The question was answered the next day when she applied for and was given the job of Mma Ramotswe’s secretary. Here was the solution. If men refused to appoint on merit, then go for a job with a woman. It may not be a glamorous office, but it was certainly an exciting thing to be. To be secretary to a private detective was infinitely more prestigious than to be a secretary in a bank or in a lawyer’s office. So perhaps there was some justice after all. Perhaps all that work had been worthwhile after all.

But there was still this problem with the chickens.

“SO, MMA Makutsi,” said Mma Ramotswe, as she settled herself down in her chair in anticipation of the pot of bush tea which her secretary was brewing for her. “So I went off to Molepolole and found the place where those people lived. I saw the farmhouse and the place where they tried to grow the vegetables. I spoke to a woman who had lived there at the time. I saw everything there was to see.”

“And you found something?” asked Mma Makutsi, as she poured the hot water into the old enamel teapot and swirled it around with the tea leaves.

“I found a feeling,” said Mma Ramotswe. “I felt that I knew something.”

Mma Makutsi listened to her employer. What did she mean by saying that she felt she knew something? Either you know something or you don’t. You can’t think that you might know something, if you didn’t actually know what it was that you were meant to know.

“I am not sure …” she began.

Mma Ramotswe laughed. “It’s called an intuition. You can read about it in Mr Andersen’s hook. He talks about intuitions. They tell us things that we know deep inside, but which we can’t find the word for.”

“And this intuition you felt at that place,” said Mma Makutsi hesitantly. “What did it tell you? Where this poor American boy was?”

“There,” said Mma Ramotswe quietly. “That young man is there.”

For a moment they were both silent. Mma Makutsi lowered the teapot onto the formica tabletop and replaced the lid.

“He is living out there? Still?”

“No,” said Mma Ramotswe. “He is dead. But he is there. Do you know what I am talking about?”