A Death in the Family (31 page)

“But you didn't think this
thought
of yours was worth discussing with anyone?”

“When I had the idea, it was already Saturday,” Samantha replied.

Mabaku whipped out his phone and held it in front of her face. “This, Detective Khama, is called a cell phone. I have it with me at all times. I often wish I didn't, but it's part of my job.” His voice rose. “In case you hadn't noticed, my job is to direct the CID. That means
I
make the decisions about operations. We don't all just do what we think is a good idea at the time. We work as a team.”

Samantha leaned forward and asked, “And if I
had
asked you, Director? Would you have allowed me to do it?”

“No! Absolutely not. This man is probably a trained killer. Putting a civilian woman at risk? She was lucky to get away so lightly. And what if she had been killed? We'd have been taken to the cleaners by the law and by the press. And you'd probably be off the force.”

Mabaku battled to get himself under control. “What you did was incredibly stupid. CID work isn't about daredevil antics and flashes of brilliance. It's about working as a team, planning, attention to detail, one step at a time. And you're part of that team.”

“But we weren't getting anywhere! We had the tapes, but Shonhu wasn't giving himself away. He's too clever for that. We had to have some physical evidence. And I was the only one who could do that.”

Mabaku shook his head. “You're not hearing me, Samantha. Here at the CID, we do things … BY … THE … BOOK.” He thumped the table in time with the last three words. “I'm going to let this go because I think you could become a decent detective. But never again. The next time you get a great idea…” He held up his cell phone again. “And if you don't, you'll be directing traffic in Ghanzi.”

Samantha swallowed an angry retort; she still felt she deserved credit for what could be their first real breakthrough on the case. She started to say so but was interrupted by Mabaku's desk phone ringing. He grabbed it, listened for a moment, and said, “Send her in.”

Zanele came in, smiling. “It's a match, Director. I think those hairs are from the same person. I've sent Samantha's samples and the hair found in the car to Johannesburg, where they have a specialist on this sort of thing, but I'm convinced. I checked all the key features under a comparison microscope, and they all matched.”

Mabaku nodded. “Can we do a DNA match as well?”

Zanele shook her head. “The hair found in Kunene's car didn't have follicle cells attached.”

Mabaku shrugged and turned back to Samantha. “Kubu suggested we use your fiasco to our advantage. Go and lay a charge against Shonhu for assaulting Jasmine. We'll pull him in on that count. Then we can take his prints and get as many hairs as we want. And we'll see if the commissioner can swing us a search warrant for Shonhu's home and office in case he's left something there.”

He pulled a folder toward him—a sure signal that the meeting was at an end.

“And if the fingerprints match,” he said as the two women reached the door, “it won't be long before we'll have Shonhu singing like a bird about his boss, Hong,
and
about the director of the Department of Mines.”

 

CHAPTER 50

The next morning Mabaku drove to Shoshong once again, this time with Kubu and an interpreter. Kubu knew that Shonhu could handle English, but other senior mine management probably could not, so they'd borrowed Liz Linchwe for the day from Foreign Affairs. She sat quietly in the back, not attempting to join in the discussion between the detectives.

“We should've alerted the border posts,” Mabaku said.

“Shonhu's not going anywhere, Director,” Kubu replied. “He doesn't know we're onto him yet. Others in the mine management might take off once we arrest him, but there's not much we can do about that—we've got nothing on them—and Shonhu may have been acting on his own, in any case.”

“I don't believe that for a minute,” Mabaku replied. “Hong is the head man there. He must know what's going on. But I'll settle for Shonhu first, as long as I get Mopati and Hong later. At this point, we say nothing to Hong about anything other than the assault.”

That made sense, and Kubu nodded. They passed Tobela, and he felt a pang. Nothing had been found suggesting that his father had any involvement here. Was he wrong? Was his father's murder just a random act of violence, never to be resolved?

At the turnoff to Konshua mine, a police van with three uniformed constables from Shoshong joined them. Kubu wasn't sure what to expect at the mine, and he wasn't going to take any chances. Also, he wanted the road blocked. No one was leaving the mine without Mabaku's permission.

