I was confused at first, because the west wing was exactly the same as the east wing. It was like the east and west wing were twins, looking at each other in the mirror. I must tell Themba that, I thought. And suddenly I missed him so much. But there wasn’t time for daydreaming. I needed to work fast.

I went straight to the drawers. Drawers always hold secrets.

I found the scrapbook in the study, in a big, old desk. It was full of pictures cut out from the newspaper and stuck in. I paged through.

There was a picture of the twins when they were young, in their floral swimming costumes. They had nice figures. There was a picture of them at the Matric Dance, and with two men, all dressed up for a party. There was a picture of one as a beauty queen at a pageant.

And then there was a newspaper article. It was cut out and stuck in. It was old and yellowed but I could still read it clearly:

Businessman Jake Hilton-White has been found dead in his Claremont home, and Police have opened a murder investigation. In the toxicology report it was stated that large amounts of glyphosate, found in weed killer, was present in his blood. His wife, Mrs Patricia Hilton-White is missing. If anybody has seen her…

Just then I heard a door slam shut. I quickly put the scrapbook back and slipped out of the west wing, just as Prudence came around the corner from the kitchen.

“Don’t go in there,” she said, pointing towards the west wing door, which I had just closed behind me. “The last maid went in there and I have never seen her again. Just do your job.”

At seven pm I took Mrs Hilton-White her supper – roast chicken with a side salad. There was still no sign of Mr Hilton-White. As I turned to leave the dining room I looked at her. She must be lonely in this big house all by herself, I thought. And I nearly felt sorry for her.
Before I got into bed I went to open the window because it was hot. That’s when I saw two shadows behind the curtains in the west wing. Two people standing close to each other, talking. When they turned to look out towards my room, I quickly ducked down so that they couldn’t see me. A few minutes later, when I looked again, the whole west wing was pitch black. All the lights had been turned off.

***

Tell us what you think: Who were the people Nosipho saw in the west wing?