CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Mr. Crossley looked about fifty-five, near enough Aruda's age.
He was a relatively short, slim man, with a shaved head and a wiry brown beard that went down to the middle of his chest. He wore a plain white shirt and jeans.
Despite Xeno's prejudice against him, he didn't seem threatening.
He wondered whether Aruda had unfairly judged him.
"Haiden? Who's.. this?" Mr. Crossley gestured vaguely to him. He felt the hair on the back of his neck prickling. Even if they were from "warring" departments, that was no excuse to be rude.
"Henry.." Haiden began, immediately humanising him by using his first name.
Doctor Aruda never let Xeno use her first name, Kiara, though he suspected that was in part to show off her doctorate.
"We just wanted to ask you some questions.
" he continued, gesturing for the older man to sit down.
"Where were you before the party last month? "
"Which one?" Mr. Crossley asked, giving him a dry look. When he didn't laugh, he sat up straighter.
"All right, I went home. I didn't go out again until just before the party had started. Why? And don't tell me you were ,"just curious." I wanna know." He began shifting uncomfortably in his seat, clearly unable to come up with an answer. Xeno didn't see any harm in telling the man.
"We're trying to see who destroyed Steve. Who half-sawed the bars, or whatever they did to make it drop, I mean. Haiden didn't really suspect you, but you were on the list of people without alibis."
He realised the implications of what he had said as soon as it came out of his mouth. It was clear that he suspected the man, as hard as he tried to hide it. Mr. Crossley sat back in his chair, thinking for a moment, looking at Xeno with a mixture of annoyance and boredom.
"And why were you suspicious of me then?" he asked.
Suddenly, a wave of rage crashed over him, and he couldn't help but say:
"I don't know, why did you frame Doctor Aruda? Fifteen years ago?"
Haiden went pale, his eyes widening. But the most extreme reaction came from Mr. Crossley, who almost fell out of his chair at the accusation.
Before Haiden could smooth over the situation, the man blurted out: "She got what was coming to her, trust me.
Whoever tried to frame her was much more successful at it than I have been.
And besides, what gave you the right to talk to me like that?
I'm the head of palaeontology, you know.
I could pull some strings and have you sacked. "
Xeno froze in terror, unable to speak. The man was right; he was far higher ranking than him, being both a senior member and a head of a department.
And without proof that he was actually worth questioning, it would be Haiden and his word against a high-ranking museum employee- the head of palaeontology, no less.
There was an awkward silence, with Mr. Crossley smiling smugly at him, clearly knowing he had the upper hand. Suddenly, Haiden stood up. "You just basically admitted you did, though. Pull strings to get her sacked, I mean."
"Says who?" asked Mr. Crossley, with mock concern.
Haiden held up his phone, showing that he had been recording the whole conversation since Xeno had sat down. It was Mr. Crossley's turn to freeze. "You said that "You have been" trying?" I'm sure Ms. Pepper wouldn't like to hear that.
Xeno realised he had leverage now. If Doctor Aruda wasn't going to tell him about what had happened, he was going to get the information out of him.
"Tell me everything about what happened fifteen years ago, or else.
I want to know why you framed Aruda. Tell me and I won't tell anyone else what you did.
He hoped his lie was convincing- he'd more than certainly tell everyone what Crossley had done if there was even a slight chance he was at fault.
It sounded meaner than he meant, but he was still furious at himself for how he had treated Aruda earlier, and was redirecting the anger at Mr. Crossley.
Crossley looked desperately at Haiden, who looked away, clearly conflicted. Finally, he turned back towards Xeno. "First of all, I didn't frame her."
"I'll be the judge of that." He said. Crossley sat back in his chair.
"It all started about thirty years ago. Doctor Aruda, Ms. Pepper and I had just graduated university, and Ms. Pepper invited us to work at the museum she'd just inherited.
The three of us were quite close, actually.
Fifteen years later, Aruda and I had just gotten into a relationship, and everything seemed to be going well, until-"
"You dated her?!" Xeno cut in. "She never told me she'd dated anyone. To be honest, I thought she never wanted to."
Mr. Crossley looked hurt. "She doesn't even talk about me? Not at all?" He dropped his smug exterior for a moment before refocusing. "So we started a little prank war, just me and her. We'd seen it online on Facebook. We got some of our friends to join in too; it was a friendly thing."
"How come it changed?" Haiden inquired, clearly interested. That was the first thing he had said in a while, it was clear he wasn't enjoying the confrontation.
"I'm getting to it." Crossley said, clearly annoyed at getting repeatedly interrupted. It seemed that he was glad to have an excuse to tell this story; it had clearly weighed on him.
"Well, I suppose she had a bad day, or maybe she just wasn't thinking right, but she destroyed something quite precious to us." He sat back in his chair, his arms folded.
"What was it?" Xeno leaned forward, cocking his head slightly. He'd never heard of anything like this in his time at the museum.
"She destroyed a dinosaur skeleton."
"How do you know she did it?" Xeno asked.
"All the signs pointed to her. She was working overtime late at night when it happened; she was the only one in the museum at the time.
At least, that's what they thought. They realised it wasn't her because she provided some kind of camera evidence.
Something from her home, after she got questioned by the security.
