Chocolate Cherry Cheater Page 16

  It was after midnight by the time we drove under the welcoming archway at Lake Quilotoa. The cloudless sky reflected the moon off of the whitewashed buildings and concrete slabs, but Jake had supplied us all with flashlights.

  We started around the area surrounding where Jake’s Jeep had been parked. When that didn’t produce the missing microphone, we spread out, searching every bush, water tank, and hiding place we came across.

  I even held Maria’s card for Lady to sniff on the off chance she had a hound dog somewhere in her ancestry that might help us track down the murder weapon quicker.

  Lady sniffed the card and looked at me blankly. She sat. Then, she rolled. When that didn’t earn her a treat, she raised her paw to shake my hand.

  “Some tracker you are,” I said, giving her a treat and scratching her neck.

  By daybreak, I wondered what had ever made me drag all my friends out in the middle of an isolated mountain range in the middle of the night. What guarantee did I have that the microphone was there? Other than the microphone belonging to her station, what proof did I have that Maria had murdered Christina? I blamed the smiley face. If Maria was as devastated as others said she was, why had she drawn a symbol of happiness the day after Christina’s murder? Had there been more doodles on her calendar, it wouldn’t have seemed so out of place, but it stuck out like a sore thumb. What if she’d already recovered the microphone? What if it wasn’t here at all?

  My half-baked plan had too many faults. Frustrated, I swallowed my bruised pride and went in search of my friends. I owed them an apology … and maybe a big breakfast at the cafe overlooking the lagoon.

  It was still too early for people to be out and around, so when a car crunched over gravel, I hid in an alcove by the public bathrooms that had cost Abuelita fifty cents.

  It was Maria. She wore sunglasses that covered half of her face, but her perfect reporter hair gave her away.

  I was right. Elation mixed with relief, and I crossed my feet to keep from running out and tackling her. I prayed Abuelita and Adi showed the same restraint.

  There was no other reason for Maria to be here than to look for the murder weapon, and it would be so much easier for us to find it if we simply followed her directly to where she had left it. So long as we didn’t tip her off that we were watching her.

  I pulled out my cell phone and silenced my notifications before sending a text to Agent Sanchez with our location.

  No sooner had I sent the message than three little dots showed that Sanchez was typing a reply.

  “I’m already on it,” she wrote.

  Lady grew anxious beside me as Maria walked closer to the restroom. I knelt down to Lady to keep her quiet.

  Maria was close enough, I could smell her perfume. She searched the bushes along the side of the building. I could’ve sworn Tia Rosa had already looked there.

  More frantically, Maria searched again. It wasn’t there anymore.

  Drat. If Maria couldn’t find the weapon, there was little chance we would.

  Without the weapon, it would be difficult to prove Maria had strangled Christina and stuffed her body in Jake’s Jeep. She was a smart cookie and wouldn’t admit to anything without evidence. Even then, I was sure she’d have an impressive story.

  Maria paced around the building, and I did my best to keep calm as her footsteps got louder the closer she got to my hiding place.

  We had to move. Holding Lady close, we ran around the side of the restroom toward the parking lot.

  Local villagers rustled about. An ambitious hiker stepped out of a hostel, walking up to the lookout. A guide led a pack of horses and donkeys over to the paddock. We were out of time. Once the lake opened for business, there was no way we could continue our search.

  I ducked behind a row of vendor tents, searching for my friends. Maria had killed once already, and I didn’t want her to find any of us.

  A group of kids ran by me as I crept down the row. They dragged a long cord that smacked against my foot as they passed.

  I spun around to watch them.

  There was something strange about the cord. It was thick and black, and the kids used it like a jump rope. One little girl with bright red cheeks and no front teeth flipped her end, singing a song for the little boy with holes in his trousers to jump. I looked closer at her hands.

  She held the microphone.

  Lady was so happy to see the kids, she barked. I shushed her until I saw Maria out of the corner of my eye. She made a beeline for the kids in the parking lot.

  I couldn’t let her get to the murder weapon before me.

