“Well,” Blossom Mmope continued, “he is always late from work. He used to rush home after work, desperate to see me. He used to say how much he missed me all day. But now he’s always late. Sometimes an hour, sometimes even two hours! We’ve been married for nearly ten years. I think he’s grown tired of me.”

She started crying again and Lola pushed the box of tissues closer. “Maybe it’s work pressures,” Lola tried.

“No. I asked one of his co-workers. Nothing has changed at work. He’s cheating on me, I know it!”

“So what else makes you think that?”

“Money. Suddenly money is always short. He’s spending it on his girlfriend! That low-life cheat!”

Blossom Mmope was getting herself very worked up, which Lola knew would not help her case. “An emotional client is an unreliable client” – another bit of wisdom from Ronnie Ron. He really was the best teacher ever, Lola thought as she waited for Blossom Mmope to calm down.

“Anything else?” Lola asked, hoping the question wouldn’t cause another emotional outburst.

“Yes! I smell her perfume on his clothes. Even his lab coat! Imagine! He’s even cheating with her at work. I can’t take it! I can’t take it anymore! I gave this man my life.”

Blossom Mmope cried and cried, then at last the tears ran dry. Lola was sure she had enough information to begin investigating. “OK Mma Mmope, let me do a bit of surveillance and I’ll give you a call in a few days.”

Blossom Mmope stood up and headed out of the door then she stopped and turned back to Lola. “We’ll get him, won’t we?”

“If he really is cheating, which we shouldn’t assume until we have the facts, I will find out. Be sure of that,” Lola said.

*****

“So how is the first day going so far?” Amo, Lola’s little sister, asked at lunch.

“Not bad. I have two cases already.”

“Anything I can help with?” Amo, though only eleven, was a genius and had numerous inventions to her name. She believed science could solve most problems.

“I might need your night vision goggles. I need to follow a man this evening.”

“That sounds intriguing. Can I come?”

“I don’t see why not.” Lola swallowed the last bit of her sandwich. “But right now I need to see about a lost dog.”

*****

Lola found the Joubert’s house at the end of Acacia Avenue. She first checked the fence to see if it was intact around the entire property and soon identified the problem. There was a hole dug under the fence at the back, near the hedge. This was where Gilbert escaped, she suspected. But why hadn’t he come back? Had he met an untimely death? The main road was not far away. Had he been hit by a car? Or had someone stolen him when he was out roaming the streets of Nokeng? And if so, what for?

Lola needed to get back to the office. She would do some research there. She needed to find out why someone would want to steal a dog.

Back at the office she found a young man she knew sitting on the floor in the hallway. He was someone who’d gone to school with Bonang and herself, but he was a few years younger – Butchy Lesedi. He was a bit of a local thug. Liked fighting, drinking too much, and was not immune to stealing small things here and there.

“Hello Butchy. Are you waiting for me?” Lola asked as she opened her office and he followed her inside.

“Nice set up you’ve got here, Lola. You’re doing OK for yourself,” Butchy said, looking around her office.

“Yes, well … what can I do for you, Butchy?”

“I heard you’re finding lost dogs. Someone stole my dog, Lion, last night. Right from my yard and all.”

Another lost dog? Lola knew coincidences were very rare. It was likely the cases were connected.

She took the details for Lion and Butchy left, as the phone rang.

Word had obviously got out that Lola was finding lost dogs; this call was about another missing hound. And by the end of the day she had a total of four cases in which people’s dogs had just disappeared from their fenced gardens. What was going on in Nokeng? Who was stealing everyone’s dogs? And why?

Lola went online to do some digging around and discovered that a new research laboratory had opened up just one town away, in Henniesdorp. She knew that usually rats and mice were used to test products, but could these people be stealing dogs for testing? Lola would have to keep her ears and eyes open. The dogs of Nokeng were under attack.

*****

Lola and Amo were just leaving the house for the evening surveillance of Mr Mmope when Bonang arrived.

“I have a real problem Lola. Can we talk?”

“I’m in the middle of something. I’ll call you when I get back,” Lola said.

Bonang agreed, but still walked with Lola and Amo toward the hospital. They wanted to be there when Mr Mmope knocked off.

“So you know how we both thought it was a good thing that Jomo wants me to wear his mother’s wedding dress?” Bonang asked.

“Are you two getting married?” Amo asked in surprise.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you,” Lola said.

Bonang held out her ring for Amo. “Nice!”

Amo continued holding Bonang’s hand and reached into her bag for an instrument that looked a bit like a metal pen. She pushed the end of the pen down on top of the small diamond in the ring.

“OK, good. An eighth of a carat. At least it is not a cubic zirconia.”

Bonang grabbed her hand back. “Of course it is not cubic zirconia! Jomo wouldn’t play me like that.”

“I was just checking. Sorry.”

They arrived at the hospital and hid themselves behind a clump of trees and bushes to the side. Blossom Mmope had given Lola a photo of her husband and she checked it each time a man exited the building.

“Lola, are you listening? I said I have a real problem,” Bonang tried again.

“I’m listeni–”

She checked the photo and quickly looked up again at the man now leaving the building. It was Mr Mmope. He seemed to be waiting to the side. After a few minutes, a nurse came out of the front door. She was a bit older than Mr Mmope, but beautiful. She spotted him waiting for her and smiled in his direction. Mr Mmope went to her and they spoke for a few moments. Then they walked to a car in the parking lot, got in, and drove away together.

So Blossom Mmope had been right. It was a nurse.

“I said I don’t think Jomo and I will get married. Doesn’t that matter to you?” Bonang said.

Lola looked at her friend and wondered what she was talking about.

***

Tell us what you think: So is Mr Mmope cheating on his wife? And what is happening to all of those Nokeng dogs?