_Chidinma_

During the horrid, uneventful ride to the station, an officer read me my rights.

My head rested on the glass window, watching the fleeting cityscape. I had no more tears to cry. My tear ducts were probably having a famine.

I tuned out for like the hundredth time. The handcuffs hurt a great deal, I didn't think they were necessary, restricting me from scratching the itch behind my ear.

In my mind, I went over the mishaps of the day. It was too much, my head already hurt, and it felt as heavy as a cement bag. I felt an ant crawl up my hand. I didn't have the strength or heart to hit it.

And to think I killed my best friend.

Ha!.

I was sure of one thing though.

Someone had framed me. Put me in the light as the possible, mentally deranged, psychopathic murderer.

Someone didn't want the authorities snooping around. Didn't want me snooping around.

Who had sent me that video? Just who? That number was foreign, I have never seen it before. Who was it?

I didn't know, I couldn't tell.

But how? How did they know I was on this case? Does the person or people behind all this have an informant at the hotel? Maybe that idiotic security officer. That ludicrous fool.

Well, whoever that someone is, they had just made a big mistake by putting me in this dilemma.

Now, I am not going to stop till I get the truth. Never. No matter what they throw my way next.

Whoever it is, they had just messed with the wrong woman.

I'm going to show them that I'm not the scared, little girl they think I am, I'm not a fool.

"You have the right to silence..." I heard the officer say when I brought my mind back to the present.

"Can you please, shut up!?" I told the officer in a heated tone.

He just stared at me, dumbfounded and shocked. He was probably a rookie, or else, I would have received a sound, stinging slap for talking like that to an officer. In my country, it's a norm.

"Err.."

"What is the point of reading me what you're reading me now, when you've already violated the majority of them by arresting and putting these cuffs on me?" I deadpanned.

He just lowered his eyes, at loss for words. Snorting, I turned my attention back to the fleeting cityscape beyond the glass window.

I was ready for this.

~~~~~~

_Rex_

I watched as she stepped out of her apartment to receive arrest.

The look I saw in her eyes as she saw what had happened to her place, broke me. She had looked so dead and defeated, like she had had the final straw.

But as she stepped out to receive her arrest, I saw something else. The way she walked; carrying her head high,like a queen before her subjects, she looked tough, determined, ready.

Why was she arrested? I wondered. Was it the video? Had the police seen it already? So soon?

Something was most definitely not right.

"Hello sir? Hello sir?" I was snapped out of my trance.

"Hmm?...yes?"

"What happened here? Why are you here?" A short, burly man asked, spitting all over me.

I was annoyed. As far as I was concerned, Lillian was completely innocent. Someone was doing this to her.

"I recently just dropped the lady that  was just arrested here. She's a friend of mine. She gave me the keys to open her door but that wasn't necessary because the lock had been picked. And then, opening the door, I found her place like this. It's like as if someone broke in and was searching for something."

I paused waiting for my words to sink in.

"Who are you to her?" He asked. Was this man dense? I had just said that. I let my worries loose.

"I said I was a friend. Why was she arrested? You think she did it? You listened to that man on the video? You seriously think she murdered her best friend?" I queried, my anger boiling. I was frustrated.

The officer just narrowed his blood shot eyes at me.

"How do we know you two did not work together to kill the poor, innocent girl?" He asked his voice laced with venom.

I cringed. The Nigerian Police will forever be a couple of blockheads.

Cursing under my breath, I walked back into the apartment to survey the horrible damage.

Her beautiful home had been ransacked from top to bottom. Shelves toppled, carpet stained, walls dirtied, curtains torn. The Television hung loosely from it's hinges on the wall.

The stealable things were still in place. Whoever had come here, had did this, didn't come to steal. They were here for something else.

Walking up to the picture I had seen her head for before her arrest, I got down on my haunches and picked it up from the shattered pieces of glass.

I wasn't supposed to touch anything, but this was so heartbreaking. It was a photo of her and her family.

She was younger in it, about eighteen; looking as beautiful as ever, her kinky, natural, still growing hair done in curls,her hands folded in front of her, her breathtaking smile on her face,
Kelechi, her younger brother by her left hand side, holding a football under his right hand ( the kid so loved that sport), her beautiful mother by her right-hand side, and her devoted aging father behind them, all spotting similar, overjoyed smiles.

A beautiful family, torn by the grief of one. A daughter and sister had just been taken into custody for no reason, for a crime she didn't commit.

I took the picture and put it into my jacket pocket, careful not to squeeze it.

"Sir, I think you should see this." I heard an officer say probably to his superior. I followed the sound.

They were in Lillian's bedroom. It was lovely and feminine, and had probably been very neat once. Now, her clothes and underwear were everywhere, bottles of body care products over turned, bedsheets awry, curtains pulled down.

Who did she offend?

Turning my attention to the officers in the room, I saw one feel about one of her sleeping pillows. As he padded it down, I heard a crinkling sound.

What was her pillow made of?

The officer was handed a kitchen knife by his companion. He tore open the pillow with the utensil.

"Why are you doing that? Can't you see the state of the room already?" I berated.

Ignoring me, he proceeded to emptying the contents of the pillow on the floor. In the foam, I saw a Ziploc bag containing something.

Something white and..and powdery.

No.

"Hmm, nothing wey we no go see. Cocaine inside pillow.!" He emptied out the other one. Another stash was in there too.

I was lost. Torn.

Lillian doing drugs? My Lillian?

No! She's my Lillian. She wouldn't hurt a fly.

She's an angel; gentle, calm, beautiful.

But finding this, here, at her place, implicates her.

Who raided her? Where they looking for the drugs? Did she owe them somehow?

I left the scene, got in my motorbike and drove, no destination.

I needed to get away, I needed to think.

She wasn't a bad person.

She wasn't me.

~~~~~~

Hey! Thanks for reading, I really appreciate.

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