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Anne left, but I still didn’t throw the baggie away.
Because just as soon as she was gone, Aidan appeared.
“Hey,” he said, his smile apologetic. “Sorry to bug you. You have a minute?”
The way he said it, and the way he leaned up against my doorframe, made it sound like he was going to need more than just a minute
“Sure.” I sat down behind my desk. “What’s up?”
He hurried into my office and pulled out one of the chairs across from me.
“I’m sorry to just come barging in but I had a couple of questions that I thought you might be able to answer.”
I waited.
His cheeks flushed. “Um, yeah. So I was just wondering if you know what happened to Arthur.” He glanced down at his lap. “He was someone I helped out every once in a while and well...I was sorry to hear about his passing.”
I felt a tug of sympathy for Aidan. In some ways, he was probably closer to several of the residents than I was. Sure, I planned activities for them and did some socializing, but Aidan spent a lot more one-on-one time with the people who lived at Oasis Ridge.
“I didn’t know you worked with him,” I said.
He nodded. “I don’t. But there was a period of time a few months ago when he was in a wheelchair...twisted his ankle, I think. Anyway, I helped out a couple of times a week. Just with bathing and stuff.”
I remembered Arthur’s twisted ankle. He’d wrenched it coming out of the pool after a morning swim. It had been a shock to see a man go from walking around just fine to being confined to a wheelchair within the scope of a day. He’d only needed it for a few weeks and was soon back to his spry self. But, oh, how he’d complained about being stuck in that chair. Of having to shift the table in the dining room to accommodate his new apparatus, of having to take the elevator up to the activity room instead of the stairs.
I smiled at the memory. When Arthur was unhappy about something, I always knew he would let us know.
“So, anyway, I heard you saw him in the dining room when...when it happened.”
“I got there afterward,” I said. “I’m afraid I don’t have much to tell.”
His brows knit together and he looked down at his shoes. “Denise said—”
My radar instantly went up. Denise had talked to Aidan about Arthur? Why?
I waited for him to continue.
“She said she thought he had a heart attack,” he continued, and I felt the air rush out of my lungs in a sigh of relief.
I nodded. “That’s what it looks like.”
His mouth twisted, a sad sort of frown. “Just so hard to believe. He seemed so...healthy, you know?” He looked up at me. “I mean, for being a resident here.” He winced. “Wow, that sounds pretty terrible, doesn’t it?”
I gave him an understanding smile. “I know what you mean. And, yes, Arthur did seem fairly healthy. I guess it just goes to show that you never know...”
I let my voice trail off. You never knew what? When you’d drop dead? When the meal you were eating would be your last?
I needed to work on my tact.
“Alright.” Aidan stood up, apparently satisfied with our discussion even though I hadn’t provided much information. He stepped backward, ready to head toward my door. “Well, I guess if you do hear anything could you let me know?” His voice cracked.
“Of course.” I stood up and walked around my desk. I held out my hand, which felt incredibly awkward, but I wanted to offer some sort of gesture of comfort to the man standing in front of me. He was clearly shaken by Arthur’s death. I didn’t know him well enough to offer a hug, but I thought a handshake might be a kind offering.
He stared at my outstretched hand and then slowly took it. But his eyes didn’t moved back to my face. Instead, they remained locked on my mid-section as we shook.
I glanced down. Was my zipper unzipped? Did I have a massive hole in my shirt? Coffee stains?
“You have something hanging out of your pocket,” Aidan said, pointing with the hand he’d just used to shake mine.
My hand closed over the baggie and I fumbled with the plastic, trying to stuff it back in my pocket. But all I managed to do was further dislodge it and it fluttered slowly to the floor.
Aidan bent down to pick it up. “What is this?”
“Oh, just some leaves.”
He arched an eyebrow. “I can see that.”
I bit my lip. “It’s...parsley.”
His eyes came back to mine. I noticed for the first time that they were blue, a much deeper and darker blue than mine. And they were looking at me skeptically.
“Parsley?” he repeated.
I nodded vigorously.
“Why is it in a bag?”
I knew that I didn’t have to answer his questions. But I also knew that it probably looked a little weird that I was in possession of a small plastic baggie containing two small leaves that might be misidentified as something else.