  Chapter 30

  I didn’t want to scare the kids — something I should have thought of before I took off across the parking lot at them. Slowing, I reached out with a smile and asked in my bad Spanish if I might see the microphone.

  Maria wasn’t so gentle. She grabbed the cord, yanking it out of the little girl’s hands.

  I stepped on it as it snaked by my feet, stooping down and wrapping it around my hand. That serial number was the only thing linking Maria to the crime, and I was determined not to lose it.

  A tugging contest ensued, with the little kids pulling on the wire behind me. They were tougher than their size suggested, and they pulled Maria all around the concrete slab.

  A crowd of curious onlookers tried to figure out why two grown women were playing tug-of-war with a “jump rope” in their parking lot.

  Where was Gus? Couldn’t he use his taser on her or something?

  Abuelita and Tia Rosa ran toward Maria, followed by a man wearing a cowboy hat and a flute draped around his neck. Quicker than a wink, he flung a rope in the air. It circled around Maria and tightened around her arms.

  The man handed the rope to Tia Rosa while Abuelita handed over a bill. Tipping his hat, the man said, “You keep the rope. For ten dollars, I buy a new one.”

  Behind the man, a donkey brayed. I knew that donkey. Abuelita did too.

  “This tact, yes?” she asked.

  “Kind of, Mom,” Sylvia answered, hiding her smile behind her hand.

  “Is better than use this, yes?” Abuelita pressed, holding up Gus’ taser.

  Gus patted down his pockets, his face blanching. “How did you—?”

  Abuelita answered with a grin.

  Sanchez sauntered up, parting the gathered onlookers. Waving the children away, she picked up the end of the microphone Maria had dropped. Only then did I loosen my hold on the wire.

  Lifting it up, Sanchez said, “This means absolutely nothing. Any DNA we could’ve lifted would be contaminated by now.”

  Maria didn’t miss a beat. “Then I’ll take it back to the station.” She tried to reach her hands out.

  Tia Rosa tugged on the rope lassoed around the reporter. “You murder Christina.”

  Sanchez lifted her hand again with a sigh. “Kindly stop interrupting. You messed up, honey. This serial number connects you with the crime, and for that it’s very valuable. As is your presence here. Came to recover the murder weapon before we got to it, didn’t you?”

  Maria pursed her lips together. Nothing she could say would help her.

  Sanchez pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

  “You can’t arrest me,” Maria shrieked, her eyes wild. “It’s my first week!”

  I had a million questions, and I figured we’d all earned some instant answers for poking at bushes all night. “Your first week where?”

  The pride in Maria’s voice, the confident tilt of her chin transformed her to the seasoned reporter she was. “I’m the new reporter at UIO News in Quito. They’re expecting me.”

  “Is that why you killed Christina?” I asked.

  Silence.

  Direct questions didn’t work. I tried another tactic. “How foolish of the network to overlook an exemplary reporter such as yourself to hire Christina. She didn’t have the experience you did. She shouldn’t have accepted the job when she didn’t deserve it. Not when you’d taken her under your wing and
helped her get started. Without you, she would still have been stuck in the newsroom.”

  Maria’s voice quivered. “I taught her everything.”

  “And how did she thank you? She took your dream job without a second thought.”

  “She bragged about it,” Maria said softly.

  “How ungrateful! After you’d gone out of your way to help her. To snatch something you’ve dedicated your entire life to. I can’t imagine how that must have made you feel.” I yammered on until Maria looked at me. “Clearly, they made a mistake in choosing her over you. You couldn’t let them make that mistake. You couldn’t let a rookie steal what rightfully belonged to you.”

  “I didn’t. I took it back!” she shouted, her chest heaving. “You have no idea how it feels to watch the upstart you trained accomplish what I’ve worked twice as long as her to achieve. That day at the lake, she leaned against her fancy new Audi and gloated when she told me her news. I couldn’t let her get away with it. I took it back. It had never rightfully belonged to her. When I showed up at the news station, they begged me to work with them.”

