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Chapters (48)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. ON A HOT DAY WE DREAM OF TEA
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. FOOD COOKED WITH LOVE TASTES BETTER
  10. CHAPTER THREE
  11. YOUR HOUSE HAS GOT MY NAME ON IT
  12. CHAPTER FOUR
  13. I SHALL SIMPLY LOOK UP IN THE SKY
  14. CHAPTER FIVE
  15. I AM YOUR FRIEND, AND I AM ASKING
  16. CHAPTER SIX
  17. THE THINGS OF WHICH A MECHANIC MIGHT SPEAK
  18. CHAPTER SEVEN
  19. THE THIS WAY UP BUILDING COMPANY
  20. CHAPTER EIGHT
  21. MMA RAMOTSWE DRIVES CLOVIS ANDERSEN TO MOCHUDI, AND THINKS
  22. CHAPTER NINE
  23. THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT OWN THE AIR
  24. CHAPTER TEN
  25. SHE WAS LIKE A DEFLATED BALLOON
  26. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  27. AN INNOCENT MAN, A FIRST OFFENDER
  28. CHAPTER TWELVE
  29. THE EFFECT OF LIME
  30. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  31. THERE ARE SOME NICE PEOPLE ON THE ROAD
  32. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  33. GOLD INSIDE, NOT JUST OUTSIDE
  34. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  35. HOW MANY CUPS OF TEA …
  36. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  37. THE HABITS OF LIONS
  38. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  39. HAVE YOU HAD ANY INJECTIONS RECENTLY?
  40. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  41. A LAWYER SPILLS TEA OVER HIS SHIRT
  42. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  43. YOU ARE A VISITOR TO OUR COUNTRY
  44. CHAPTER TWENTY
  45. BETTER NAILS, BETTER LIFE
  46. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  47. MMA RAMOTSWE, I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE
  48. About the Author

He did not hesitate. “I don’t think so.”

She greeted this with interest. “Really, Rra? Have you heard something?”

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni shook his head. “No, I have not heard anything. I have heard nothing, in fact.”

“Then how can you say that his money was not honestly earned?”

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni looked slightly uneasy. “You will laugh at me, I think.”

“I will never laugh at you, Rra.”

“In that case, I can tell you. I know this because of his car. He drives a dishonest car.”

Mma Ramotswe tried to control herself. She made a supreme effort, but it did not work, and she burst into a peal of laughter.

“There,” said Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. “You laughed at me! You said that you wouldn’t, but you did.”

“I’m sorry, Rra. I did not mean it. It’s just that … it’s just that I can’t see how a car can be dishonest.”

“But it can,” he protested. “There are certain cars that are always chosen by dishonest people, just as there are cars that only the honest will drive. When you’re a mechanic for many years, you become able to notice these things.”

“And he drives a dishonest one?”

“Very,” said Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. “Have you seen? It’s covered with chrome and flashy bits and pieces. Any mechanic—any mechanic at all, Mma—will say when he sees such a car: ‘There goes a bad man.’ A mechanic knows these things, Mma. He just does.”

Later that night, as she lay awake in the darkness, Mma Ramotswe considered these words. A mechanic knows these things … It sounded very general, very unscientific, but it was, she thought, probably true. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni had always been a very good judge of character, and if he said that there was something about Mr. Ditso Ditso that was suspect, then he was probably right. But the difficulty for her was that it was one thing for somebody to say that another person was bad; it was quite another thing to prove it. And that was what Mma Potokwane had asked her to do: to provide proof that could be shown to the board of the orphan farm that one of their most influential members was bad, and so was his money. It would not be easy; it is never easy to provide proof even when we feel, in our very bones, that we know something to be the case. She was sorry that Mma Potokwane had asked her to do this, but, as always, when Mma Potokwane asked you to do something, whether it was to dig a ditch or to find out information about a rich man, it was impossible to say no. Completely impossible.

CHAPTER THREE

YOUR HOUSE HAS GOT MY NAME ON IT