The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (20 page)

“I am,” said Mma Ramotswe.

The report was finished, typed by Mma Makutsi—in an error-free performance, as one might expect of such a graduate of the Botswana Secretarial College. Then it was time for tea, as it so often was.

“You told that woman, Teenie, about the key to the supplies?” said Mma Ramotswe. “I wonder how that went. It's a test of Mma Potokwane's advice, I suppose.”

Mma Makutsi laughed. “Oh, Mma, I forgot to tell you. She telephoned me. She did as I suggested and put that man in charge of all the supplies. The next day, everything was gone. The whole lot. And he had gone too.”

Mma Ramotswe looked into her cup. She wanted to laugh, but prevented herself from doing so. This result was both a success and a failure. It was a success in that it demonstrated to the client beyond all doubt who the thief was; it was a failure in that it showed that trust does not always work. Perhaps trust had to be accompanied by a measure of common sense, and a hefty dose of realism about human nature. But that would need a lot of thinking about, and the tea break did not go on forever. “Oh well,” she said. “That settles that. Mma Potokwane's advice
sounded
good, though.”

Mma Makutsi agreed that it did, and they talked for a few minutes about the various affairs of the office until Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni came in for his tea. He was wiping his hands on a cloth and smiling. He had been struggling with a particularly difficult gearbox and at long last he had solved the problem. Mma Ramotswe looked out of the window, at that square of land, at the acacia tree that fingered into the empty sky; a little slice of her country that she loved so much, Botswana, her place.

Mma Ramotswe smiled at Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. He was such a good man, such a kind man, and he was her husband.

“That engine I've been working on will run so sweetly,” he remarked as he poured his tea.

“Like life,” she said.

         

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phe nomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and was a law professor at the University of Botswana and at Edinburgh University. He lives in Scotland.

BOOKS BY
ALEXANDER M
C
CALL SMITH

IN THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY SERIES

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Tears of the Giraffe

Morality for Beautiful Girls

The Kalahari Typing School for Men

The Full Cupboard of Life

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

Blue Shoes and Happiness

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

IN THE ISABEL DALHOUSIE SERIES

The Sunday Philosophy Club

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

The Right Attitude to Rain

IN THE PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS SERIES

Portuguese Irregular Verbs

The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances

IN THE 44 SCOTLAND STREET SERIES

44 Scotland Street

Espresso Tales

Love over Scotland

The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by Alexander McCall Smith

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in Great Britain by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., Edinburgh.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McCall Smith, Alexander, [date]

The good husband of Zebra Drive / Alexander McCall Smith.

p. cm.

1. Ramotswe, Precious (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. No. 1 Ladies'

Detective Agency (Imaginary organization)—Fiction. 3. Women private

investigators—Botswana—Fiction. 4. Husbands—Fiction. 5. Parent and child—Fiction. 6. Botswana—Fiction. I. Title.

pr6063.c326g66 2007 823'.914—dc22 2006039047

www.pantheonbooks.com

eISBN: 978-0-375-42479-3

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