  I bet they did. They’d just lost their replacement reporter. “You were at the right place at the right time. You’re a smart lady.”

  Sanchez slapped the cuffs around her wrist. “But not as smart as Miss James for getting a full confession. That microphone truly meant nothing, not even with the serial number. Anybody could have used it.”

  Maria gasped. She’d been had.

  She looked behind her, but with Gus standing beside Jake and Tia Rosa tugging on the lasso, any thoughts of making a run for it were squashed.

  Adi waved her phone. “I recorded the whole thing.”

  Sanchez said over her shoulder, “You don’t have to babysit Jake anymore, Gus. Miss James found the murderer and enough evidence to make sure Maria doesn’t see daylight for a very, very long time.”

  She turned to me and winked. Then, pushing Maria to her car, she shut the door behind her and took off.

  How had Sanchez gotten here so quickly after I sent the message?

  Adi walked over to Gus. “You can babysit me. I’m way more interesting than my brother,” she said boldly.

  Gus agreed. “Yes, you are.”

  “Would you like to discuss it over coffee sometime? Or maybe dinner?”

  Gus’ face blanched. “Are you asking me out?”

  Jake warned Adi, “Don’t be so pushy. Things have happened that you don’t know about.”

  Adi plunked her hands on her hips just like Abuelita always did. “Well, I keep waiting for Gus to ask me, but I’m not patient.”

  Jake retorted, “And you haven’t wondered why he hasn’t asked yet?”

  Gus stepped between the twins, pushing them apart. He nodded appreciatively at Jake before turning to Adi. “You’re decisive. I like that.”

  Adi smiled. “Good. Then ask me out. I promise I’ll say ‘yes.’”

  Gus shook his head with a smile. “You’re something else. When we get back to Baños, will you let me take you out for coffee?”

  Adi beamed as she said, “Yes.”

  I was happy for them. I didn’t know what had happened in Gus’ past to make him so hesitant to ask her out, but I knew Adi. She knew what she wanted, and her heart had settled on Gus. She was strong-willed enough to take on his anxieties. She’d pin them down one by one.

  Sylvia invited everyone to the restaurant for lunch. The place was packed, but the busyness faded away when Christina’s mom walked through the door.

  She held a journal that looked like it had seen better days.

  We made room for her around our table, but she wanted to stand.

  Señora Cabrera looked at Jake, her eyes glistening with tears. “I owe you an apology.” She shuffled the journal between her hands. “After Christina’s death, I went through her room. She had not taken much with her when she moved to the city, wanting to begin everything new and fresh. I always wanted her to have a place to call home, and so I left the room untouched. I found her journal.” She pressed it against her chest and took a deep breath.

  I was holding mine. I saw from Adi’s impatient grip on the edge of the table that if Señora Cabrera didn’t reveal what had been in the journal to motivate her to talk to us, she was going to grab the thing out of her hands.

  Christina’s mom continued, “I miss Christina so much, I read it. I could hear her voice, and while I read, she was alive in my mind again.” She covered her mouth with trembling fingers.

  “Señora Cabrera, please have a seat. Let me order you some tea,” Jake offered.

  She dropped her hand, waving away his suggestion. In a rapid tumble of words, she continued, “Christina wrote about your breakup. I know the truth now. I learned she cheated on you, that you had wanted to break up with her when you found out, and that she turned the whole town against you by convincing us you had been the one to cheat on her. She justified her behavior because she didn’t want to leave Baños with anyone thinking badly of her.”

  Well, that explained why the protesters had disappeared. Christina’s mom had finally realized that Jake was not the villain.

  Señora Cabrera pressed her hand against her heart. “She was my perfect little princess. I’m sure she didn’t think everyone would turn on you like they did.”

  My heart ached for her. It would be awful to learn that the apple of your eye wasn’t as good as you believed her to be.

  Jake stood, taking Señora Cabrera’s hand between his like they were old friends. “It was a long time ago. Don’t let one mistake ruin your memory of your daughter.”

