She knew how to break the news of Mrs. Grant’s gift. She would tell the guide that his kindness was about to be rewarded. Then she would ask him what he would really like to do with an unexpected windfall. He would think of sensible things to do—people always did when asked that question—and then she would tell him that he would be able to do what he wanted. Finally, she would talk about the Standard Bank, and the various sorts of accounts that they offered to new customers. And with that, her duty would be done. It would be a simple, open-and-shut case, except for one thing, and she thought of it now as she prepared to leave the office and begin her inquiry. That thing was this: very few matters were simple—if they involved human beings, that is—and nothing, in her experience, was open-and-shut.

But the very beginning of an inquiry was not the time to entertain such doubts, and so she put them out of her mind. This stage of the case, at least, would be straightforward. She would go and speak to her friend Hansi, who ran a safari agency in town. He would be able to identify the safari camp in question on the basis of the one bit of information they had—the name involved a bird, or perhaps an animal. That done, she would get the name of the manager from him and after that a simple telephone call … She paused. The safari camp would be somewhere up near Maun, as most of them were, in the Okavango Delta. It was a part of the country with which she was not familiar, and she had been waiting for a chance to go there. And it would be better to find the guide in person, and be absolutely sure that he was the right man …

Then there was the question of Mma Makutsi. It was clear to her that her assistant had been under considerable stress, which was, of course, entirely understandable; she could imagine how she would feel if it had been Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni who had been injured and who had lost part of a leg. And if she were in that position, then a trip to Maun would be exactly the sort of thing to lift her spirits. Yes, that was exactly what they both needed. She herself needed a short break—Mma Ramotswe never took a holiday—and Mma Makutsi needed something to take her mind off what had happened. Maun it would be.