Free Ladies' Detective Agency 01 - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith Page A

thought for a moment. There was another
explanation, and it made her shiver. But before she went into that, she had to
find out why the Reverend had kept so quiet about it all.
    “You
didn’t tell the police,” she said, trying not to sound too
accusing. “Why not?”
    The Reverend looked down at the
ground, which, in her experience, was where people usually looked if they felt
truly sorry. The shamelessly unrepentant, she found, always looked up at the
sky.
    “I know I should have told them. God will punish me for it.
But I was worried that I would be blamed for poor Peter’s accident and I
thought they would take me to court. They might make me pay damages for it, and
that would drive the Church into bankruptcy and put a stop to God’s
work.” He paused. “Do you understand why I kept quiet, and told all
the flock not to say anything?”
    Mma Ramotswe nodded, and reached
out to touch the Reverend gently on the arm.
    “I do not think that
what you did was bad,” she said. “I’m sure that God wanted
you to continue and He will not be angry. It was not your fault.”
    The Reverend raised his eyes and smiled.
    “Those are kind
words, my sister. Thank you.”
     
    THAT
AFTERNOON, Mma Ramotswe asked her neighbour if she could borrow one of his
dogs. He had a pack of five, and she hated every one of them for their
incessant barking. These dogs barked in the morning, as if they were roosters,
and at night, when the moon rose in the sky. They barked at crows, and at
hammerkops; they barked at passersby; and they sometimes barked just because
they had got too hot.
    “I need a dog to help me on one of my
cases,” she explained. “I’ll bring him back safe and
sound.”
    The neighbour was flattered to have been asked.
    “I’ll give you this dog here,” he said. “It’s
the senior dog, and he has a very good nose. He will make a good detective
dog.”
    Mma Ramotswe took the dog warily. It was a large yellow
creature, with a curious, offensive smell. That night, just after sunset, she
put it in the back of her van, tying its neck to a handle with a piece of
string. Then she set off down the track that led to the river, her headlights
picking out the shapes of the thorn trees and the anthills in the darkness. In
a strange way, she felt glad of the company of the dog, unpleasant though it
was.
    Now, beside the pool in the river, she took a thick stake from the
van and drove it into the soft ground near the water’s edge. Then she
fetched the dog, led it down to the pool, and tied its string firmly to the
stake. From a bag she had with her, she took out a large bone and put it in
front of the yellow dog’s nose. The animal gave a grunt of pleasure and
immediately settled down to gnaw the bone.
    Mma Ramotswe waited just a
few yards away, a blanket tucked round her legs to keep off the mosquitoes and
her old rifle over her knees. She knew it could be a long wait, and she hoped
that she would not go to sleep. If she did, though, she was sure that the dog
would wake her up when the time came.
    Two hours passed. The mosquitoes
were bad, and her skin itched, but this was work, and she never complained when
she was working. Then, suddenly, there came a growling noise from the dog. Mma
Ramotswe strained her eyes in the darkness. She could just make out the shape
of the dog, and she could see that it was standing now, looking towards the
water. The dog growled again, and gave a bark; then it was silent once more.
Mma Ramotswe tossed the blanket off her knees and picked up the powerful torch
at her side. Just a little bit longer, she thought.
    There was a noise
from the water’s edge, and Mma Ramotswe knew now that it was time to
switch on her torch. As the beam came on, she saw, just at the edge of the
water, its head turned towards the cowering dog, a large crocodile.
    The
crocodile was totally unconcerned by the light, which it probably took for the
moon. Its eyes were fixed on the dog, and it was edging slowly towards