They drove in a convoy up to the security gate, where a surprised Chinese guard stopped them.

“I am with the Botswana police,” Mabaku told him in English, offering identification. “I am here to speak with the manager, Mr. Hong, and some of his staff.”

The man said something in Chinese, so Liz rolled down the back window and explained what they needed. There were a few exchanges between them before he returned his attention to Mabaku.

“You wait, please,” he said. Returning to his post, he grabbed a phone and had an agitated conversation. Eventually, he hung up and let them through, pointing toward the administration block.

The constables remained at the gate, and the others headed for reception. Hong met them there and carefully checked their identification himself. “Director Mabaku, why this?” He struggled for a few seconds to find the right words, until Liz said something to him in Chinese. He turned to her with relief, and Liz translated for Mabaku. “Mr. Hong asks what this is all about? He is very busy this morning and would have preferred that you phoned for an appointment.”

“We want to speak to Mr. Shonhu,” Mabaku said.

Hong frowned and responded in Chinese. Liz said, “Mr. Hong asks why you want to see Mr. Shonhu. He says that if it's a matter concerning the mine, he can answer all your questions.”

“It is not about the mine. It's a matter involving Mr. Shonhu personally,” Kubu interjected.

Hong looked from one to the other. “I call him to my office,” he said slowly in English.

“Just take us to him,” Mabaku instructed.

Hong hesitated, then nodded and signaled for them to follow. When they reached the office, Shonhu looked up from his laptop with surprise, and there was a quick exchange between him and Hong before Shonhu turned to the detectives. “We go to meeting room,” he said. “Then you explain what you want.”

You're the one who'll be doing the explaining, Kubu thought, as they all moved to a bigger office.

“We want to speak to Mr. Shonhu alone,” said Mabaku, dismissing Hong. The mine manager protested but left when Mabaku insisted.

“Now, what do you want?” Shonhu looked from Kubu to Mabaku and back.

Mabaku let Kubu take the lead. “Mr. Shonhu, would you tell us what you were doing on Sunday afternoon?”

“I was at
kgotla
with Mr. Hong. You saw me there.”

“And after that?”

“After that, I came back here.”

“Did you meet a woman after the
kgotla
?”

Shonhu shrugged. “Perhaps I saw a woman. What is this about?”

“You met a woman for sex. Is that right?”

Shonhu frowned. “She is my girlfriend.”

Kubu consulted his notebook. “She's not your girlfriend. She claims that you pay her to be your woman. But she won't let you tie her to the bed. When she refused again yesterday, you assaulted her, punched her in the face, and kicked her.”

“No! Never hit her.”

“Let me ask again. Did you hit her when she refused to let you tie her up?”

“No. Never hit anyone.”

Kubu took a sheet of paper from a folder. “This is a copy of the doctor's report. She confirms damage to the left eye and bruises on the face. So the woman is not making the story up. She
was
viciously attacked. Also, she gave a very accurate description of you in the complaint. Are you sure you don't want to reconsider your story? It will be best if you admit you did it.” He shrugged. “Perhaps something can be worked out.”

But Shonhu didn't take the bait. He shook his head firmly. “This is all bullshit! She fell over a table. You waste time on this woman's lies? You have nothing important to do? I'm busy!” He stood up as if to leave.

“Sit down, Mr. Shonhu,” Mabaku said. “We're not finished.”

For a moment, Shonhu looked as though he would ignore Mabaku, but then he sank back into his seat. “What else?” he demanded.

“Where do you live?”

“At the Chinese village down the road. All the Chinese people live there.”

“Take us to your house,” Mabaku told him. “We need to search there.”

Shonhu jumped up again. “Search my rooms? What for? This is bullshit!”

“Nevertheless, we want to take a look.”

“No! It's private. You don't go there.”

Mabaku dug in his jacket pocket and passed the search warrant to Shonhu, who glanced at it, then threw it on the floor.

