Mma Makutsi looked thoughtful. ‘Her? Why would a lawyer be interested?’

‘She is a lawyer who is giving us opinions. And if anybody gives you an opinion, then you have to ask what they want to achieve by that opinion.’

Mma Ramotswe reached out to touch the tablecloth on the table at which they were sitting. It had been embroidered round the edges with brightly coloured images of Botswana flowers. She touched a motif of a jacaranda blossom – more purple.

‘I suppose,’ she said, ‘that lawyers may want a case to work out in a particular way. If you are defending somebody and you think he is innocent, then…’

Mma Makutsi became animated. ‘Exactly. Or if you are looking after an inheritance and you think that the person who stands to get it is not a good person, then you might want to do all you can —’

‘To prevent that happening,’ supplied Mma Ramotswe.

They stared at one another.

‘So you need to look at the will, Mma,’ said Mma Makutsi. ‘Anybody can do that, you know.’

It was Mma Ramotswe who had first told Mma Makutsi about the government registry where wills, and all sorts of other documents, could be seen – for a fee.

‘I do know that, Mma,’ she said. ‘In fact, I think I may have told you about it a few years ago.’

Mma Makutsi shrugged. ‘Maybe. But have you looked at the will, Mma?’

‘No, I haven’t. Not yet.’

‘Because it will show who stands to gain if Liso is not Liso,’ said Mma Makutsi. ‘And that is what we really need to know.’

Mma Ramotswe was thoughtful. ‘I shall do this,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ said Mma Makutsi. ‘There is a man. Phuti told me about him. He bought a sofa.’

Mma Ramotswe waited for her to continue. Since she had married Phuti Radiphuti, sofas and chairs and all sorts of furniture regularly entered Mma Makutsi’s conversation, and people were described in terms of the furniture they had bought. Thus a prominent politician had been identified as a man who had a large dining room table made of Zambian mukwa wood; or a rising businesswomen had been referred to as having recently acquired a set of expensive office chairs.

‘This man with the sofa,’ Mma Makutsi went on, ‘ is called the Master of the High Court. He keeps all the wills.’

‘A big filing task,’ said Mma Ramotswe.