‘Well enough,’ Bodecia said. ‘Talked to her during our New Year’s Day party. I liked her. I think she was in need of a friend. Took to visiting some evenings before her husband returned from work. She was not happy with the turn that her life had taken, and was ready to do something about it. You have to admire a woman like that. She was Cosmos Nyathi’s daughter, you know.’

So Bodecia and Silas Mthimkhulu did not tell each other everything, Spokes deduced as he let Bodecia lead him and the detectives towards the front door. He realised he could hear her clearly because most of the merriment in the house had died down. He got the distinct impression that Bodecia had put an end to the music as soon as she arrived, and, judging from the stolen looks in her direction from the other women, Spokes knew he was right. She had a powerful presence, standing there in her brown-and-cream kaftan dress. She was a woman worlds removed from the reticent girl he had known.

Bodecia and Silas Mthimkhulu accompanied Spokes and the detectives to their police bakkie.

‘I am sure we will meet again,’ Bodecia said as they stood beside the car. She offered him both her hands again, and he had no choice but to take them. ‘Under better circumstances, I hope,’ she added.

Spokes had nothing to say to that, so he simply smiled and briefly held both her hands in his.

Silas Mthimkhulu broke off their contact by offering his hand for Spokes to shake.

‘I really wish we could have been of more help,’ Silas Mthimkhulu said as they shook hands. ‘Perhaps I can get my good friend Dr Gustav Mabuse to examine the body. He is the Chief Pathologist.’

Spokes knew when a man was doing more than offering a kindness, and so he said, ‘Would you? The Chief Pathologist does not usually involve himself in cases like this. It would be wonderful if he could.’

‘It is the least we can do,’ Silas Mthimkhulu said, pulling Bodecia close to him.

As the BSAP bakkie drove away, Spokes could not help but think what an odd couple Silas Mthimkhulu and Bodecia made. She was a woman who wholly embraced the maturity that came with the middle of life and womanhood, and he was a man tenaciously holding on to a youth that had never been his. That was just one of the many differences between them. How did such a woman end up married to such a man? The answer came quickly to Spokes – because a man called Spokes M Moloi had disappointed her.