That’s what he remembered. He went to their room and sat on the bed. He must have fallen asleep. He was woken up by David, his partner, a bit later. He can’t say how long, but it was still dark.

“What?” Boago asked.

“Sarge, Stella called the station. You have a problem.”

Boago got up and followed David into his sitting room. Stella was standing there and he was relieved. She wasn’t dead. He hadn’t killed her. She was giving a statement to one of the cops from his station. Another cop came up next to him.

“We need to take you in,” he said. He had handcuffs in his hand.

“No,” David said, “that won’t be necessary. I’ll take him. We’ll sort this out.”

In the car Boago turned to his partner. “This will be the end of me, you know.”

“No, don’t talk like that. It’s just a small problem. We’ll talk to Stella. I’m sure she won’t want to mess your career up.”

Boago kept quiet. David didn’t know Stella.

At the station house, he waited in one of the interrogation rooms. He was sure the first person walking through the door would be the Captain, telling him he was fired. He prepared himself for that. He was surprised to see David – with Stella. Her face was swollen and the fingerprints around her neck were beginning to turn purple. He felt sick with himself. How could he have done this? What sort of person did this to his wife?

“Stella thought maybe you two need to talk,” David said to him. Then he spoke to Stella. “I’m right outside the door.”

They sat a minute in quiet, Stella rubbing her sore neck once or twice.

“God Stell, I can’t believe I did that to you … I’m so sorry. Please, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened to me.” He began to cry.

She looked at him dry-eyed and stern-faced. “This is what is going to happen. I drop the charges and you move out of the house. You sign the house over to me. You pay me child support every month for Moemedi and you pay for the divorce. That’s it. I don’t want to see you again. The minute you fail at any of these conditions I open the case again, you lose your job and you go to jail. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” Boago said, and she left. He drove back to the house to collect his stuff and took it to his mother’s place. A useless cop, a useless husband, a useless man – just like he always expected of himself.

***

Tell us: What do you think of Stella’s demands in return for dropping the case?