"But why do you think she would frame you?" He asked, perplexed.
Sitting down at her desk, she furrowed her brow. "Mr. Crossley and I became.. romantically involved. That complicated things a great deal, I think."
"Why?" he asked, pocketing the letter absent-mindedly and sitting down at the chair opposite the desk. The same chairs in which he had interrogated Carmazan.
"Oh, we had a great row about us “not taking the museum seriously.”" She stopped meeting up with us. She told us she had work to do. The pair of us believed her, at the time, anyway. To fill the space in our schedules, we started a little prank war. We'd seen it online. I'm sure that you know how that went."
"You were online?" Xeno couldn't hide his surprise. The Aruda he knew couldn't even type on her phone without autocorrect on full strength.
"My MySpace profile was legendary." She retorted. "Anyway, it was all innocent at first, but she absolutely hated it. Said that it was "unprofessional", tried sending out those ridiculous workplace conduct pamphlets, the works. But we didn't take it seriously until the display got destroyed." She replied. "Ms. Pepper told me that Mr. Crossley reported me, and launched a full investigation into me. I only just avoided getting fired by the skin of my teeth, and she gave me a raise afterwards to console me, but I never really spoke to Mr. Crossley again. Although.." She peered at him again over her glasses. "I heard from a friend of a friend that Mr. Crossley was explicitly told that I was almost certainly the one to blame, and that he had no idea that I thought he framed me."
"Really? Who?"
"A certain mutual friend of ours, he's from the palaeontology department." She said, smirking slightly. "I'm sure you know him very well." She got up from her chair. "Well, if you need someone to distract her, it must be now. Your presentation's soon. Be careful, Ms. Pepper's a formidable opponent, especially now when so much is on the line."
"I will, thank you." he replied, gratefully. Xeno glanced at the clock and realised that there were barely five minutes until he had to give the talk. They'd said half-past eleven, on the dot.
"Goodbye." Xeno said.
"Good luck." Aruda replied before walking out, closing the door behind her.
CHAPTER FORTY:
Xeno walked out of the office and hurried to the planetarium, swallowing his anxiety as he walked briskly through the short hallway. When he got there, he was met by about half of the palaeontology department, most of the astronomy department, and a couple of other curious onlookers. It looked to be about twenty-five people. Not bad, he thought. It'd be just like a normal presentation. As he walked up to the viewing platform and turned on the projector, he could hear angry whispers from the crowd. Most of them thought he was the culprit for the prank wars, or at least for dumping the paper mache on the ground a couple of weeks ago. He took a deep breath as he got to the centre stage. At the middle was a projector and his laptop that Haiden had set up about fifteen minutes prior.
"Hi everyone." Xeno began, feeling their eyes burning into him. Scanning the crowd, he saw Haiden's face, giving him an encouraging look. He was right at the front; he was surprised that he hadn't seen him sooner. He gave the presentation to him, pretending there was no one else in the crowd. For some reason, presenting to colleagues was hundreds of times worse than to nameless strangers.
"You're probably wondering why I've gathered you here today, and it's because.. It's because I've found the real culprit of the prank wars." He stumbled over his words, conscious of his voice echoing back to him. "When this projector behind me turns on, you'll all see-" The doors of the planetarium burst open. Out burst a frazzled Dr. Aruda, two security personnel and..
Ms. Pepper.
"Xeno Baxterson." She began, her usually quiet voice projected. "If you do not leave this museum right now, I will have no choice but to have the guards escort you out." His heart dropped. He tried to reach for the laptop to play the video, but Ms. Pepper snapped her fingers, and the security guard got to him before his laptop could load.
"You're coming with me, bud." said the security guard, grabbing his arm and forcing him to step away from the projector.
"No! You don't understand!" he sputtered. "It's all there!"
"I understand perfectly, Xeno." Ms. Pepper said, loud enough for everyone in the planetarium to hear. "This is a last-ditch attempt to get your job back. I can't believe you'd go to such lengths. And to think.." She wiped a non-existent tear from her eye. "I trusted you so much." He couldn't believe it. Was this what she'd been doing the whole time? Manipulating him so that he wouldn't suspect her? This must have been why he wasn't able to accept that it was her. She began performatively lecturing him about having a "go-getting attitude" about finding a new job, as he tried to wrestle out of the security guard's grasp. He didn't get it; he was so close. Why had she come in now? Why was she so hard to distract?
However, Pepper's lecture was cut short by a crisp shout from near the projector. "He wanted to tell you all that Ms. Pepper was the one who destroyed Ste.. The pterodactyl." Both Xeno and Ms. Pepper's heads whipped around to see Haiden standing in front of everyone. He walked over to the laptop and hit "Play" on the file, showing the part of the recording they'd saved from the day of the party.
"Stop this at once!" Ms. Pepper shouted. "Get him!" She frantically gestured to Haiden.
"On what grounds, Ma'am?" The security guard asked, confused. "He's employed here."
"Just.." She started running for the projector, desperate to turn it off before it got to the incriminating part of the evidence. "This is defamation; I can have you sacked for this, you hear me?" She screamed, sprinting full force towards Haiden and the laptop.
"If it isn't true, then why don't you let it play?" asked Haiden, loud enough to be heard by the onlookers. "..ma'am?" He added, moving between her and the laptop.
"Because-.." she shouted, "Because... Because.." She got quieter each time as realisation set in. Behind her, the recording clearly showed her using a little saw from her sleeve to tamper with the pterodactyl. The crowd let out a collective gasp. The security guard let go of Xeno's arm, which he took as an opportunity to bolt for the laptop and play the next clip, the one of her dumping Steve on the ground in the hall.
"I..." she began, before trailing off.
The planetarium was completely silent for a few seconds. Dr. Aruda began to approach Ms. Pepper; the sound of her heels clicking filled the room. "Why, Zara?" She asked. "Why would you do it in the first place?"
Ms. Pepper hesitated. She looked at Aruda with a mixture of fear and cold, unbridled fury. Despite this, she seemed to resign herself. "I decided to cut a department earlier this year because there simply isn't enough funding to go around." She began, her whispered words somehow filling the auditorium.
"That's not what she means, and you know it." Xeno stood from where he was crouched next to the laptop. He hadn't realised it at the time, but he had cowered from the woman.