  His tender reply and the complete absence of a revengeful nature won my respect.

  Christina’s mom pressed a napkin against her eyes. When she could speak, she said, “You are too kind, even now. I know that the evidence against you looks bad, but I know the truth. I can’t believe you would hurt my girl.”

  Gus cleared his throat. “Jake assisted in the capture of your daughter’s murderer. We just returned from the lake. Christina’s killer is in custody.”

  Señora Cabrera’s chest heaved, and Jake helped her into a chair before she fainted. “Who?” she gasped.

  Gus answered, “Maria Escobar from SierraVista. She’s at the police station right now with Agent Sanchez.”

  She covered her face, leaning into Jake, accepting the comfort he offered while she wept.

  When her tears subsided, he handed her the cup of tea, helping her drink when her hands were too shaky to sip on her own.

  With a sniff, Señora Cabrera sat up taller in her seat. “It will take a while, but I can have peace now. After I go to the station. I know Agent Sanchez is capable, but I need to see the woman who took my daughter away from me. I want her to know I will never forgive her for taking Christina away.” She squeezed Jake’s hand, then left.

  I hoped Agent Sanchez let Señora Cabrera have her say.

  Chapter 31

  It felt good to get back to work at my shop. Business bustled, and Mammy’s cupcakes were a welcome addition to the menu, as well as the doughnut version inspired by her original recipe. Chocolate-covered doughnut with cherry-flavored filling and a maraschino nestled in a bed of whipped cream on top.

  Washo and Sylvia were back together and stronger than ever. He’d be coming home to Baños soon, and Sylvia was already planning a big, family dinner.

  Jake had his job back, and thanks to his hard work, Adi was ahead of schedule for the first time since she had taken on her designing dream.

  Abuelita and Tia Rosa took care of customers at the front of the shop while I mixed another batch of dough. It promised to be another busy day.

  Abuelita stepped into the kitchen. “Hugo and Daniel here. They want for to interview you.”

  Fat chance of that happening. I wiped my hands on my apron and went out to the front of the shop. All the tables were full, with customers chattering happily over their desserts and coffees.

  Daniel flashed a thousand-watt
smile. “So, Miss James, you’ve cracked another case. How does it feel?” He shoved a microphone in front of my face.

  I looked back to Hugo who manned the camera. I appreciated the effort he made to stand out of the way so people could place their orders. Daniel, on the other hand, seemed to think nobody minded him standing in the middle of everything.

  Terror overcame my annoyance in seeing Daniel when I saw the red button blinking on Hugo’s camera. Was this live feed? I reached up to my hair, then ran my fingers over my face to make sure I didn’t have any frosting smeared on my cheeks. Then I panicked even more when I wondered if I had left a trail of flour all over my hair and face from my dusty hands.

  Daniel pushed the microphone even closer to my mouth. I couldn’t speak Spanish. I’d even forgotten English.

  Hugo must’ve understood my difficulty, because he raised a thumb and motioned for me to do the same.

  I mimicked his gesture, raising both of my thumbs enthusiastically.

  Daniel said something I hoped was clever enough for both of us while my face caught on fire beside him.

  Finally, Hugo pressed the switch turning off the evil red button and lowered the camera. He said, “You’re pretty. Nobody will care what you say. Or don’t say. I’ll edit to make you look good. It’s the least I can do after all you’ve done for Christina.”

  “It wasn’t live?”

  “No.”

  “Thank goodness.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I had embarrassed myself too many times in public and was happy that maybe the trend would stop.

  Daniel smiled at me again, his hands resting on my arm. “I like the element of surprise in my interviews. It adds something special and honest.”

  I looked down at his hand, then up to him while moving out of his way, but the guy didn’t know how to take a hint. He thought he was irresistible.

  He said, “I want to offer you an opportunity. I’m working on doing a special report on Christina to honor her life, and I would love to be the first to interview you along with Agent Sanchez. The public would love to hear how a local helped a professional investigator capture Christina’s murderer.”