A PROBLEM IN MORAL PHILOSOPHY

THERE WERE some clients who engaged Mma Ramotswe’s sympathies on the first telling of their tale. Others one could not sympathise with because they were motivated by selfishness, or greed, or sometimes self-evident paranoia. But the genuine cases—the cases which made the trade of private detective into a real calling—could break the heart. Mma Ramotswe knew that Mr Letsenyane Badule was one of these.

He came without an appointment, arriving the day after Mma Ramotswe had returned from her trip to Molepolole. It was the first day of Mma Makutsi’s promotion to assistant detective, and Mma Ramotswe had just explained to her that although she was now a private detective she still had secretarial duties.

She had realised that she would have to broach the subject early, to avoid misunderstandings.

“I can’t employ both a secretary and an assistant,” she said. “This is a small agency. I do not make a big profit. You know that. You send out the bills.”

Mma Makutsi’s face had fallen. She was dressed in her smartest dress, and she had done something to her hair, which was standing on end in little pointed bunches. It had not worked.

“Am I still a secretary, then?” she said. “Do I still just do the typing?”

Mma Ramotswe shook her head. “I have not changed my mind,” she said. “You are an assistant private detective. But somebody has to do the typing, don’t they? That is a job for an assistant private detective. That, and other things.”

Mma Makutsi’s face brightened. “That is all right. I can do all the things I used to do, but I will do more as well. I shall have clients.”

Mma Ramotswe drew in her breath. She had not envisaged giving Mma Makutsi her own clients. Her idea had been to assign her tasks to be performed under supervision. The actual management of cases was to be her own responsibility. But then she remembered. She remembered how, as girl she had worked in the Small Upright General Dealer Store in Mochudi and how thrilled she had been when she had first been allowed to do a stock-taking on her own. It was selfishness to keep the clients to herself. How could anybody be started on a career if those who were at the top kept all the interesting work for themselves?

“Yes,” she said quietly. “You can have your own clients. But I will decide which ones you get. You may not get the very big clients … to begin with. You can start with small matters and work up.”

“That is quite fair,” said Mma Makutsi. “Thank you, Mma. I do not want to run before I can walk. They told us that at the Botswana Secretarial College. Learn the easy things first and then learn the difficult things. Not the other way round.”

“That’s a good philosophy,” said Mma Ramotswe. “Many young people these days have not been taught that. They want the big jobs right away. They want to start at the top, with lots of money and a big Mercedes-Benz.”