CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Upon opening the door, Xeno looked around at a full office of complete wrapping. It was ridiculous, they'd even done his whole desk, with each item on it in a neat little package. He hated to admit it, but it was clear that this was expert craftsmanship.
"Ouch, imagine how long they were saving this for" Xeno chuckled, before noticing that Haiden's expression was stony. It was clear that the blonde man took his office very seriously. "Do you have any idea who did this?" Xeno added, perplexed.
"Nope, and I can't imagine why they'd have a problem with me. I only started a couple years ago. I guess I just got caught in the crossfire?"
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
"I mean, this is pretty tame compared to what else is happening. Earlier today, one of the dinosaur eggs got taken and hidden from one of the displays." He rolled his eyes. "We wasted so much time looking for it that we barely had any time to do anything productive all morning."
"I haven't heard anything from the others in Astronomy yet." Xeno wondered aloud.
"Well, of course you haven't. It was obviously someone from your department who.
." He trailed off. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't assume.
" He began unwrapping an item on his desk which revealed itself as a potted plant.
He did the same, revealing a snow globe with a little red and white flag painted onto the rim.
"You've been to Norway?" He asked.
"Yeah, I used to go there every winter. My Nana lives there with my Step granddad. They moved when I was little. I used to-" He trailed off, trying not to laugh.
"What is it?" Xeno asked, amused.
"No, It's nothing." Haiden responded. At the other man's amused look, he admitted: "Fine, it's embarrassing."
"I'm sure it isn't that bad. I'll tell you something embarrassing if you tell me."
Haiden laughed. "All right, fine, I used to give my grandparents my letters to Santa, I said that they could deliver them better because they lived closer to the north pole."
"That's not bad, I feel cheated." Xeno responded with mock annoyance, while beginning to unwrap what seemed to be Haiden's keyboard.
"No, the bad thing is that I did that up until I was thirteen or fourteen. My parents didn't tell me until really late, and somehow I never found out on my own."
"You're joking, no way you didn't realise." Xeno said, chuckling quietly. "Did no one at school tell you?"
"Don't make fun of me, you've still got something to tell me." He said, putting down a half- unwrapped computer mouse and folding his arms.
"Fine, I guess that was embarrassing enough for me to say something back. Let me think.."
Xeno puzzled over what to say while he helped Haiden to unwrap his industrial pencil sharpener. What was embarrassing enough about him that would be funny enough to bring up in conversation? Suddenly, he remembered something from when he was younger.
"When I was younger, young enough for it to still be acceptable but, like, old enough for it to still be odd, I would still sleep in my Parents' bed regularly. Like, four or five times a night?"
"How old were you the last time?" Haiden asked, while he picked up the items off of the desk.
"I must've been like.. I wanna say twelve or thirteen? After that, my dad got tired of it and told me to "man up".".
Haiden started laughing. Not a cold, heartless laugh but a warm, friendly one. It was a nice sound. It was nice to make someone laugh with a story about his family, especially because there seemed to be few good ones since he'd left.
"Hey, can you unwrap the desk while I lift it? Somehow they got under it." Haiden said.
"Sure, but are you gonna be able to carry it by yourse-"
Xeno was cut off by him lifting the desk like it was nothing. He noticed that despite his slightly shorter stature, he was built, with thick arms and a wide stance that allowed him to hold the table.
He promptly unwrapped the desk, ripping the paper away without much effort, before looking back at Haiden, who put it down.
"You're really strong."
"Thanks, I go to the gym a couple times a week.
It helps with the old social anxiety, you know?
" Suddenly, Haiden's weighted dinosaur small business that had originally seemed slightly odd to him made sense.
Of course he'd be making them, he'd probably made the first for himself. Not that that was a bad thing.
He began clearing up the waste paper into a paper bag, noting that whoever this assailant was, at least they used recyclable paper. Meanwhile, Haiden began meticulously replacing the unwrapped items from the floor onto the table.
"Oh, no!" Haiden muttered under his breath, clutching what looked to Xeno like a piece of scrap paper.
"What?" Asked Xeno, looking up from his bag.
"These photos of me and my sister got damaged; I think they must have put tape on it and I didn't realise when I took it off."
He held up a photo strip from when he was younger of him and his sister, who looked to be three or four years older than he was. In the photos, Haiden couldn't have been more than eight years old. His sister's face on the second photo had been ripped cleanly off by the tape.
"Haiden, I'm so sorry."
He stared for a second before steeling his resolve.
"It's fine, it isn't your fault. I probably just got careless when I was opening them.
It's just that my sister's moved away since.
I can get this re-edited, I'm just sentimental is all.
" He picked up the piece of tape that had his sister's face on it.
They really looked alike, Xeno thought. With light, hay-blonde hair and freckles.
Haiden's sister looked sunburnt; Xeno wondered if they were on holiday when this set of photobooth pictures was taken.
Haiden set the photo and the tape down on his desk, and looked back at him. There was quiet for a second as his light-blue eyes pierced Xeno's green. Finally, Haiden broke the silence.