Contrary to popular belief, not all twenty-something year-olds smoked pot, and I had no idea what actual marijuana leaves looked like. With Aidan eyeing me curiously, I suddenly worried that the leaves in my pocket may well be mistaken for something for something much more problematic. I’d seen the marijuana logo sticker, the leaf with the toothed edges. I didn’t dare steal a glance at the leaves contained in the baggie, but I knew those had toothed, edges, too.
“Can I have it back, please?”
He held it out.
I snatched it and stuffed it back in my pocket.
He was still looking at me.
“What?” I said irritably.
“That’s not parsley.”
“How do you know?”
Aidan shoved his own hands in his pockets. “I’m a biology major. Plant sciences, specifically.”
“Plant sciences? What on earth is that?”
“The science of plants.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know that. I mean, what do you do with that?”
“Uh, lots of things. My plan is to work in the pharmaceutical industry and help to develop plant-based drugs.”
“Plant-based drugs?”
He nodded. “We’re finding more and more that there are compounds in plants that are far safer than their synthetic counterparts. In addition, we are also still discovering compounds in plants that have medicinal properties. We’re really on the cusp of this new age of discovery in terms of how plants can heal us. We’ve spent a lot of time depending on scientists to develop synthetic products to treat illnesses, but there are a lot of plant-based compounds that can be just as effective and far safer.”
I wondered who “we” was.
But all I said was, “Oh.”
Apparently there was a lot one could do with a plant science major.
Probably more than someone with a therapeutic recreation major.
I thought about the baggie shoved in my pocket.
Denise was absolutely convinced that it was somehow related to Arthur Grigg’s death.
I completely disagreed and thought she was being melodramatic.
And I was standing with a man who for all intents and purposes could probably very easily identify exactly what plant it was and thus help me put all of Denise’s conspiracy theories to rest.
If I let him.
“Alright, well, I need to get going,” Aidan said. “I have a class to get to.”
“Class?”
He nodded. “Most of my classes are in the evenings so I can work.”
“Summer school?”
“Yeah. Trying to get this degree done finally.”
“At Central Florida State?”
“No. Crestview College.”
Crestview was a swanky private university, a great school but one that hadn’t made my short list because I knew I didn’t want to be saddled with the insane amount of student debt I would accrue if I went there.
He turned once again for the door.
“Aidan, wait.” I pulled the baggie back out of my pocket. “If I tell you what this is, will you swear not to tell anyone?”
His eyes widened slightly but he nodded.
“I mean, I don’t know what it is,” I amended. “But I’ll tell you where it was found.
He waited.
“I...I found it when I was on vacation,” I blurted out.
“That’s a secret?” he asked.
I felt the heat rise in my cheeks.
It had been on the tip of my tongue to tell him the truth.
But something held me back.
I didn’t want another person involved in Denise’s cooked up drama, and I didn’t want Aidan to think, even for a second, that something malicious had happened to Arthur.
“No, it’s not,” I said. “But I thought it was an interesting plant and I plucked some leaves and I sort of forgot that I’d been carrying them around.”
“You think leaves are interesting?” The joy in his voice was unmistakable. “I could teach you whatever you wanted to know. Truly!”
I was glad that he was so gung-ho about offering assistance but a part of me felt guilty that I was giving him the wrong impressions. Because I really didn’t care about plants at all.
I just cared about this one.
“I’m just wondering, since you know plants as well as you do...do you think you might be able to help me identify what it is?”
“Can I see it?”
I dug out the bag and handed it back to him. He held it up, squinting at the contents.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said.
“You think?”
“I need to consult a couple pictures to be sure,” he said. “Can I take it with me?”
I hesitated.
“Or at least one of them? I can leave the other with you.” He was already opening the bag.
“No,” I said. “It’s fine. Take the whole bag.”
“You’re sure?”
I nodded.
He smiled. “Good.” He stuffed the baggie in his own pocket. “I gotta get going or I’m going to be late for class. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out something concrete.”
“Thank you.”
He shook his head, his smile turning a little more rueful. “Don’t thank me yet.”
“You’ll make more headway than I would in this department.”
“True,” Aidan conceded. “But I’m just worried you’re not going to like what I find out.”
“What do you mean?”
“Best not to say anything yet,” he said. “Not until I know for sure.”