Something had crept into Bodecia’s voice that Silas did not want to examine too closely. It was time to shift gears, and so he said, ‘You understand why I couldn’t say anything to him, of course?’

Bodecia frowned, no longer thinking about the unavailability of Chief Inspector Spokes Moloi, but thinking instead about the reality of Silas Mthimkhulu, which was as it ought to be.

‘Jasper was besotted with that Daisy woman. Obsessed. Even though he knew the kind of woman she was.’

The lost look in Bodecia’s eyes gave way to one of deep pain. How long had she been in love with Jasper? How long had Jasper been in love with her? Silas had only learned of their mutual affection a few years ago when he heard them singing a church hymn – there was an obvious closeness in the way their voices harmonised together. They probably had too much respect for each other and for him to ever do more than sing together, but love is love. It was Jasper who had made her forget all the things that Silas had done for her.

Bodecia recovered enough to say, ‘The kind of woman she was?’

‘I never met her, you understand, but from what I gathered, she was nothing more than a commonplace whore.’

Bodecia flinched at the sound of the word; she was once again the green young woman he had married.

‘She was apparently friendly with half the men in the village. But Jasper was in love, and for the longest time he refused to see it … and the rest, as they say, is history. Jasper is the missing link, don’t you see? Chief Inspector Spokes Moloi definitely sees it, and now so do I. She must have befriended one man too many and driven poor Jasper to do whatever it is he did.’

‘Jasper … Mlangeni?’ Bodecia asked again, incredulous.

‘Yes. How well do we really know him? He is a man in his fifties who has never married. You wouldn’t know this, but I’ve seen him when we are out together. He prefers the company of ladies of the night – the Daisys of the world.’

‘You want me to believe that Jasper murdered a woman, dismembered her and then, for whatever reason, ripped a “Y” into her torso? Jasper, whom I have never seen so much as hurt a fly, killed a woman in cold blood?’

‘What I am saying is that you can never fully and truly know anyone,’ Silas said, taking her hand in his.

Bodecia looked at him long and hard with an expression that he was happy to see was not the one Chief Inspector Spokes Moloi had put there. ‘I suppose you could be right,’ she eventually said.