BEAUTIFUL ME

 PART SEVENTEEN

"THE STORY"

BY UMORU PRAISE

The Quad assembled at the center the next day

Looking at each other when they all arrived... it was obvious they were all restless. None had a good night sleep by the look on their faces. But amongst all Elizabeth had the worse restlessness

“guys I think we should just end this, Efua, told us to end this, Jeremy told us to end this, his friend told us to end this and even Sofia! But we didn’t listen. We were all busy looking for a perfect love story between Malia and Jeremy not knowing we were just getting ourselves entangled into a murder case. Guys I am freaking out!” paranoia was already getting the best of her

Tony drew closer to her,  holding her close on the sofa “just calm Lil, just calm down. Nothing is gonna happen”

“Noo tony, don’t try to comfort me right now, I and Alex have been the ones mainly talking to her. What…what if she knows that we know her secret and comes for us?!” Eli’s eyes popped out in fear “I can’t die! At least not right now! My mum just got much better, I can’t be involved in a murder case Tony, I can’t?!”

The trio made sense to what Eli was saying. Alex fright made him stiff and confused. Diverse thoughts about his last conversation with Sofia began roaming at every interval in his head. But Quinn left the door post and walked over to the desktop. Quinn and Tony were the only two among the quad that felt coordinated

“We have come too far to stop now” Quinn said looking at the trio “at the beginning of all these. What where we looking for, a story. We searched for a story so bad, we groaned and wailed all day. We went to an event just to keep our minds busy and stable because we didn’t have something strong to dish out, but then we found our biggest story, a story we have lurked for, and for months we have put in our time, sweat, brains and energy to just arrive at where we are now, and you guys want us to just throw it away just like that?”

“We are journalist, writers, and information seekers. We would have ended a long time ago when we thought Jeremy making out on Malia was the cause of their break up, but because of what we wanted to believe, we ventured on and we are here now finding the real truth. So let’s keep working on our belief and opinion and get to the bottom of this thing once and for all”

The trio looked at her without a budge

“Common guys, we want to be journalist, do you guys think all our stories are all going to be with happy endings…so let’s start here and buckle ourselves up for what’s ahead. Please guys”

Alex felt an ease after Quinn’s speech “she is right, let’s get to the bottom of this once and for all”

Tony looked at Eli 

“Fine, but just know that if anything happens, I’ll be writing about your murder case” she snapped

The quad gave a titter together.

And then they got back to work

Alex to the desktop, Quinn to her iPad, Tony to the written records and Eli to the audio records, all in search of any clue to the next step they could find

Two hours after the search begun, Quinn and Tony finally had something

“You guys have to check this out!” Quinn and Tony exclaimed simultaneously 

“You got something too” Tony said towards Quinn smiling at the coincidence

“Yeah” Quinn beamed a smile back. She stood up from the wooden chair heading towards the sofa along with the rest

Quinn showed the trio a pic of Malia and Frank at the cafeteria unaware to them 

“Who took the picture?” Eli asked

“I don’t know. I guess it was a random post to ridicule Frank. Take a look at the comments”

* “Frankenstein finally made a robot that he could talk to”

* “I am not sure that dude has a brain to write arithmetic talk more of making a robot

* “Arithmetic is way too big, he can’t even spell his own name…”

“Geez why would people say such a thing about a human being” Alex felt infuriated

“I hate when people talk trash like this about someone, I mean what kind of mean exaggerations are this. How can someone not spell his own name? That’s just way off” Eli felt disgusted

“Actually you won’t blame them if you see what I got” Tony opened a file in his hands “at first I thought it was a mistake and impossible but it kind of makes a bit of sense”

“What did you find?” Quinn asked

“Turns out Frank Ambrose was studying Fine Art before he passed away. During his entire first year in school his academics were beyond bad. Like the dude truly can’t write his own name. Like nothing. He is like a ...mm…” Tony searched for the right words to describe him “…like he has a kindergarten mind” he knows nothing. Anything that concerns writting is an obvious fail for him, the only thing he could do was draw.”

“What! Are you serious?” Eli was stunned “How can someone like that even be in college. How did he even get past high school?”

“I think I know why” Alex went back to the desktop. He beckoned on the trio to come over. “Well it seems Frank comes from the family of lawyers and not just anyhow lawyers. Guys his grandfather, his father, his mother, including his three elder siblings are all Senior Ambassadors. It’s like that is the family goal for everyone."

“Dehm!” Tony couldn’t withhold his amazement

“So you are saying his family is reallllyy rich” Quinn said 

“No what I am saying is that his family is crazily Wealthy and influential. 

 Quinn bounced on the sofa “With that kind of wealth and connection, there is nothing they obviously couldn’t pull through.”

Tony decided to add the patches of info “so Frank Ambrose is an extremely dull child, who belongs to the family of crazily wealthy senior barristers, who obviously made his way to college through his family’s influential power. Was ridiculed and maybe bullied by his mate but along the line came in contact with Malia but now he is dead.”

“Is there anything about how he died or something?” Eli asked

“Nope” Quinn responded”

“Nothing” Alex responded

“But guys it seemed he later improved after sometime” Tony said still glancing through the files “

“How” Quinn asked

“Maybe his parents paid someone to write his written exams”

“True”

“So what do we do now” Quinn asked

“Yeah, what’s the next step guys? We seem stranded” Alex said from his corner

“We do have a suspect for his death” Eli raised her shoulders

The quad resumed their silence till Quinn’s phone call broke the serenity

She raised in a brow in amazement “talk about coincidence”

“Malia?” Alex was stunned

The trio made the atmosphere silent as Quinn carried on with the call

“What did she say” Tony asked without hesitation immediately she dropped the call

“It seems our suspect wants to meet for an interrogative section”

“Really” Alex said “that’s great. Where?”

“She said she would text the address right away”

“Okay lets head out then, we would probably get the text on our way” Tony suggested

“Mmm… you guys can head off, I…will join you guys later. I’ll forward the address to you guys immediately I get it”

“Why aren’t you coming with us?” Tony asked feeling bothered

“Mm… nothing. I just wanna…post the latest on our page. Don’t worry I’ll be there before you know it” Quinn wavered them off with her hands as they headed for the door

When she was sure the coast was clear, she took her phone and dialed a number