I read somewhere that justice delayed is justice denied, but it you ask Harriet Khoza, long delayed revenge is as sweet as a bottle of matured wine. Her daughter Kea was killed exactly a year ago and in the month of her death, a tall glass of sweet revenge has finally been served.
Mpho’s miraculous recovery
After the mercenaries hired by Harriet Khoza attacked the Sebata home, Thando and Hector fought back. When emergency services arrived, several bodies lay on the lawn, among them Mpho and Dorothy Sebata, both with gunshot wounds. Mpho was loaded into the back of an ambulance and driven to hospital. She was well enough to speak when she left for the emergency room giving the impression that she might survive. Hector and Thando followed closely behind in a different vehicle. But upon arrival at the hospital, the paramedics pronounced Mpho dead.
The miraculous recovery had only been brief.
Meanwhile Harriet Khoza and her family arrived home from the Magalies retreat, a vacation they took both to honour Keabetswe and provide themselves a solid alibi for the birthday party assault. But alibi on no alibi, Thando had her suspicions.
Harriet Khoza savours sweet revenge
When Harriet Khoza got back home, she was under the impression that the entire Sebata family had been killed. But best friend Noma called and told her that she had spotted Hector, as healthy as a palm tree in an oasis. The mission had failed. But it suddenly occurred to Harriet Khoza that what she had inflicted on Hector was much more painful than instant death. She had put him in the same space, the same dark abyss into which she fell after Kea was murdered by Sebata’s bomb. He, like her, had finally experienced the pain of losing a child.
Harriet, accompanied by Brutus, Shaka and Noma, went to pay her respects to the Sebatas. From close range she savored his grief.
Kagiso, who left behind his life of crime for the safety of his wife and daughter, was aching for revenge. For once, Kagiso the mommy’s boy sided with Brutus in his strong disagreement with Harriet’s call for calm. Harriet knows that any unplanned assault on Hector Sebata, a senior policeman, could have serious repercussions. Shaka backed Harriet’s decision to put on hold the Sebata’s execution.
Goodness worried that Kagiso could be dragged back to the violent life from which she and her family had fled to Port Alfred. Harriet finally managed to tether Kagiso’s fury, for now. But Brutus and Shaka, going against Harriet’s orders, got dressed for Mpho’s funeral where they sat in the back row, giggling and passing a whisky flask between themselves, even during Patronella’s tearful eulogy. But as Shaka and Brutus sipped on their bottle of revenge, Hector spotted them. Might this mean the Khoza plot to kill him is now clear to Hector?
Thando skips funeral for revenge
After the Khozas visit, Thando had a hunch that they were responsible for the attack which left Mpho dead and her aunt Dorothy “Dodo” Sebata in ICU.
“They came to gloat” she said.
Thando put together a strike team.
But Hector Sebata refused to sanction an attack on the Khozas. As Hector saw to Mpho’s burial, Thando went to the hospital where the one captured gunman is shackled to a bed frame. A doctor whom she paid off allowed Thando to question the gunman when he awoke from his coma. But when Thando, in her desperation for answers, became aggressive with the patient, the doctor ordered her to leave.
Will the bedridden assassin spill the beans?
Till next week, my pen is capped
The Queen airs weekdays on Mzansi Magic at 9:00pm
Connect with the writer on Twitter @RewindMzansi