"This whole situation won't stop until someone figures out who it was that killed Steve. It's just going to get worse and worse otherwise." He said, matter-of-factly. "I wanna look into it, but I don't know that I can do it alone."
"I could help you." Xeno replied, getting slightly excited at the prospect of a murder-mystery of sorts. Plus, if they found out the culprit, it would certainly boost his prospects of becoming the head of Astronomy.
"Really? You'd do that?" Haiden asked, looking at him gratefully.
"Of course!" he replied. Then, he decided to try his luck again. "Isn't that what.. friends do?"
"Right." Haiden replied, grinning. "I'm kind of excited, aren't you?"
"I am. I promise that I'll help you find the culprit. Doesn't that make you Watson?"
"I'd like to think that I'm Sherlock." Haiden countered, playfully. "I mean, it was my idea."
"To each their own." he looked away with sarcastic indifference, smirking.
"Where and when do you wanna meet up tomorrow?" Haiden asked, masterfully changing the subject to avoid a stalemate.
"I could do Octavia's cafe at 12?"
"Sounds good!" Suddenly, Haiden glanced at the clock on his desk. "Oh my goodness! I'm late to tour the primary schoolers from Willowheath primary! I've got three minutes to get to the front of the museum from here!"
Haiden looked around frantically, before his eyes settled on Xeno. "Thank you so so much for your help today, I really owe you one. I'm sorry to cut this short, but-"
"You've gotta run!" He exclaimed, gesturing to the door. "Being polite can wait. We can discuss it tomorrow!"
"I'd be glad to!" quipped Haiden, running out the door.
As he looked around Haiden's well-kept office, it struck him how odd it was that someone who was so organised in terms of his possessions could be so bad with timings. It was the complete opposite of him; his office was an absolute state usually, yet he was absolutely exact with his timings.
While he was leaving his office, he began to think about what he'd agreed to. It would be difficult, but surely they could narrow down the list of potential suspects.
"I'm totally Sherlock, look at me thinking like a detective." he thought to himself as he made the walk back to his office. Strangely, without Haiden, the walk seemed much longer.
As he was going back through the Astronomy hall, he came face to face with Dr. Aruda, who was removing what looked like silly string off of a display. She heard him coming, and she looked up to see him. He saw her interrogative, stony gaze soften as she realised who he was.
"Hello, Xeno." She said, curt and to the point. It was clear that the prank had irritated her, despite its seemingly harmless nature.
"Anything to tell me about the sabotages?" He asked.
She went quiet for a second, before looking away. "To be honest, I've been trying to keep out of any sort of discussion."
"I hope this hasn't been too hard for you." He paused- perhaps he could glean a clue from her. "Has it brought back any bad memories?"
"Well, no it hasn't. Not at all. Why, what have you been told? Why would you think that?" She asked, her demeanour suddenly changing.
"I was just asking you." Replied Xeno, slightly taken aback by her sudden caginess.
Aruda relaxed slightly. "You're right, I'm sorry. To be honest, it hasn't been that bad for me. Everyone I made enemies with in my youth has either left or retired. Except for Mr. Crossley in palaeontology, there's no reason for anyone to come after me."
"What's his problem?" Xeno asked.
"Nothing. We just.. didn't get off on the right foot, that's all."
Doctor Aruda was a terrible liar.
"You can tell me, you know?" He coaxed.
"I'd really rather not." She said, stonily, and Xeno knew it would be useless to press the matter further.
They began to walk back to his office, as Aruda began to rattle off all of the department's gossip from the day prior, from before any sabotages had really happened. It was clear that she'd stayed out of the way for the whole day.
As it turns out, Xeno had missed a lot. It turned out that the quiet, powerful, ever- encroaching stress of a department getting cut and a sabotage war brewing was a catalyst for every drama that had been waiting to happen.
When they got back to his office, he asked why Aruda had followed him there, given that her office was in the botany section of the museum.
"I don't really have anything else to do.
" was her honest reply. "I can't go back to my office.
If you'd believe it, the botanists are all.
. They're like mosquitoes. They're desperate to know what's going on with Astronomy, especially because I was the one that got framed last time.
They're wondering if it's me this time, as some kind of ridiculous little revenge. "
"Did you want to come into my office? I've got two chairs, and my laptop isn't blocked on the museum wi-fi, so we could play something?"
"Are you suggesting.. video games?" she said it like it was an alien concept, which for her it probably was.
"Not in the traditional sense; we could play.. virtual board games?" He was grasping at straws. Aruda had never been one for technology.
"Can you play chess? Do they have chess online?"
"Definitely." He grinned, he was the best at chess when he was in university, and he was looking forward to showing off his skills.
After losing to Doctor Aruda thrice, It was time for Xeno to go home.
He said his goodbyes, and got in his car to drive home.
He slid a "Pierce the veil" CD into his car's player and listened to it in the background while he thought over everything.
Becoming a detective was harder than he thought, he was already suspicious of everyone.
Why was Doctor Aruda acting so weird earlier?
Who was Mr. Crossley? And why did Aruda hate him so much?