Chocolate Cherry Cheater Page 8

  Jake stared blankly in front of him for a few moments before he finally said, “I got fired.”

  Adi gasped, “After everything you’ve done for the company—”

  Jake interrupted her, “You can’t blame him Adi. The tour group’s logo is on the side of my Jeep. They got a load of bad publicity when that video aired on the news yesterday. What other choice does he have? If the company goes under, all his employees would lose their livelihoods.”

  Adi folded her arms and grumbled, “He still shouldn’t have fired you.”

  Jake laced his fingers together and leaned forward on the table, looking directly at me. “I need to do something, Jess. I’ll drive you anywhere you need to go. I’ll make all the calls. We can go to Daniel’s station in Ambato, maybe even talk to Christina’s cameraman and the makeup artist this afternoon.”

  I wasn’t about to tell him no. “Perfect. I want to watch the video footage first though. There might be something there we didn’t notice before. Something helpful.”

  The bell over the door rang, and I groaned when I saw Agent Sanchez prowl into the restaurant. She brought Gus with her … and enough tension to fill the room.

  Gus looked miserable.

  I braced myself for more bad news.

  Abuelita and Tia Rosa headed for the kitchen with their laptop.

  “Jake no guilty. He the sweet boy,” Tia Rosa said just before the door swung closed behind her.

  She might as well have been invisible for all the attention she garnered from Sanchez. The agent had zeroed in on me, like a bully preying on the weakest link. “So, how’s the investigation going, Miss James? Have you narrowed down your suspects and found the murderer? Or are you spinning in circles until I catch the culprit?”

  Adi said saucily, “Oh, so this is a race? Who can catch the killer first? What does Jess get when she wins?”

  Sanchez ignored Adi, her gaze boring into me.

  I pretended my heart wasn’t pounding in my throat and hoped she couldn’t see it. Managing a stiff shrug, I said, “I have a few promising leads. I’m just a shopgirl. You’re the professional.”

  Sanchez leaned into me. “And you would do well to remember that.” To Jake, she said, “Don’t leave Baños. I’m assigning Gus to keep an eye on you. If you try to leave, he is under orders to lock you up.”

  She left before we recovered from our shock.

  Jake grumbled, “So much for driving you to Ambato. I’m sorry, Jess.”

  Adi glared at Gus. “You wouldn’t arrest Jake, would you?”

  Gus looked like he would rather be anywhere than where he was. “Jake’s too smart to put me in that position.”

  That was not the answer Adi wanted. She stood up, facing Gus toe-to-toe. “So, you would do it? Sanchez is a jerk! Why would you take orders from her?”

  To his credit, Gus didn’t back down. “Sanchez outranks me. I can’t afford to go against her orders.”

  Jake interrupted, “Stop! Adi, let Gus do his job. He’s right. I’m not stupid enough to get myself arrested just to provoke Sanchez. She’s got everyone fighting. The town, Mom and Washo, and now, you and Gus.”

  Adi didn’t look like she was done arguing, so I added, “She’s manipulating everyone, stirring up emotions and using them against us. We have to keep our cool or we’ll end up doing exactly what Sanchez wants. We’ll fail.” Man, she really was a jerk.

  Sylvia brought out our food, asking with forced cheer, “Are you hungry, Gus? Can I bring you a plate?”

  Adi plopped back into her chair, her face scrunched up to show her disapproval of the whole situation.

  Gus answered, “I have to get back to the station. I’m assigned to keep an eye on Jake, but that doesn’t mean I have to follow him everywhere.” Looking at Jake, he said, “If you promise me you won’t leave town, that’s enough for me, man.”

  Jake promised, “I wouldn’t do that to you. I’ll stay put.”

  Sylvia pursed her lips and marched back to the kitchen. Gus left, and Abuelita and Tia Rosa resumed their position at the back table. They were as thick as thieves, and I wondered what they were planning.

  Still wanting to pick a fight, Adi said loudly enough for them to hear, “I never thought I’d see the day Abuelita would hide from anyone.”

