A Real Botswana Diamond

Written by Nicholas Wright and Robert Jones
Directed by Tim Fywell

"If there is one thing a man cannot stand it is change." After picking up Mma Ramotswe's ex, Note Mokote, at the Gaborone bus station, Cephas Buthelezi leaves a late night phone message for the sleeping No. 1 Ladies' Detective. With Note's haunting trumpet playing in the background, he warns her to expect a visit tomorrow from an "old friend."

Needing to decide in whose house they will make a home, today's engagement plans include Precious Ramotswe and JLB Matekoni visiting each other's place. Wanting to really make an impression, Mma Ramotswe's housekeeper, Rose, has created a wonderful feast for Rra Matekoni while instructing Precious to remain non-committal about his place. And as Rose hustles Precious out the door, Buthelezi's message remains unheard. Meanwhile, JLB's maid Florence, unaware of his engagement, languishes over her breakfast as dirty dishes pile in the sink.

With baboons loitering and posters of Note Mokote's comeback concert plastered throughout the parking lot, Grace Makutsi and BK discover the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the latest victim of the mysterious Kgale Shopping Centre crime wave. Like the previous break-ins no cash has been stolen, but the colored chalk, the cake and its tin and the banana-shaped stapler have all been taken. What's worse, Grace's secretarial college diploma is ruined. Despite her own personal loss, Grace refuses to intrude on her boss's special day.

"I will not be pushed out by this bed-breaker." At Rra. Matekoni's, tensions build between Precious and JLB's malcontent maid. Mma Romatswe wonders what Florence does to earn her keep when the yard is cluttered with debris, dust covers everything and JLB's bed remains unmade. Much to JLB's embarrassment, Florence grows quarrelsome at the news of his engagement, insulting the traditionally-built Mma Ramotswe then storming out at the suggestion of working at his brother's hotel near the bus station.

Looking more and more likely they will choose Precious' Zebra Drive home, they agree to meet there as soon as JLB fixes the ancient water pump at the orphanage. On his arrival, Wellington and the other children give Botswana's finest mechanic a hero's welcome while Mma Potokwane congratulates him on his engagement and encourages him to buy his future wife a big diamond engagement ring.

After belatedly hearing Buthelezi's message, Precious, feigning illness, rushes Rose out the door, promising to tend to the still-cooking food. Miserable now, she waits while Note sleeps off his late night revelries and Buthelezi learns of the break-in at the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

"Today all mistakes are washed away." A young, wheelchair-bound Mothleli impresses JLB with her diagnosis of the broken pump but her advice to buy Mma Ramotswe a fifty thousand pula diamond ring makes him gulp. Sweetly she adds, "It's the one thing on which all ladies agree."

At Zebra Drive, JLB finds his fiancée completely unsettled and their plans for lunch postponed. Thinking he knows how to get her out of her funk, his suggestion to go buy an engagement ring only pushes her to tears.

Meanwhile, a just risen Note refuses to go anywhere until he eats and a reluctant Buthelezi supplies him with what he really needs — drugs.

At the African Mall, JLB, unaware of Precious's predicament, assures her Note is only a part of her past. Inside Mr. Legodimo's "Judgement Day Jewellers," JLB expresses their desire to buy a Botswana-mined diamond, but balks at Legodimo's 90,000 pula price tag. Diplomatically, Precious contends she'd prefer a less ostentatious ring. When JLB asks if these smaller diamonds are from Botswana as well, Mr. Legodimo replies that they are "As Botswana as you or me."

Snooping around the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Buthelezi accuses Mma Makutsi of withholding information about the break-in. After all it is he, and not her, in charge of the Kgale cases. With his Cheshire cat smile, he pulls the accounts ledger from the shelves and looks at the numbers before carelessly tossing the book over his shoulder.

Sitting in the JLB's truck, a subdued Precious holds up her newly ringed finger to the light, where it's hard to see the diamond. Picking up on her melancholia, JLB tries over and over again to make her feel better. But her tepid responses leave him confused and hurt as her only concern appears to be returning to Zebra Drive.

"A fake diamond for a fake engagement." Home at last, Precious's anger begins to overcome her fear just as Buthelezi and Note arrive. While Note takes in Mma Ramotswe's new prosperous life, Buthelezi crows over how cleverly he's cornered her. Fingering Rose's food, Note wants cash payments to keep quiet about their marital status. A gloating Buthelezi wonders what her fiancée will think of her accepting his ring "under false pretenses...even if it is a counterfeit" — for her "diamond" is really made of the compound cubic zirconium.

A troubled JLB finds Grace still cleaning up from the morning break-in. Holding a poster for Note's show, the idea that a distracted Mma Ramotswe still has feelings for her ex begins to seep in. Grace is convinced otherwise, as they set out together in search of Mma Ramotswe.

