The Quality of Mercy by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Author:Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa

It had not been Spokes’s intention to do so, but once he crossed the street, he decided that he might as well go to the Main Public Library. If there was nothing, then there was nothing. If there was something … well, then that would be something.

‘Good afternoon, Madam,’ Spokes said, removing his hat.

Even though he had greeted her and she had heard him, the ancient head librarian did not respond but simply looked at him from over the rims of her spectacles. Her pallid face had long since set itself into a permanent look of absolute displeasure, and even the rouge and powder she applied had given up on lending her a softer look.

‘You wouldn’t happen to have the Selous School for Boys yearbooks, would you?’

Her eyes gave him the once-over before she said in a rather stern voice, ‘Year?’

‘1942,’ Spokes replied.

She stood up and Spokes was overwhelmed by the smell of talcum powder. She did not say anything else to him as she creaked away into the darker recesses of the library. She was gone for so long that when the assistant librarian appeared and asked him if he was being helped, Spokes did not know exactly how to respond. As he was deciding to repeat his request, the head librarian creaked her way back.

‘Name?’ she said, hugging the yearbook to her bosom.

Spokes showed her his badge. She took it from him, looked at it sceptically, flipped it over to examine its back, and then looked him over more than once before she began very carefully and minutely to write down his details in her sign-out register. ‘Please handle it with care,’ she said as she pointed him towards the rows of readers’ desks. ‘Maximum two hours.’

Spokes sat down at a desk and turned the pages of the yearbook, not really knowing what he was looking for – until he found it. There it was. Printed in black and white. A resemblance. A striking resemblance, where he least expected it. He looked and looked, somehow hoping not to be seeing what he was seeing, but his trained eyes would not let him see otherwise. He slowly and carefully closed the yearbook as the disparate pieces of the case began to come together.

He was certain he had it, but he was also hoping that for once in his career, he was wrong. He desperately wanted to be wrong. There was only one way to be sure either way. He picked up his fedora from the reading desk and began hurrying out the library.

‘Walk, don’t run, for Christ’s sake,’ the ancient head librarian called. ‘And where is the book you checked out? It needs to be returned and signed in,’ she shouted as he ran past the front desk. There would be time for that later, Spokes decided. At this moment there was only one important thing. ‘You lot!’ the ancient head librarian screamed as Spokes ran out the door.

Spokes got there just in time to find the Peugeot 504 pulling out of its roadside parking bay.

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