  “I no afraid. I smart,” Abuelita snapped.

  Jake said, “They’re probably back there planning their attack, Adi. Back off.”

  Abuelita shouted, “No attack. We behave. We good. We act small. Is tact.”

  Abuelita’s reassurance and the enthusiasm with which Tia Rosa nodded her head in support only added to my unease.

  We ate our eggs, toast, and bacon in silence, finishing breakfast with a freshly brewed cup of coffee. I needed my neurons to work today.

  After a quick stop at the shop to confirm that business was still crawling, and that I wasn’t needed, I took Jake and Adi upstairs to my apartment. I had already found the newscasts with the video and had saved it to my computer where a couple of my programs would enable us to see it better.

  We went through another pot of coffee as we watched. We zoomed in and slowed the video down, looking for something unspecific that might help. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we were determined to find something.

  The first detail I noticed was how the video footage had been edited. First, we saw the closeups on the observation deck. I thought back, trying to remember if I’d seen someone filming us, but with so many people milling about, it could have been anyone. The footage jumped ahead to show the crowds of people strolling at the top of the ridge, zooming in on Jake’s confrontation with Christina. At the very end, it jumped ahead to a small clip showing Jake’s Jeep in the parking lot. It was the frame the news station had selected to freeze at the end of their segment to show the vehicle where Christina’s body was found (and the reason Jake no longer had a job.)

  We looked at every face on the video, and I tried to isolate conversations to see if anyone said anything helpful.

  After an hour of nothing, Jake called AmbatoVision. He confirmed that Daniel had not worked the day of Christina’s murder. He might have another alibi — in fact, if he was smart at all, he would have a story — but Daniel couldn’t say he was at work. It was progress.

  I held onto that gleaming grain of encouragement over the next few hours slugging through the video from front to back, again and again.

  Frustrated our search had yielded no results, I paused the video before it went black at the end. I sat back in my chair, massaging my sore neck, only to pop forward and wave my finger at the screen. “The car! Look, the car!” I said, shoving my wireless mouse across the table and out of reach in my eagerness to show Jake and Adi what I had seen.

  Grabbing my mouse, I zoomed the frame on the car parked beside Jake’s Jeep, a black car with four circles on the shiny grill. “I saw Daniel get into a car with those four loops.”

  Jake said, “That’s an Audi.”

  “Are those common here? Could it be Daniel’s?” I asked.

  “They’re too expensive to be common. Is it the same model you saw him get into here?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s black and has four rings. That’s all I know.” I moved the image down until I had a good visual of the license plate. I wrote it down.

  Adi grinned. “Good thinking. We can ask Gus who this car is registered to over at the police station. If it’s Daniel, it puts him at the scene of the crime.”

  Jake stood, ready to go. “That’ll make Abuelita happy. Maybe this time her gut’s right.”

  My excitement dimmed on hearing that. Abuelita’s instincts were never right.

  Chapter 14

  We stormed into the police station, looking for Gus.

  He shushed us as soon as we came in, pointing behind him, and saying, “The witch is in.”

  Adi handed him the license plate number, whispering, “Can you please see who this car belongs to?”

  Gus rolled his chair
over to the computer, clicking and typing between glances over his shoulder.

  I leaned over the reception desk, asking in a low tone, “Do you know who else Sanchez suspects? What leads she has? Anything?”

  Sanchez answered as she joined us at the reception desk, “Gus wouldn’t tell you even if he knew unless he wants to be reassigned to some outpost deep in the Amazon to deal with drug lords, anacondas, and head shrinkers.”

  It was unfair that a woman as intimidating as Sanchez should possess such extraordinary hearing.

  Gus shivered. “I hate snakes.”

  Sanchez glanced at his computer screen. “Remember that next time your friends ask for your help.”

  She crossed her arms and glared at me. “I’m underwhelmed with your performance so far, Miss James. It’s taking you much more time than it took me to discover that Daniel was at Lake Quilotoa the day of the murder. I had expected better from you.”