Inside the Mochudi cemetery, Precious asks her late daddy Obed Ramotswe why she's agreed to "marry a good man when I am still married to a bad one?" At the graveyard gates, JLB and Grace find Mma Ramotswe's little white truck, but a depressed JLB decides to drop Grace off before heading home. Grace races on to learn what is bothering Mma Ramotswe — Grace tells her that everyone is concerned for her and promises not to let JLB know that the engagement ring is a fake.

Desperate to keep her job, Florence cooks a real meal for Mr. Matekoni. But she goes too far when she suggests he's throwing all his hard work away by marrying Mma Ramotswe. He cuts her off, observing she must think he's a real push over before stating it will be he who sets the agenda in the house. Reproached, Florence acquiesces to JLB's new found assertiveness. In her hands, the newspaper headline reads: "Five Years for Keeping Unlicensed Handgun."

"I am not scared of you. You should be scared of me!" As evening settles on a deserted Kgale Shopping Center, baboons mill about the garbage bins. Inside her office, Precious mulls over her conversation with Note Mokote. His voice ringing in her ears: "There have been so many other girls, after all." Suddenly, she knows what to do.

Outside the baboons, loitering around the shops and on the rooftops, trip the Patel Emporium burglar alarm. Once again, they've busted through a small high window to get inside Mr. Patel's shop. Catching the bandits red-handed, Mma Ramotswe clangs a broomstick against a wash-bucket to shoo them away. One remains behind, ready to fight but an emboldened Precious charges the bellowing primate who drops tail and runs. Wasting no time, Botswana's No. 1 Detective phones a grouchy Mr. Patel that she's cracked the Kgale break-ins case.

The next morning, while an impressed Mr. Patel hands Grace Makutsi two fat payments for the agency's work on his daughter's imaginary boyfriend and the shopping center break-ins. Vowing his allegiance to the No. 1 Ladies' Detectives after Buthelezi's disappointing job performance, he tells a just-entering JLB that the two women have put "us mere men to shame." An agreeable JLB is in better mood too, having made the decision to prove he is worthy of Precious Ramotswe's love. And an excited Grace knows just how he can do it.

Armed with information from the archives of the Department of Civil and National Registration, detective Ramotswe confronts Mr. Legodimo about his well-documented life as a counterfeit jeweler and jailbird. Leaving his shop with a real diamond in her ring, Precious, now a satisfied costumer, promises to keep a keen eye on Legodimo's business.

"Sometimes it is best to face up to your fears." A nattily dressed JLB meets his fiancée at the agency threshold. He's got two tickets for Note's comeback performance tonight at the Go Go Handsome Man's Club. Plus, he wants to take her engagement ring to be engraved. His take charge attitude brings a pleasant smile to her face.

Later, Mr. JLB Matekoni is surprised to learn Precious is already on the guest list for Note's performance. She assures him, that it was not her choice but she has unfinished business with Cephas Buthelezi and her ex Note Mokote. Determined to be more courageous, JLB offers to accompany her, but she tells him there is no need. "It was courageous of you to ask me to marry you again, after I turned you down."

Outside Note's dressing room, Buthelezi offers Precious protection from Note's blackmailing in exchange for a controlling interest in her business. But Precious scoffs at his conniving plot, by pointing out he can't even get Note to open the door.

Inside, Precious produces a marriage certificate proving Note was already married when they got together, thus making their marriage null and his threats empty. With his ruse revealed Note tries to kick her out, but when she sees a packet of white powder on the dressing table, she understands more than he would like. "Why would you take that when you have what you have?" "What do I have?" he retorts. His music, his trumpet is why people are here tonight and that is more then most, she tells him, as she reaches into her pocket book handing him what cash she has — for the music not the drugs. "Everyone is waiting Note."

Over at the seedy Frosty Glass Bar, Florence connects with the dangerous but fun Philemon Leannye. She covered for him once, keeping him out of jail and now she's calling in her marker. JLB's big fat fiancée is ruining her good thing and now it's time to take care of business.

As Precious returns from backstage, Botswana's greatest mechanic is dedicating tonight's 'gig' to his fiancée, "the best detective and the finest lady" in all the country. Then an energized Note lets loose, the crowd sways to his horn and Precious and JLB take their leave. And in the parking lot, Nandira Patel introduces a surprised Mma Ramotswe to her handsome and polite boyfriend Jack.

In Florence's partially lit bedroom, Leannye ceremoniously presents her with a gun. And as he kisses her ear, she starts to snicker at her scheme.

At Zebra Dr., JLB, unaware of Precious own dealing with Mr. Legodimo, shows his love the newly engraved engagement ring: "To a real Botswana diamond." Deeply touched, she tells him "I love you."