Read Online A Fool's Knot by Philip Spires - Free Book Online

along the edge of the desk. “There is some mistake,” he said. “The name is Munovo throughout, not Munyolo. I cannot make an order for release on bail if there is any confusion over the prisoner’s identity.” He began to flick back through the papers.
    On the outside, Janet remained calm. Inside she had begun to boil a little, heated by what she considered to be trivial bureaucratic nonsense. “Would it help if I checked with the police officer who took the boys’ names? He might have made a mistake.”
    â€œYes, we could try that,” said John still fingering through the papers. He then leaned back and banged on the hatch door. There was no reply so he banged again, much harder than before.
    Now we’ll have to wait for the inquest on why there’s no answer, thought Janet, her frustration growing. This is just to put me off. “Shall I go across to the police station?”
    â€œI think you had better,” said John. “My clerk has gone for lunch.”
    Janet rose from her chair and left the office, the increased speed of her movements giving away her lack of trust in the current process. Outside, she broke into a run, telling the waiting Mwanza that she would be back in a minute. She did not stop to reply to his enquiry.
    Across the road, she had some difficulty locating the officer who had made the arrests. The policeman on duty was convinced that he had gone for lunch. The officer in charge, whom she immediately demanded to see, was in the adjoining room. He declared that the officer in question was away ‘investigating’. The action was left open-ended, as if the policeman had embarked on a mission to seek out misdemeanours. Janet’s impatience became visible as no progress was made. After ten minutes of more indecision, the man she sought appeared. He had simply been to the toilet at the far end of the compound and had stayed on for a quick cigarette. One by one the runners sent out to look for him returned with their negative reports stifled in mid-sentence by his presence. Still more time was needed, however, to establish once and for all that this officer was the one who had documented the case and taken the boys’ statements, and more still to establish the veracity of the claim that the District Officer wanted to see him, there being, of course, no documentary evidence of this fact. But eventually Janet’s persuasive attributes overcame the collective reluctance and the officer crossed the road with her back to the DO’s compound.
    John explained that there might be some confusion over one of the names on the Nzawa list. The policeman answered in Kikuyu - no wonder he got the spelling wrong, Janet thought - confirming that he had written the names exactly as each of the accused had instructed. Munovo was the correct name.
    John turned to face Janet. She thought he looked sincere, but was not convinced. “Well, Miss Rowlandson, I am afraid I cannot issue a bail notice for this boy. I suggest that you come to the preliminary hearing on Friday so that you can identify the boy in person. If you travelled to Kitui to do that, then the officer in charge would have to notify me of the result in writing before I could act. It would be Friday at the earliest before I received his reply. So come to the hearing on Friday, speak on the boy’s behalf and then I will consider your request for bail.”
    Janet agreed, but her calm exterior was a conscious mask to hide an inner fury. “Of course it’s the same boy” went around and around, unspoken in her head. In a final attempt to convince Bwana Mwangangi, she went out to the reception and returned with the boy’s mother, who had accompanied her from Migwani and who had waited patiently and silently throughout in the waiting area. There followed a protracted argument between her and John in Kikamba, but there was no change in his position. The aging woman, who spoke no