When Harold first saw the Datsun at the end of the block, he thought nothing of it. He remembered, however, that it wasn’t there when he had parked his Toyota Publica wagon in front of the Quansahs' home. He still continued to look at the Datsun while he was trying to start his tired old jalopy. He felt embarrassed that Ato had come to meet him in that undignified position with Nana Ajoa. He felt ashamed that he had not taken her advice to leave. He was looking at the Datsun not because something about it interested him but because he needed something to look at as he absorbed the shame. As he was driving away, he glanced in his driving mirror at the Datsun one more time. It was then that he saw something around the Datsun that interested him. The door on the driver’s side opened, a foot stepped out but pulled back into the car and then the door closed again. Just out of childish curiosity, Harold parked his car as soon as he turned the corner, got out and hid to watch what would happen next. He was watching when a young man got out of the Datsun, walked over to Nana Ajoa’s Volvo and took a briefcase out of it.
Harold judged that if he ran after the guy and yelled ‘thief!’, he might get a number of people to help give chase but then they may not get very far after a thief who was driving. He ran back into his car, started it and was about to make a three point turn when he saw the Datsun come up. The thief seemed to be sure he had not been seen because he was driving at a rather normal speed. Harold decided to follow without being noticed, like they do in the movies. He tucked his bruised lower lip in over his tongue and sucked on it as he hummed the theme song from ‘The Mod Squad’.
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