“I have arranged for a lawyer to see her,” he said. “There is a man in town who knows about this sort of case. I have arranged for him to go and see her in her cell and to speak for her in court.”

Mma Ramotswe piled an ample helping of beans on Mr J.L.B. Matekoni’s plate.

“Did she explain anything?” she asked. “It can’t look good for her. Silly woman.”

Mr J.L.B. Matekoni frowned. “She was hysterical when I first arrived. She started to shout at the guards. It was very embarrassing for me. They said: ‘Please control your wife and tell her to keep her big mouth shut.’ I had to tell them twice that she was not my wife.”

“But why was she shouting?” asked Mma Ramotswe. “Surely she understands that she can’t shout her way out of there.”

“She knows that, I think,” said Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. “She was shouting because she was so cross. She said that somebody else should be there, not her. She mentioned your name for some reason.”

Mma Ramotswe placed the beans on her own plate. “Me? What have I got to do with this?”

“I asked her that,” Mr J.L.B. Matekoni went on. “But she just shook her head and said nothing more about it.”

“And the gun? Did she explain the gun?”

“She said that the gun didn’t belong to her. She said that it belonged to a boyfriend and that he was coming to collect it. Then she said that she didn’t know that it was there. She thought the parcel contained meat. Or so she claims.”

Mma Ramotswe shook her head. “They won’t believe that. If they did, then would they ever be able to convict anybody found in possession of an illegal weapon?”

“That’s what the lawyer said to me over the telephone,” said Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. “He said that it was very hard to get somebody off one of these charges. The courts just don’t believe them if they say that they didn’t know there was a gun. They assume that they are lying and they send them to prison for at least a year. If they have previous convictions, and there usually are, then it can be much longer.”

Mma Ramotswe raised her teacup to her lips. She liked to drink tea with her meals, and she had a special cup for the purpose. She would try to buy a matching one for Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, she thought, but it might be difficult, as this cup had been made in England and was very special.