She recovered enough to say, ‘You will have to tell Zora, of course. Zora Neale Hurston.’

Even though he understood that this was mere bait, Spokes almost bit. He wanted to know who Zora was, and he had to stop himself from betraying this fact in any way. He looked resolutely ahead until he felt her give up this round of their game.

He led her out of the front door, but she left behind a strong, sweet scent. As he watched her drive off in a Renault 5 with an elongated ‘Z’ on its side, Spokes realised that Saskia Hargrave was not the kind of woman who allowed herself to be easily forgotten.

When he was sure she was gone, Spokes picked up the phone, dialled the Hillside Police Station and asked for two constables to stand guard over Emil Coetzee’s property over the holidays.

Never having been one to keep secrets from his wife, almost as soon as he got home Spokes told the lovely Loveness about the day he had spent in the Chief Superintendent’s office. Never having been one to fight with her husband, Loveness listened to him carefully and gave nothing away. He only knew the depth of her disappointment in him when, later that night, as he watched her put on her nightdress, he suggested that he read her a few pages of Wives and Daughters before they went to sleep, and she responded, ‘Please go ahead and read whatever you want. I’m afraid I have a headache.’ Then she did something that she had never done in their long-loving marriage: she slept with her back to him.

Spokes experienced the coldest night he had ever known as a married man.

They both understood, of course, that the real threat was not a potential promotion, but Daisy’s unsolved case. As long as it remained an open case, Spokes would find every reason to postpone his retirement, even though he knew that waiting for them in Krum’s Place was the hard-earned promised land – ten acres of it – on which they had built an eight-roomed house that comfortably contained all their future dreams.