Clare Stewart’s body was found by cattle herders in a shallow ditch, presided over by red aloes, in Manguzi, KZN on 24 November 1993. The ANC activist, recruited by Umkhonto we Sizwe commander Ronnie Kasrils, had been missing for two weeks. This gripping account of the mystery surrounding Clare’s killing touches on the fragility of memory, family heartbreak, apartheid-era evil and on what went wrong with our democracy.