not good, car exhaust,” Ntoko said. “There’s lead in car exhaust.”

Kate looked at his back, having turned like usual towards the window. “I suppose it’s not, but burning up in the car is probably not that healthy either.”

Immediately she regretted having said anything. She knew Ntoko was not trying to be difficult. It was more that he had a lot of information he felt an obligation to share. She was tense knowing what lay ahead for them.

Ntoko turned toward her. “If you’d like, you could stay in the car. I’ll tell the sister.”

Kate was surprised at his insight. She saw him as being pretty unaware of others. Ntoko dropping small surprises was turning into a pattern. She smiled at him, under that annoying exterior there was something endearing about him. “That would be really helpful, if you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all. I’ll tell her you were busy on the cellphone.”

Lizzy Raymond could have easily walked on the catwalks of Paris or Milan. Even with tears streaming down her face, she was stunning. She looked to be almost two metres tall, towering over everyone in the morgue. She still wore her nursing uniform, having come with Ntoko and Kate straight from the clinic.

“I know it must have been Clicks,” she said. “She told me she had stopped seeing him but she’d lied before about him.”

“Was he Olebile’s boyfriend?” Kate asked.

“Yes. For the last year or so. But he beat her, often. I told her he’d kill her one day. I told her that he would.” She started crying hard into her hands and Vivian put a motherly arm around her.

“Here have a drink of water. Can I call someone for you? An uncle maybe?”

“We’re alone Olebile and I. Our mother came here from South Africa when she was young. She met our father here but he ran away, no one ever knew where. We never knew his family and we’d never had enough money to go and see my mother’s. Now it’s only me.”

Vivian glanced up at Kate looking for an answer. “Maybe a friend. Can I get a friend for you?” Kate tried.

“Maybe you could call my fiancé, Kago.” She gave Kate a number. Within thirty minutes, a tall, neat man dressed in a suit arrived. With him were an older woman and man, who he later introduced as his parents. He went to Lizzy straight away.

“Are you okay?” he asked kneeling in front of her. Lizzy explained what had happened. In minutes, Kago and his parents had Lizzy in the car, they left all of their details and told Kate and Ntoko to contact them for anything. Lizzy was not all alone, that was apparent, and Kate was hopeful that her new family would be strong enough to get her through the death of her sister.

When they were gone Vivian said, “I think she’ll be okay after all.”

“Yes, I think so too,” Kate said. “It’s late, Ntoko. Let me give the details for this boyfriend, Clicks, to the officers on duty. Let them go and collect him. He can sit in the cell tonight. We’ll question him tomorrow.”

“That sounds fine with me. My wife will be happy to see me home a bit early anyway.”

Kate smiled. She hadn’t met Mrs. Ntoko yet, but had an image in her mind of a traditional woman, doek on her head wearing a letaise even in Gaborone. From what she’d discovered about Ntoko so far, she thought it likely that upon meeting his wife, she’d have another surprise. With Ntoko, things were not as they seemed. Actually Kate thought maybe that was so with everyone.

Clicks Mbaya looked like what everyone wants a murderer to look like. He wore an angry, mean expression on his face and spoke with contempt and disrespect to everyone. He had piercings on his nose, eyebrow and lip. Kate could see immediately why Lizzy hadn’t wanted her younger sister to get involved with him.

“I told you I don’t know nothin’ Old Man so why don’t you get out of my face and cut me loose,” Clicks spat at Detective Ntoko.

“Here’s what we’ve got. Your girlfriend is dead. You beat her on numerous occasions in the past. She broke off with you and you weren’t too pleased about it. And I think you killed her because of it,” Ntoko said.

“Why would I do that? I was sick of her to tell you the truth. I was tired of the good girl shit. I’m not into that.”

“Is it? So where were you the night before last?” Kate asked.

“I was at a gig in Francistown with our band. We got there in the morning, practiced all afternoon and played all night. What? You think, I killed her by remote control?”

Kate had to admit that that was a good alibi. He’d have plenty of witnesses to support his claim. Kate and Ntoko left the interrogation room leaving Clicks inside.

“So what do you think?” Kate asked.

“I wish he was the one but with an alibi like that, if it proves correct, we can’t do much but let him go.”