“You don't understand,” he said angrily. “This is
Chinese
mine. China is big.” He demonstrated with wide-open arms. “Botswana is small.” He used thumb and forefinger to show how small. Then he squeezed them together as though crushing an insect. “Don't fuck with me!”

Mabaku jumped to his feet. “Mr. Shonhu, I'm arresting you for the assault of a Motswana woman. We don't allow assault in little Botswana, whatever you do in big China!”

Shonhu ignored him and moved toward the door. Kubu also jumped up, moving surprisingly quickly for his bulk.

“Get out my way, fat man!”

But Kubu stood firm. He was holding his service pistol and was ready to use it. I'm no match for him in a fight, he thought. If he rushes me, I'll have to shoot.

He felt his heart pounding, but the gun was steady in his hands.

When he saw the gun, Shonhu froze. A moment later, Mabaku had a handcuff on his left wrist and dragged the arm behind his back. The snap of the second cuff closing on his right wrist signaled the end of it. Kubu lowered the gun and let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Mabaku turned to Liz, who had pressed herself against the far wall. This wasn't the usual fare at Foreign Affairs. “Go and call the constables,” he said to her. “They can take him to a nice, small Botswana jail.”

She nodded and slipped out of the room.

Mabaku focused on Shonhu again. “Now, Mr. Shonhu, you are under arrest for the assault of Bongi Modongo. You don't have to say anything, but anything you do say will be noted and can be used in evidence at your trial.”

Shonhu just glared at him.

*   *   *

ONCE THE CONSTABLES
had dragged the still protesting Shonhu out of the building, Mabaku asked the shocked receptionist to call Hong. He appeared a few moments later, looking flustered and upset. “Where Shonhu?” he began. “What—”

“Let's go to your office,” Mabaku interrupted.

Once there, the director explained that Shonhu was being held for the assault of a woman after the
kgotla
. It was slow going since everything had to go through Liz, but during the conversation, Hong's loud interjections and head shakings slowly gave way to puzzlement. At last Liz said, “Mr. Hong says that he is very surprised and shocked and doubts that Mr. Shonhu would behave in this way. Nevertheless, he understands the position.”

Mabaku nodded. He asked a variety of questions about where Hong was after the
kgotla
and what he'd seen. It turned out that Hong had been talking to the ambassador in private about the mine expansion, and Shonhu had been left on his own to drive the car back.

There was a pause, and then Mabaku said, “Tell Mr. Hong that we're concerned that Mr. Shonhu has behaved badly before with women. Also, ask him if he knows where Mr. Shonhu was on the night of February sixth.”

Liz did as he asked, and they could see that Hong was disturbed by this new line of questioning. “Thursday three weeks ago,” Mabaku prompted.

Hong sat very still, his hands folded in his lap. At last he shook his head and replied.

“Mr. Hong says that he and Shonhu always play mah-jongg together on Thursday nights,” Liz translated. “They haven't missed a game for a long time. So Shonhu was here on the evening of the sixth.”

So Mabaku was right, Kubu thought. They
are
in it together. Hong has given Shonhu an alibi, and, no doubt, Shonhu will return the favor for Hong.

Mabaku nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Hong. That is very helpful.” He stood up. “We will need to take Mr. Shonhu's computer with us, and we want to search his house.” Liz translated, and Hong burst into a stream of Chinese with more head shaking. Mabaku didn't wait for the translation but took out the search warrant and passed it to Liz. “Read it to him in Chinese. Tell him that men who beat up women often leave a trail of pornography sites on the Internet. That is why we want the computer.”

Liz did as he requested, and Hong was speechless by the end of it. At last he nodded and led the way back to Shonhu's office. Kubu picked up the laptop and asked Hong how to find Shonhu's house. Hong muttered directions to Liz and offered to send someone with them, but Kubu brushed that aside. “We'll find it,” he said. He didn't want Hong's people watching over his shoulder.

As they headed back to the car, Liz whispered to Kubu, “I'm very impressed that the police are going to so much trouble to catch a man because he beat a woman, even if she was a prostitute. I'm glad to be helping you with this.”

Kubu just smiled. He suspected that Samantha would have a few things to say about this comment if she were present.