Chapter 4
1636 Words
Jenna
She walked slowly along the small path that snaked its way through the greenhouse. She wasn"t sure if it was designed that way, or had come about by accident, but she liked it. The way it moved between the rows of plants made it so she had to stop and appreciate each bed she came across.
Some of them were only made up of one kind of plant, like Baxter"s tomatoes, but others were lush with bright colours and a variety that worked together to create something spectacular.
She had to ask someone what the greenhouse actually did, other than tend to plants. Most places like this had some other kind of motive, whether it was growing plants for medicines, for agriculture, or even to be entered into horticultural shows.
Jenna stopped to admire a particularly striking arrangement centred around a bonsai tree. Without meaning to, she turned ever so slightly so she could take a look at what Baxter was doing. She wasn"t sure what it was about him that was attracting her in the way it was. He wasn"t her usual type, normally, she"d go for men who were more vibrant and flamboyant, whereas Baxter struck her as the kind of steadfast man anyone would be lucky to settle down with.
Even from this distance, she could see the ripple of muscles beneath his shirt as he looked after his plants with such tender care. Or maybe she was imagining it.
Whatever the truth of the matter, she was certainly becoming rather hot under the collar when it came to the dryad.
"Can I help you?" a woman asked.
Jenna startled, not having expected anyone to come upon her while she was ogling a man she"d only just met. It was highly unprofessional of her, and she had to remember that.
She turned to face the other woman, who stood with a confused expression on her face. At least it wasn"t anger.
"I"m looking for Sharon Eckles. Do you know where I can find her?" she asked.
"Right in front of you. Who"s asking?" Sharon crossed her arms as she sized Jenna up.
"Jenna Sunangel," she said for the third time today. It probably wasn"t going to be the last time she introduced herself either. "I"m investigating the thefts," she said, holding out her hand.
"Ah, that"s why you"re looking at Baxter. You don"t think he"s guilty, do you?" Sharon asked.
After a moment, Jenna realised the other woman wasn"t going to give her a handshake and dropped her hand down to her side.
"Do you think he is?" she asked, curious about what his co-worker thought of him. She didn"t see Baxter being the thief. Not only was he one of the dryads affected by the crime, but he didn"t feel like he was dishonest. Far from it...
She resisted the urge to shake her head and get rid of the thoughts, mostly because she wasn"t foolish enough to think they were going anywhere. It was clear that Baxter Heirloom had planted himself in her head.
Sharon let out a loud booming laugh. "Baxter? Definitely not. I don"t think he has a bad bone in his body. Even that one." She winked.
"Oh, are the two of you..." Jenna trailed off, hoping the woman would answer and not tell her to mind her own business, even though she probably should.
"No. It"s a shame," Sharon admitted. "But we"re not mates, and you know how it is with some people. They realise you"re not the one and suddenly you might as well be a green alien from Neptune."
"Wouldn"t they be blue?" Jenna mused offhandedly.
"What would be blue?"
"The aliens."
Sharon shrugged. "I"ll let you know if I ever meet one."
Jenna studied the other woman, trying to work out how serious she was, and how the conversation had gotten so off-topic.
But one word had stood out from what Sharon had said.
Mate.
Could it be?
She"d never given much thought to who her mate would be, mostly because she knew that if the universe planned for the two of them to meet, then it would happen when it happened. But now she thought about it, maybe it explained the strange way she was feeling about Baxter.
Or perhaps it was merely wishful thinking that there could be something between them.
"Can you tell me anything about the thefts?" she asked Sharon, trying to get her investigation back on track. She wasn"t being paid to stand around and make eyes at a dryad.
"What do you know?"
"It doesn"t matter," Jenna said. "I"d rather hear a recollection from you. I often find that things that can help the investigation are left out of reports because of how various people see them, so I like to get first-hand encounters when I talk to the people involved."
"Hmm. Makes sense. Why don"t you come over to my station and we can talk over a pot of nettle tea?" Sharon suggested.
"That sounds lovely."
She followed the other woman down one of the paths and to what appeared to be almost a small sitting room positioned amongst the plants. The two sofas appeared to be comfortable, though they had small plants growing around the bottom of them and even up one of the arms. She paused for a moment, wondering if it was safe to sit on either of them.
"Don"t worry, they"re specially created for this," Sharon said, presumably having noticed Jenna"s hesitation to sit down.
"I"m sorry, it"s just not like anything I"ve seen before."
"You"ll get a lot of that here," Sharon responded. "You won"t see it at first, but as soon as the others start inviting you into their offices, you"ll find all kinds of wonderful settings."
"It is very beautiful," she admitted. "Especially with the willow tree. I thought they normally grew around water."
The long dangling branches hung over the sofas, providing a sense of privacy even though there were no walls.
"They do. There"s a pond on the other side of the trunk." Sharon pointed, and sure enough, there was a small body of water. "But it"s also my tether-plant." She reached up and touched one of the branches almost tenderly as if she were reaching out for a child.
She let the plant go and turned back to a small hut, returning with a flash and two tin mugs. Sharon set them down on the table and began to stew the tea she"d promised.
Jenna pulled out her notes and flicked through to the page she"d already made up on Sharon. There wasn"t much information there, just that she was a dryad and had worked at the greenhouse for several years. It made her an unlikely candidate for the thefts, but Jenna had seen cases where people had suddenly snapped and changed several times already. She couldn"t dismiss anyone until she was certain of their innocence.
She jotted down that Sharon"s tether-plant was a willow tree, noting that it would be much easier if she"d been told in advance what plants the dryads were tethered to before she got here. She had a list of the tether-plants that had been stolen from, but not who they corresponded to.
Sharon handed Jenna one of the tin mugs.
"Thank you. Has anything been stolen from your tree?" Jenna asked.
Pain crossed Sharon"s features at the question. "They"ve been cutting the branches and leaving ugly scars." The pain turned to anger in an instant.
"I didn"t know trees could scar."
Sharon jumped from her feet and headed over to one of the branches, lifting it so Jenna could see.
She gasped. The gouges revealed the green flesh of the branch.
"I"m so sorry."
"Don"t be. Just catch the person who did this." There was a hardness in the dryad’s voice that Jenna would find intimidating if she hadn"t expected it. "Whoever it is has no respect for the plants they"re hurting."
"Nor for the dryads who tend them," Jenna supplied.
Sharon shrugged. "I doubt they"re thinking about that. They"re not stealing enough of the plants to cause us any harm. Most of the thefts aren"t doing much damage to the plants either. It"s almost as if they know how much they should be doing in order to not kill anyone or anything, but they don"t respect the plants enough to cut them in the right way."
"Do you have any idea why someone would do that?" Jenna asked. Working out why someone was doing something like this was often the hardest part of her job. She didn"t always need a motive in order to catch someone, but it always helped.
"No idea." Sharon sunk down onto the sofa opposite her. "If we did, then perhaps we might know how to stop them."
"Is there anything else you can tell me about the thefts?" Jenna asked. "Anything the thief left behind..."
Sharon shook her head. "As far as I know, there"s nothing else. I"m sorry, I know it would be helpful."
"Please don"t be sorry. It"s not your job to hunt the culprit down, it"s mine. And them not leaving anything behind is as much of a clue as them leaving a footprint, it tells us something about the person we"re searching for."
"I hope you"re right, and that you find him soon."
"That"s what I"m aiming for," she promised, meaning every word. While their boss might not be the most effective, everyone she"d met while talking to the staff so far had been lovely and didn"t deserve what was happening to them.
She would keep her promise to them and work out who was stealing their plants. What happened after that was up to the High Council, but she knew there would be consequences, and was glad of it.
- Writer
