Xeno's laptop flickered on, and Haiden plugged the USB in. He slowly pressed on the file, and first opened the one from the day before he got fired. As they skipped through the hours, foreboding built. On the one hand, if it wasn't Ms. Pepper, then the risk Haiden had taken would be for nothing. But if it was, then he didn't know how they'd confront her for it.
Finally, they got to the hour before he had left. The file showed a view of the main hall at eight fifty-one. The still, serene scene was interrupted by a tall woman with dark blonde, curly hair walking across the hall. She had a large bag-for-life in her hands, and was moving hurriedly. Try as they might, they couldn't zoom in on her face, despite his attempts to scroll towards her.
She began pacing up and down the hall, seemingly surveying the area. As she paced, the three got a look at her face.
And it was indisputably Ms. Pepper.
The trio watched in horror as she dumped the contents of the bag onto the ground, a green sea of papier mâché and paint and googly-eyes. Then, just as hurriedly as she'd appeared, she exited the great hall to go into palaeontology, turning the lights off as she left.
Jess reached over and rapidly tried to change the camera. When they got to the palaeontology hallways, there were green trails leading from the great hall. It was understandable why the palaeontologists had been so angry, she'd really done a number on those displays.
There was a silence that followed Xeno closing the tab. Despite all three of their suspicions having pointed to her, he realized they didn't know what to do with the concrete evidence. Finally, Jess broke the silence. "Well, that's that then. Haiden, didn't you say you got the stuff from before the party too?"
"Yeah, I did." he replied in a whisper. "It'll be there in the file, too." Xeno exhaled sharply before clicking on it, skipping forward to five o'clock. They saw everyone milling around, yet there was no one on the balcony platform where the party was being held.
Seeing Steve for the first time in a while, Xeno took note of him. He really was ugly, he realised. Not in a bad way, though. Maybe Haiden had gotten through to him; to be honest, it really did look endearing. Still, it was unbelievable that this could have all started because of something so crudely made. They skipped through the next hour of footage with not much happening until they saw the familiar dark-blonde woman again.
As she decorated the party, fixing balloons to the rafters, they watched as she moved the stepladder over and surreptitiously produced a little metal object from her pocket. While it was unclear exactly what was happening, she was definitely tampering with the wires somehow. Unlike the first time, conversation started quickly after that, as the three of them tried to decide what to do next.
"Could we take this to the police?" He began. "I mean, she fired Xeno without due cause, right?"
"Not so fast, Haiden." Jess started. "They might get curious how we got the footage, and then we'd be in trouble."
He assumed she was using the royal "we" out of politeness. Haiden would be the one getting in "trouble" if they asked.
"We need to do something big, right?" Jess suggested. "I'm not working from next week, but you guys could make a speech or something?"
"Haiden, you're the only one of us that's still gonna work there on Monday, could you do it?" Xeno asked.
Haiden froze. "I.." He trailed off.
"No, no, I get it. It was wrong of me to ask that much of you. I'm sorry." He replied genuinely.
"It's just crowds of people. I'm fine when I'm giving a talk, it's just... yeah." He trailed off again, embarrassed.
"Do you think I'd be able to do it?" Xeno asked.
"You know..." Jess began, "It isn't that bad of an idea. I mean, you aren't legally barred from the museum; the worst that'd happen is that you'd get escorted off of the property. I say that you could do it, and Haiden could tell everyone to meet in the planetarium during lunch?"
"I'll have to think about it." He replied. "I mean, getting escorted away by security doesn't sound like a good way to spend an afternoon."
"I think you could," Haiden said, looking at him. I've heard you give great presentations. And, I mean, we've got the evidence."
"It's different, though." Xeno replied, but he realised that this was his fight to face, and after a brief moment of consideration, he took a deep breath and turned to the pair of them. "I'll do it."
The pair cheered. "It looks like we should be able to solve this, after all." He grinned.
"Not to cut this short, guys, but I'm still packing for university, so I've gotta run." Jess added, shooting Haiden a knowing smirk that Xeno couldn't read. "I'll let myself out."
After they'd said their goodbyes, the pair were under strict instructions to tell her everything that happened the next day, regardless of whether it was good or bad news. Xeno turned to Haiden. "Thank you for risking your job for me."
"Don't mention it, honestly." He replied, looking back at him.
"I want to mention it." Xeno replied. "And I'm sorry I said I didn't want to investigate this whole thing with you anymore. I know how much Steve meant to you, and I tried to use it for my career."
"I'm sorry I flipped out on you." Haiden began. "To be honest, I was also kind of worried you wouldn`t want to hang out with me if we weren't doing the whole investigation thing."
"Of course I would," Xeno replied honestly. "But I keep my promises. Steve was a gift to the department from a primary school, and Ms. Pepper destroying him, for whatever reason, needs explanation."
