Karabo called Poppy, and she and Marea were at her house in thirty minutes. Karabo waited, sitting on a chair, staring at the photo. Who would want to do this to her?

“What the hell is going on, Karabo?” Poppy asked after arriving, looking at the photo and knife still in position on the table. “First the calls, and now this? It means someone broke in here. And where did they get that photo?”

“It was in my handbag.”

“In your handbag? How did they get your handbag?” Poppy asked. “This is getting really scary, Karabo.”

“I don’t know. I noticed it was missing this afternoon,” Karabo said. “I thought it was nothing, that I misplaced it somewhere.” She started to cry and Marea held her tighter. They all stood in the doorway of the kitchen, looking at the table.

“Should we call the police?” Marea asked Poppy.

“I think we should. This person broke into the house. They could break in again and do something worse next time,” Poppy said.

“No!” Karabo said. She didn’t want the police here if she could avoid it. She thought she knew who had done this: she suspected DT. He had been very angry at the restaurant. She couldn’t call the police if it was him. She refused to be the one sending him back to prison, even if he was the one. She could never do that to him.

Poppy went to the kitchen to make tea and Marea sat with her on the sofa in the sitting room. Karabo spoke softly. “Do you think DT did this?”

“DT? No, why? Why would he want to do something so stupid and mess up his parole and all he’s doing? No, I can’t believe that,” Marea said shaking her head. Apparently Marea had been keeping up on DT’s progress too.

“Something happened, today.”

“What?”

“It was at lunch. I went to lunch with Mompati. He kissed me and just then DT was there. From nowhere, suddenly he was there.”

“DT just happened to be at the restaurant that you and Mompati were at? That’s weird. Do you think he’s following you?”

“I thought that too. But he’d called me earlier, before lunch. He was all excited, his business was approved, he was starting out on his own. Apparently he went to Chez Michelle with his parole officer, to celebrate. Honestly I thought it was just a coincidence … it seemed that way. But now I don’t know.”

“And Mompati? When did it progress to kissing?”

“I know, it’s crazy. I don’t know what happened. This day … it just went out of control. Crazy out of control. We slept together.”

***

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