May 18

Case 1: The Mysterious Affair of the Man who Booked But Never Stayed.

For the purposes of this story, I will call our visitor Brandon.  (I can't remember his real name.)

Brandon phoned me one day, asking if we had a vacancy for him that night.  He said he was coming to Bulawayo from Zvishivane and was visiting a relative.  When he arrived, he took a perfunctory look at the cottage, handed over payment and said he was going out to see his uncle and would then be going out to dinner with friends.   He then said to me that he might not actually stay in the cottage as he might just stay with his friends.  However, he said he would not ask for a refund if he did not stay.

Around 10pm, I looked into his room and noticed that he had not left anything there and nothing had been used.  The room was exactly the same the next day.  Easy money.

A few weeks later, he phoned again.  More or less the same story: coming into town to meet friends.  He arrived wearing blue overalls with luminous strips on them so I assumed he had just come from work.  Again, he handed over the money right away (not many people are this eager) and this time asked if I minded him having a friend visit.  I said that was fine as long as it wasn't overnight and as long as his friend was OK with Rolo.

Ten minutes later, there was a car in the drive - I remember it was the new type of Mini - and I just assumed his friend had arrived. When I walked past the cottage, I couldn't hear any voices and all the curtains were drawn.  As it was about two o'clock in the afternoon, this was quite unusual.  I jumped to the obvious conclusion that this was some sort of illicit rendezvous, but another ten minutes later the car was gone.  Brandon appeared at the door in his overalls and said that he was going out, but would leave the key with me in case he did not come back.

When he left I questioned my initial rendezvous assumption.  It was very quick for one, Brandon was still wearing his overalls (not that I expected him to be wearing a tuxedo and holding a rose between his teeth, but it did seem logical that he might have changed his clothes after his ten minutes of passion), and thirdly, yet again nothing in the room had been used.  The bed was perfectly made; there were no signs of anyone having even sat on it.  I'd question whether they had even sat on a chair.  Once again, he did not stay the night.

The last time I saw Brandon I was going into PicknPay and he was coming out.  I asked him how Zvishivane was and he said he had left; he was off to Canada within the next couple of days.  I wished him well and have never seen him again. Since then, I have come to the conclusion that he was an illegal gold dealer and whatever exchange took place in the cottage enabled him to make a quick exit out.  Either that, or he had to leave ...

Soon after his last stay with us, I noticed a car parked on the opposite side of the road to us with two men siting in it. They stayed there most of the day and I felt they were watching the house. Perhaps they were his colleagues that he had left in the lurch; perhaps they were police.  I don't know. had Brandon even gone to Canada? Maybe he was just covering his tracks. Illegal gold mining is not at all uncommon in Zimbabwe.  There was a time when all gold found had to be sold to the Reserve Bank, but I don't think many people go that route nowadays.  We once found a huge shining gold nugget on our driveway in Zambia.  However, it was just a bit too shiny and too light as real gold is very heavy.  It is also very unlikely that you would find an actual nugget; most gold has to be taken out of the stone.

I suppose our cottage was perfect for a quick gold deal.  Secluded house; ditzy blonde running the show; no one to ask too many questions.  He just never bargained for my Agatha Christie brain.