To Catch a Shadow

South African Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit detective Morgan Hunter, martial arts expert and cage fighter, fighting under the name "The Mighty Midget", is framed by two of his colleagues, detectives Frans Botha and Piet Venter, for the murder of Isaac Bakwena, the only suspect in the killing in1986 of a prominent black South African businessman and founder of the Hamba Group, Doctor Solomon Mokoena, in his Santon, Johannesburg home by unknown assailants. Morgan is sentenced to twenty years imprisonment.Unbeknown to Morgan, Detectives Frans Botha and Piet Venter had been hired by the head of the vast conglomerate, Bester Industries, Willem Bester and his two sons Jan and Koos. Their task was to murder doctor Mokoena, as all of Bester Industries' factories are situated in border areas and the enterprise stood to be liquidated if doctor Mokoena's efforts to recover the "homelands" and the adjacent "border areas" created by the illegitimate South African government and return them to the South African people were successful.To murder doctor Mokoena, the two detectives hired a Soweto gang, the 007s, to mug a taxi driver, Isaac Bakwena, and steal his identity document, place it at the scene of the murder as a decoy and also to do the actual killing of Mokoena.Morgan, together with Frans and Piet, were assigned to investigate the Mokoena murder. During the investigation at Mokoena's house, Isaac Bakwena's identity document was found. Bakwena was arrested but claimed that he had been mugged and his identity document stolen and planted at the murder scene. Doctor Mokoena's wife, Dorothy Mokoena, witnessed the murder but escaped and disappeared.The three detectives were under a great deal of pressure to solve the case and an altercation took place between Morgan and his two colleagues over the use of force to get Bakwena to admit to being an accomplice in the murder. When Morgan was called out of the interrogation cell to answer a telephone call, Frans and Piet murdered Bakwena and successfully framed Morgan.The telephone call that Morgan left the interrogation cell to take was from one of his informers James "Clipper" Simango who urgently needed to see Morgan as he had vital information regarding the Mokoena murder but Morgan was jailed before he could meet with Clipper, who then disappeared.Four years later, Morgan receives amnesty when South Africa becomes a democracy and he and an old school friend, Kate Harrington, set up a legal consultancy. They also fall in love.One evening when Morgan is walking home from work, an attempt is made to assassinate him. He survives and sets out to find Clipper. He traces Clipper to a house in Soweto, but when he reaches the house he finds Clipper murdered. Morgan fails to discover who Clipper's attackers were, except that they weren't his former detective colleagues Frans and Piet whom he had previously suspected of attempting to kill him and of murdering Clipper.Sometime later an attempt is made to kidnap Morgan but his outsized friend, Sam Cele, thwarts the attempt and the kidnappers escape.Morgan finds an ally in South African Police Detective Alfred Madonsela who is investigating Morgan's attempted murder. Morgan, Sam and Alfred set out to expose the mysterious force that is determined to eliminate Morgan. All they can do is entice the enemy to make a mistake that they can use to move closer to discovering the mystery of Doctor Millaman's murder, Clipper's murder and the attempts to kidnap and murder Morgan; a very dangerous tactic that could cost Morgan his life.