“Did you find any connection with Keletso?”

“No. He’d played with his band at the university a few times, that’s about it. I think, like Dr. Moeng said, that these murders were committed by the same person and unless we can find the link between the two victims we won’t find their killer.”

Kate knew Ntoko was right. “But there is the link of the university. Olebile was also a student there. Maybe we need to talk to Mr. Kadambo again.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Ntoko said.

Kate and Ntoko found Kadambo almost where they left him, emptying dustbins near the lecture hall where they’d met with Dr. Basupi. “Sorry, Mr. Kadambo, how are you today? Do you remember us, we’re from the police?” Kate asked.

Kadambo looked up through his distorted eyes and disfigured face. “Yeah, I remember you.” He went back to emptying the bin.

“We wondered if you might have a few minutes, so that we could talk to you.” Kate said.

“Fine.” He sat down on a nearby bench. “What do you want now?”

“There’s been another murder, of a girl who had gone to the university.” Kate dug in her bag and took out a photo of Olebile. “Do you know her Mr. Kadambo?”

“Maybe. She looks like that nurse’s sister. They used to live in Old Naledi until the mother died.” He took the picture in his hand and stared at it for a moment.

“Where were you the night before last Mr. Kadambo?” Ntoko asked.

“I was at home, alone like usual.”

“Mr. Kadambo there are quite a few allegations on file at the police about you. Allegations that you like to harass the girls here,” Kate said.

“They were all dropped. Not enough evidence.”

“Sure, none went far enough to make a charge but I think you know the saying ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire’,” Ntoko said.

“Sometimes, sometimes not.” Kadambo looked up at Kate and Ntoko, Kate stopped herself from looking away. The scar from the burn was red and ugly taking up most of his face and pulling his eyes into grotesque positions. “People don’t like the way I look, so they say things. Police have investigated and I’ve never been charged. Unless you know something I don’t. It’s just because people don’t like the way I look. You don’t like it either do you?” He looked at Kate and she looked back at him, stopping herself from looking away.

“No…I mean I don’t care one way or the other. I’m investigating a murder and right now you are looking more and more like someone the police should be interested in.”

Kadambo shrugged his shoulders and looked down at the ground. Kate knew that they didn’t have enough to charge him. It was a second-hand comment from Dr. Basupi and the fact that he worked at the university and kept to himself and had no alibi. That alone could include probably half of the men on the campus. They had nothing and Kadambo knew it.

“Can I go? If you keep wasting my time like this I’ll soon be fired. My boss isn’t very patient with stuff like that.”

“Sure you can go, but stay in Gaborone we might want to question you again,” Ntoko said.

They headed back to the station through the lunch time traffic, moving at a snail’s pace. “So what do you think?” Kate asked.

Ntoko turned around and faced her. “I’m not sure. Mr. Rafferty, my teacher at Moeng, used to say, ‘Not everything is as it seems’, and I think he was right. Maybe we need to see what isn’t obvious.”

Kate was driving, as usual, and kept quiet for a moment as she negotiated the chaotic roundabout full of office workers rushing to lunch within the tiny amount of time allocated time for it. Back on the straight Western Bypass, Kate was able to concentrate on their discussion again. “Yes, you’re right but where to start. I just feel like the answer lies at the university. That is the common thread. Both victims have a connection to the University. Maybe I should try and see if Margaret knew Olebile. Maybe she could give us some insight about where to start.”

“I think that’s a good idea. After lunch maybe I’ll head back to the University and try and question a few students. We need to get a lead, we don’t have much time.”

“Time?” Kate asked.

“We’re down to 12 days. 12 days before the next girl is killed.” He said it so matter-of-factly, as if it was a done deal.

“But Ntoko, maybe it was just a coincidence. We don’t know for sure that this guy is working to a pattern.”

Kate hoped desperately that her words were the truth. To think that a young woman was out there, living her life, think her future lay before her and yet in 12 days she would be brutally murdered because she and Ntoko couldn’t stop this monster was almost more than Kate could bear.

“Maybe,” Ntoko said, turning his body back towards the window. “But somehow I get a feeling that I’m right. There’s an animal out there and he needs to feed every 14 days and until we find him, no young woman in Gaborone is safe.”