Chapters (22)
It did not take long for her to return with the document, bound with other documents into a large blue-backed binder. The front page of the deed had been stamped by the Master’s office, and a series of dates and figures had been added to it in blue ink.
‘You may have a copy,’ said the official. ‘Or you can read it here, Mma – also for a fee.’
Mma Ramotswe decided to read it where she stood, on the public side of a large government desk. It was not a long document – two and a half pages, most of which was in formal legal prose and of no interest to her. There was the instruction that the farm should go to Liso – described as ‘my nephew, the son of my late brother’ – and there was a generous financial legacy to ‘my dear sister, who has been a support for me over the years’. But then, at the end of the document, was a clause she had not expected. The residue of the estate was to go to ‘my good friend, Mma Sheba Kutso’.
Mma Ramotswe read this provision carefully, and then read it again. She looked at the official behind the desk, who was now watching her. ‘What does “residue” mean in these documents?’ she asked.
The official seemed pleased to be consulted. ‘It means what is left over,’ she said.
Mma Ramotswe pondered this. ‘And if, let’s say, somebody who is left something in a legacy becomes late before the person who makes the will —’
‘The testator,’ interjected the official. ‘We call the person who makes the will the testator.’
‘Yes, so let me get this right, Mma: if the person who has been left something in a will dies before the testator dies, then what happens to that thing?’
The other woman shrugged. ‘It goes into the residue of the estate,’ she said.
‘I see,’ said Mma Ramotswe. ‘And the person who gets the residue in the will – that person gets the thing that couldn’t go to the other person mentioned in the will because that other person —’
‘Is late,’ the official supplied. ‘Yes. That is right, Mma. It is quite simple, you see. If you know what you are talking about, that is.’ She paused, reaching for the folder of documents. ‘Have you found out what you wanted to find out?’
‘Maybe,’ said Mma Ramotswe.