  I should have been crushed, but I was getting used to her constant disapproval and critical stare downs. That, and she had just confirmed that Daniel was indeed at the lagoon before Gus could tell us anything. My ego would have loved to point out her slip, but I was content to hold my cards close and pretend nothing had happened in the hopes she might provide more information.

  Emboldened, I asked, “Are you investigating Daniel? He was there, and he had a motive.”

  Sanchez scoffed. “And waste my precious time? You’re barking up the wrong tree. Only an amateur would make that mistake. Go back to reading your mystery novels, Miss James.”

  The ego can only take so much. My mouth overpowered my brain. “If I was a heartless machine I could, but this is affecting my friends and my town. If you haven’t caught the killer yet with your experience, skills, and all the resources available to you, then please forgive me if I feel the need to help.”

  Adi clapped.

  Sanchez stepped forward until she filled my vision. Raising her finger in front of my face, she said, “If you mess up my investigation, I’ll make you pay. Within a week, I could have your visa revoked, and you’d be on a plane out of here, banned from ever returning to see your precious friends or beloved town.” She took a step back, adding, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a case to solve and Gus has a stack of paperwork I’m going to give him. He’s too busy to help you, I assure you.”

  “But you assigned him to watch Jake,” I pointed out.

  “I’m sorry, did Gus come with you? I could have sworn he decided to trust a prime suspect with his career instead of babysitting like I asked him to. If he feels comfortable risking his career like that, I might as well take advantage of his presence here to give him additional files to report.” Sanchez spun on her heels, her stilettos clicking against the marble floor as she returned to her lair.

  Gus groaned. “She’s punishing me. I hate paperwork. You guys had better leave here before she recommends that I be reassigned to the jungle.”

  We left the police station. Adi and Jake were exceptionally quiet. I felt like I was on fire. I had said exactly what I wanted to say when I wanted to say it, and I hadn’t over-thought my words enough to regret them yet. Right now, I reveled in the power of my quick retort to a woman who at that moment held no power to intimidate me. That would come later. For now, I was Jessica James — Super Repartee-er.

  Part way across the park, Jake stopped. “Maybe we should back off.”

  Adi agreed.

  I looked between them. “Are you crazy? We’re finally getting somewhere and you want to call it quits?” While I appreciated their caution, I was already in too deep to stop.

  Jake took a step toward me. “I do if it means you could get kicked out of the country.”

  Adi added, “Yeah, Sanchez is serious, Jess. What would you do if you had to leave? You just established yourself here. It wouldn’t just affect you. What would Tia Rosa do with a doughnut shop she can’t run? And Martha? What would become of her and Fernanda?”

  I gritted my teeth together so hard, my jaw hurt. The last thing I wanted to do was let my friends down, but isn’t that exactly what I’d be doing if I gave up now? “I can’t quit.”

  Jake folded his arms. “There’s a time to be tenacious, and there’s a time to back off.”

  I folded my arms, too, and met his gaze straight on. Thanks to my sisters, I felt confident in my victory in a battle of the wills. “Look, if the worst happens and I’m asked to leave, I’ll sleep easier at night knowing I did what I could. I would rather be at peace with myself than feel guilty for the rest of my life. I may not catch the killer, but I have to try. I would rather try and fail than not try at all.”

  We stared at each other for what felt like forever.

  Then, Jake said, “It’s getting late. Let me buy you dinner.”

  Adi asked, “Am I invited too, or is this a date?”

  Jake still hadn’t broken his gaze with me, and I almost melted into a blob of goo when he said, “If this was a date, I’d make sure Jess knew it.”

  I tried not to read too much into his words, but I knew I wouldn’t get any sleep that night. What did he mean? Did he want to ask me out? Was this his gentle way of letting me know we would only ever be friends?

  Fortunately for my sanity, logic took over before we crossed the sidewalk. If I got kicked out of the country, it wouldn’t matter.

  Chapter 15

  Dinner was delicious. A grilled pork chop with chimichurri sauce over a bed of white rice and beans stewed in a mixture of tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and spices. A radish and lettuce salad was on the side with sliced avocado and cilantro to garnish the top. The overly generous portions were a grim reminder that business was crawling and Sylvia was still binge-cooking to cope.

