diamond snapshots 3

Philippa and Mel were minding house for two foreign diamond dealers in Mutare's Toronto (?) suburb. The girls were employed as cleaners, paid good money (because that's what the diamond dealers had). But the plainclothes CIO came. The girls lied that the men weren't there. The officers started to beat them ("with iron bars, Mel couldn't sit down for a few days, it was just last week") and went through the house, trying every door. One was locked. "Open it," the officers said. "We can't, there's a key in the other side," the girls said. They beat them again. "We will keep beating until whoever is in there comes out," said the officers. The dealer did come out -- eventually. But the answers he gave to the questions weren't the same as the answers the girls gave. "I used to envy those people with diamonds, the ones who had new clothes for school while we could barely make ends meet," T. says. "Now I don't."