#02: An Unexpected Call

"Sorry Nik, I'll get back to you later. Keep looking for clues okay?" Ben said to Nik as he took out his cellphone from his jacket. Nik gave a thumbs up and moved away from the glass door. Ben looked at his phone, and noticed that the number was unknown. "Now who could this be?" he mumbled. He then quickly answered it.

"Hello? Is this Ben...Detective Ben?" it was a voice of a young lady. Ben seemed to recognise the tone of the voice, but he was totally unsure to whom it belongs. To satisfy his curiousity, Ben replied cooly, "Yes, that's me. And who might I be speaking with?" There was a pause, before the lady continued excitedly, "This is Nana, Ben! Nana...do you remeber me?" Her voice seemed to be shouting from the other end.

"Nana? Nana from the TESL program?" Ben said, rather surprised. Now he remembered that voice's owner. Nana was one of his classmates during his basic trainings in TESL. Before this, all of them in the class were very close with one another. They had loads of funs and troubles together, and they were said to be the strongest group ever in terms of their bonding. Eventhough ten years had passed and most of them had lost contacts with each other, the strong memories they had would never waver. Now that Ben recognised his caller, he suddenly shifted himself into a more casual style of speaking.

"Hey, how are you Nana? It's been years since I last saw you. How'd you come across my number?" Ben asked cheerfully. He could hear Nana giggle before she replied, "I'm doing fine. And I hear you sound pretty good yourself. I just came across your name in the pagers, and decided to try and call up. Guess my instincts are sharp huh?" They laughed.

"So what's up?" Ben continued the conversation. "Where do you live now?" There was another pause. This time it's much longer than before. Weird. Even though the sun gleamed strongly outside, Ben felt a sudden chill rush through his body. What is this feeling? Ben thought to himself. "Nana? Nana? Are you still there?"

Almost in an instant, Nana responded. There was a slight tremble in her voice this time. "Ben, can you meet me up at my place tomorrow? Zatil and Bee would be there as well. I...need to talk to you guys about something. I'll text the address later okay? See you." She suddenly hung up withiut saying goodbye.