Frame It And Pin It

Chapter 6: Say It

"Jo, hey." Diane's voice came through as soon as I picked up. I cleaned away my tears with the sleeves of my hoodie. I was currently lying in my bed under my duvet, waiting for Laura to stitch up my pillow as she had promised to. She had managed to convince me to let her try to fix it. I thought it was never going to be the same again, that it had been ruined but she spoke highly of her stitching skills, so, I decided to give her a chance to prove it. It had been over an hour and I hadn't heard from her. I was too weak and tired to go find her, so, I just laid in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Hi, Diane." I croaked out, sniffling right after.

"David is going to contact you soon. He's got a conference in Abuja two days from now. You need to hand him the phone. Him and only him, you understand?" She instructed, ignoring my greeting. I was too tired to even ask any questions. I wasn't curious anymore. I was just fed up with everything.

"I'm not in the best of moods right now, Diane." I said as she called my name. "My house was broken into this night and they trashed the entire place and destroyed valuable, irreplaceable items and—"

"Wait, what?" Her loud voice cut me off. "Your house got broken into?"

"Yes." I gave a sigh. Tears stung at my eyes as my shredded pillow flashed in my mind's eye.

"Oh my God! Did they take anything?"

"Nothing at all. They just ransacked the entire house and destroyed property."

"Dammit. I knew this was going to happen." She hissed and I sat up in my bed, shocked by this new revelation.

"What do you mean by that?" I questioned. She didn't sound at all surprised by what I had told her. How could she have known my house was going to get broken into?

"They must have tracked my phone back to your house. I should have known there was a reason why they asked us to—" She paused mid sentence and the line went silent.

"The reason why what? Diane, what are you talking about?"

"You need to keep my phone switched off and on your person at all times until David arrives. When he arrives in Abuja, hand it over to him and that's it."

"What's so special about that phone?"

"It's nothing you want to bother yourself with, trust me."

"My house just got ripped apart! I think I deserve to know why!" I demanded an answer. My house had been broken into because of some phone that I hadn't even meant to keep. I deserved to know why.

"These are deep waters, Jo. You'll sink if I pull you in any further. Trust me and let this go. Just do this one last favor for me and you can forget all about me. I'll never bother you again."

"I'm not doing anything until I know exactly what's going on." I said stubbornly. "I'm not just going to trust you blindly, Diane. I need to know what you've gotten me into."

"You don't understand, Jo. I don't—"

"If you won't tell me what this is about, I'll just ask Alex." She didn't want Alex knowing about this, so, I was just going to have to threaten to take it to him. My house and property had been violated, this was personal now.

"He doesn't know anything. Don't tell him."

"I'll make him get the truth out of you then." I continued with the threats. I was going to make her tell me, however I had to do it to extract the information. She was silent a while before she spoke.

"Fine." She said in defeat. "Meet me tomorrow at twelve noon sharp. I'll send you the location."

"Okay." I replied. She cut the call after that and I dumped my phone on the bed beside me. What was all of this? What was so important about that phone that they had turned my house upside down trying to find it? And who were they?