‘Shoo-shoo!’ Saskia motioned. The girls’ insistent interference was rather inconvenient, she thought as she watched the cigarette ash from her unsmoked Everest fall to the pavement, shatter and scatter. She needed a smoke to help calm her nerves, and these little devils were making sure she squandered her opportunity.

‘A witch lives there,’ a little face under a big blue hat informed Saskia.

‘I should think not. I know the lady who lives here, and she is many, many things, but a witch is not one of them.’

‘She is, too. We’ve seen her pointy hat and broomstick and everything,’ the obvious leader of the girls said with authority.

Saskia wondered how she had ended up actually having this conversation. There had been a time when children had taken heed of what adults said, when they would have been more manageable, even to their own detriment. Now, listening to these little monsters, Saskia was glad that she had been so determined not to have a brat of her own. She definitely did not regret the two abortions she had had.

‘Maybe she’s a witch too,’ another girl declared.

What made them believe so steadfastly that there were witches who existed outside the pages of fairy tales? Saskia wondered as she stomped her cigarette underfoot. Had she also believed in witches at their age or was this yet another gift of war – the sincere belief that evil did exist and manifest itself in the world?

‘You’re a witch! You’re a witch! You’re a witch!’ the Coghlan girls screamed with both fear and excitement.

They would have done well in Salem, Massachusetts, Saskia thought as she placed another cigarette between her lips, inhaled and mumbled, ‘You’re right, Little Saints. You’ve caught us out. The woman who lives here is my mother, and we are both witches. Here, let me show you my pointy hat.’ She theatrically reached into her rucksack. The girls, with a mixture of terror and anticipation, prepared to run as soon as they saw the hat.

Just then the last person Saskia wanted to see at her mother’s gate – Chief Inspector Spokes Moloi – joined her. She was too shocked to do anything but stare at him. The cigarette fell from her mouth. He couldn’t possibly know the truth, could he? She had made sure that the plainclothes detectives had not followed her, so how did he know to come here?

‘Whatever she is, she’s also a kaffirboetie,’ the leader of the pack said, interrupting Saskia’s thoughts.

The Chief Inspector removed his wallet and showed the girls his badge. ‘I’m with the BSAP and you, young ladies, are disturbing the peace. Disturbing the peace is a punishable offence.’