  I had spotted Abuelita and Tia Rosa trying to look busy through the windows of my shop, so I wasn’t surprised when they showed up at the restaurant minutes later. They were bored.

  The dynamic duo raced to the back counter where Sylvia kept the TV remote. Abuelita won, thanks in good part to her bony elbows which she wasn’t afraid to use. We’d watch the news from the capital tonight … after the WWF wrestling match was done.

  Tia Rosa grumbled about how she was missing her favorite soap opera in favor of giant, sweaty men jumping around in spandex.

  She asked me, “What you think, Jessica? Is better Yearning of Lola’s Heart to the big, sweaty men?”

  Adi, Jake, and I scooted closer together to make room for the two sisters.

  I wasn’t about to state my opinion on their viewing choices. Unless it had Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, or R2-D2 in it, I didn’t really care.

  Finally, the news came on. A Latino version of Barbara Walters appeared on the screen sporting bobbed hair, a classic blazer, and a strand of pearls. The streaks of gray in her dark hair lent a trendy edge to her timeless elegance. I could see why Abuelita admired her.

  Sylvia joined us to watch. Pulling her chair forward, she said, “I’ve always admired her. I never had the chance to work with Barbara, but everyone at the station loved her.”

  Really, her name was Barbara? I set my fork down. “You worked in the news?”

  “For a short time. I didn’t like the stress of it all. There were too many people pulling me in different directions. The kitchen is much quieter.”

  Abuelita said, “Is because you the boss in the kitchen. You strong woman, too, Sylvia.”

  I waited for the insult, but it never came. I was so shocked to hear something nice come from Abuelita’s mouth, I had to blink a few times to believe I had actually heard it.

  The reporter updated viewers on the progress of the Quito Metro. She featured a segment about the hydroelectric plant in the middle of the country that was built ten years ago … and still didn’t work. She also reported about a team of doctors of varying specialties who had recently arrived at the port city of Manta in a hospital ship. For two weeks, they would perform free medical services for the needy. Finally, she finished her segment with a report on the fiv
e percent increase of banana exportation in the country over the last nine months.

  Abuelita pointed up at the screen. “She real reporter. She strong, mature woman.”

  Tia Rosa grumbled, “She say nothing about Baños. Only big news. I like the small news.”

  She had a point there. As entertaining as the Quito reporter was to watch, I also liked hearing about what was happening closer to home.

  The reporter gathered the papers together in front of her, tapping them against the table and setting them down neatly as she looked candidly into the camera. Latina Barbara Walters spoke so articulately, I could easily translate her Spanish into English as she spoke: “I want to take this opportunity to thank the loyal viewers who have followed my career during the thirty years I’ve worked at UIO News. It has been an honor and a privilege to work here. My heart is full of sadness and joy as I announce my retirement. I am sad to depart from what has been a huge and significant part of my life, but I am excited to begin the next phase of my journey with all the experiences and memories I treasure from my career here. Thank you, dear viewers. I am certain you will love my replacement, who will report for you next week.”

  Abuelita’s jaw fell open.

  Tia Rosa patted her on the back. “I sorry, Bertha.”

  Recovering from her shock, Abuelita crossed her arms and huffed, “They hire the young bimbo and I no watch no more.”

  Adi commented, “I wonder who could possibly fill in for her.”

  Sylvia said, “Whoever it is would have been hired months ago. This is not a last-minute decision. It would’ve been carefully planned so as not to affect the station’s ratings.”

  My sympathy went to the replacement reporter. “How difficult it must be to land a prestigious job like that and not be able to tell anybody about it.”

  Sylvia nodded. “They probably had the reporter sign a confidentiality agreement. The competition would have been fierce. Reporting at UIO News is every reporter’s dream job.”

  Jake got up, taking our empty plates back to the kitchen. Adi joined him. I got up to help too, but Mayor Guerra walked into the restaurant followed closely by his entourage.