Boago exited the police car. His partner, David, came up next to him, asking, “So how you want to do this, Sergeant?”

“Take the back. I’ll knock on the door and see if Kopano is in a cooperative mood today.”

David ran around to the back door of the ramshackle house. Kopano was a regular ‘customer’. Boago himself had arrested the man three times, two drug charges and an assault and battery. The cops on the street collected the scum and the courts set them free so the cops could do it all again. An existential nightmare.

Boago sighed in frustration and banged on the door. “Police!”

He heard the scrambling behind the locked door and the shouts at the back. Boago waited. After a few minutes, David came around the corner of the house with a cuffed Kopano. “I expected as much,” Boago said, as they got into the car.

At the police station, David put Kopano in the cell while Boago worked on the paperwork. Kopano had gone missing while on probation. A cursory search during the arrest revealed a bag of dagga and an unregistered gun. Maybe this time they’d put him in prison and leave him there for a bit, but Boago doubted it.

While he sat at his desk a middle-aged Indian couple came through the door. They were both shaken up, the woman especially. Her face was wet with tears. They were with the Captain. Boago thought they looked familiar, but couldn’t place them.

Just before leaving for lunch, Boago spotted that the captain was free and poked his head into the office. “What was up with that Indian couple, Cap?”

“Their son got killed in a hit-and-run downtown.”

“Yeah? That’s tough.”

“Big shot lawyer. Not sure what he was doing in such a dodgy neighbourhood. I guess the only one who’d know that is Mr Pravander himself – and he’s dead.”

Boago stopped a minute. “Pravander? It wasn’t Vavi Pravander was it?”

The Captain looked up, surprised. “Sure. Why? You know him?”

“God, that’s shit.” Boago couldn’t believe it. “Yeah I know him. We went to school together.”

“Sorry, neh? He was young too. The parents aren’t doing too great.”

“Yeah, too young to die. Only twenty-seven, same as me. We were in the same class. Friends even …”

The Captain came around the desk and patted Boago’s shoulder. “Sorry. If I’d known you knew him and all … well I would have approached it differently.”

“How were you to know? It’s nothing, Cap, just a shock, that’s all. I haven’t seen him for years. Nine, ten years now. It’s just a shock.”

***

Tell us what you think: Does Boago suspect this may be more than a simple hit-and-run?