It was serious; they got the police involved and everything. "
"Then why do you think it was her?" Asked Xeno, perplexed.
"I never said I thought it was her." He replied. "I just said that I didn't frame her. And that she got what was coming to her." His eye twitched. It was as if the man was being deliberately confusing. Haiden raised his hand, which was acknowledged by Mr. Crossley.
"How long has Ms. Pepper worked here, then? She couldn't have been more than my age when she started, so how come she's the head of the museum now?"
"She's my age now, so she would have been.
. Twenty-three when we started. She inherited the building from her father.
Honestly, don't you know anything about the museum's history?
" Mr. Crossley replied. Xeno was surprised- Mrs. Pepper didn't look young, but he wouldn't have guessed she was.
. fifty-three?. She looked closer to her early forties, late thirties.
"Anyway, Doctor Aruda came up to me, furious, and broke up with me then and there.
Apparently, She'd been told I had been the one to frame her, and she wasn't having any of it.
Didn't even let me explain myself. So we got in a row, and both said some things that we shouldn't, some.
. choice words that I won`t repeat, and exaggerated some things to our departments.
We haven't talked since." He paused for a second, as if to let his words sink in.
"Is that where the whole inter-department feud comes from? Like how the Astronomy department hates the Palaeontology department? No offense." He added, glancing at Haiden.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, anyway. I say good riddance if she's willing to believe someone else over her boyfriend. I still don't know where she got the idea that I framed her."
"Then who actually broke the fossil?" Haiden piped up, confused.
"Nobody knows." The man replied. "If you had to ask me, I'd say that it was Dr. Carmazan. She started acting strangely after the fact."
Xeno was in shock. He couldn't believe all that had happened to Aruda, and he hadn't told him. When they made up, he would have a lot to tell her. And Dr. Carmazan? She was next on their list to interview anyway. He thought for a second, remembering why they were there.
"Do you have any proof that you were at home on the day of the party?" He asked. "And an alibi for where you were during the day?"
"After Aruda got sacked, I got paranoid. I have house cameras. I've got footage of me coming home and staying there, dated and everything." He folded his arms, his face morphing into a sneer.
"And during the day?" Xeno asked.
"Look at the shifts. I was in a meeting for half the day, and was filing paperwork for the rest of it."
Mr. Crossley looked at the clock. "My, has it been an hour already?
Goodbye, Haiden. I enjoyed our little.. catch-up.
" He said, with disdain in his voice. As he was walking towards the door, he turned to the pair of them, most of the disdain in his voice gone.
"My best advice to the pair of you is this.
Investigate this silly thing all you want, and throw yourselves into your careers, but don't let it impede what really matters to you.
" It seemed like he was saying it more for his own sake than for either of them.
His words struck a chord with Xeno- his own father had often prioritised work over his relationships with his family and friends, and that wasn't a pattern he'd like to fall into, despite his ambition.
After he had left, he looked back at Haiden, who seemed to be on the verge of tears. He didn't know what to say. After a brief pause, He put his hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes, trying his best to comfort him.
"It's alright. he's probably angry at you now, but I'm sure he'll come round." He smiled in a manner that he hoped would convey his sympathy.
Haiden wiped his eyes, steeling his resolve. "It's not that. I really respected him before. I didn't expect that he'd be so.. vile about all of this. If I hadn't had the foresight to record our conversation, you could have lost your job."
"Thank you for that, by the way. It was a really clever idea." He hesitated. "You're really clever." Haiden laughed under his breath, cracking a weak smile. He was cheering up.
Xeno began to think. "Would you want to hang out this weekend? We could go to the aquarium." He realised it would be ridiculously short notice, given that it was already Friday.
Haiden looked at him, confused. "What aquarium?"
"The one in Kent, my dad used to take me.
It's about twenty minutes away by car. It'd make a nice change of scene from Octavia's cafe, and we could.
. talk about all the clues we've found out today?
" He found himself willing Haiden to say yes.
He hoped he didn't appear desperate as he felt.
For some reason, he really wanted Haiden there with him tomorrow.
He looked away in thought for a second before looking back at him. "I'm free tomorrow, I'd absolutely love to go to the aquarium with you." He said, smiling. "You're right; it would be nice to get a change of scenery. I haven't been out in ages."
Suddenly, Haiden looked at the clock, and froze. He cursed under his breath, which surprised Xeno.
"I'm late to help my friend with the display!" He exclaimed, getting out of his seat. "I completely forgot about it, what with everything that's going on. I'm really sorry; I have to go."
Haiden ran for the door before turning to him..
"I'm sorry I keep leaving like this. I'm completely free on Saturday, I won't have my slow cooker on like last time, I promise." And with that, Xeno was alone in his office again. That was twice now in the last two or three weeks. He didn't care, though.
As he walked back to his own office in Astronomy, it felt like the accusatory stares from the palaeontologists were rolling off him like raindrops on duck feathers.
He felt overjoyed; it was as if all the stress from work had temporarily lifted.
They were finally progressing in finding the culprit- Ms. Pepper would be sure to promote him when they presented it to her.
They only had one suspect left anyway- and though he wasn't sold on Mr. Crossley's innocence, evidence was already pointing to her.
Dr. Carmazan.