“How?” Lizzie asked in wonderment.
“We were right all along. It was in the locked room. But we can’t just turn it in. If we do that, we can’t prove Mr. Farill is the true criminal. That won’t save your father. We have to catch Mr. Farill in the act.”
“But they’re inside that room right now!” Lizzie said. “We can’t just let them get away.”
“Now it makes sense to me why you ran off that day when we saw him at Casa Azul,” Paloma said to Gael. He nodded. “You left me to pay for the limonada. You didn’t want him to see you with me. You thought he’d recognize you as the son of the man he framed, right?”
“If he connected us, he’d become suspicious,” Gael said.
“You guys can stand out here and talk, but I’m going in!” Lizzie said, and broke off from the group, heading straight toward the closed door.
“She can’t do that! Stop her!” Paloma yelled at Gael. He bolted after her, but it was too late. Lizzie turned the doorknob and shoved her body against the door. But the door didn’t budge.
“It’s locked,” she muttered with a frown. “Of course it’s locked.” Lizzie banged the door with her fist one last time. Gael pulled her away from the door, speaking to her soothingly in Spanish.
They settled on the stairway. Lizzie crossed her arms over her chest. “Every minute that goes by, our dad is stuck in jail, and yet this creep just strolls around the market and throws parties.”
Paloma winced. Her heart melted for Gael and Lizzie. It had to be torture knowing that their innocent dad was in jail with real criminals. It was straight-up unfair. She couldn’t help but think of her own father. She had a memory box full of photographs of him holding her, taking her for rides on the pony carousel at the mall, and reading picture books to her. All these photographs were wonderful. It proved that he wanted to be with her. But nothing is like having your father by your side. That’s what stung Paloma the most. Gael and Lizzie had a dad. He was alive. Yet Mr. Farill was keeping him from his children for his own personal greed. She wasn’t so different from Gael and Lizzie. Paloma knew if someone offered her a way to save her dad, she would take it. She’d do anything to have him back at her side forever.
“We’re going to catch Mr. Farill,” Paloma said with a seriousness that surprised herself. “But we have to be smart. He already has you guys on video. The Farills know it was two kids who entered their home. We can’t be reckless.”
“What do we do?” Lizzie asked. “He’s in there right now. Shouldn’t we try to confront him?”
Paloma’s eyes darted around the market. “We need to tell the police. If we give them a fake story, maybe they’ll open the door for us.”
“I got this,” Gael said, and raced off. While he was gone, Paloma and Lizzie watched the door to make sure no one left the room.
“Thank you, Kansas,” Lizzie said with a smile that Paloma returned. “You know, you always talk about the great Lulu Pennywhistle, but I think someday someone will be writing books about you. I can see it now, supersleuth Paloma Marquez.”
Paloma let out a light laugh. “They’ll be writing books about all of us someday. Lizzie Castillo, former mariachi extraordinaire becomes Mexico’s first female president!”
“And Gael Castillo, the most talented artist of his generation!” Lizzie added.
Gael reappeared with a police officer who looked only a few years older than them. He smiled and nodded a lot.
“I told him how someone stole your phone, Lizzie,” Gael said. “And locked themselves in that room.”
“You have a true knack for fake stories,” Paloma whispered, raising her eyebrows at him.
Gael winked at her and led the young police officer to the door. The officer gave a few polite knocks on the door. After a few seconds, he smiled at the kids and knocked some more. Lizzie pushed her way beside him and pounded on the door with her fist. Still no one answered. The police officer pulled out his baton and gestured for the kids to back up. Once they were clear, he banged the doorknob until it fell off. Then he wedged the door open and peered in.
“Nadie está aquí,” he said to the kids with an apologetic look.
Lizzie and Gael pressed forward past the officer and into the room. Paloma followed. Besides a desk and a wire wastebasket, the small room was completely empty. There was no one in sight.
“What mighty high jinks just happened?” Paloma asked. She had seen Mr. Farill enter the room with her own eyes. They all had. There must be another way out. While Gael sifted through the wastebasket, Paloma and Lizzie glided their hands along the walls until Paloma felt an indentation. Lizzie sidled up to her with her cell phone light. It was a door. Lizzie pressed it forward, and it popped open to a busy street. Paloma stepped back and gasped. “This is seriously straight out of a Lulu Pennywhistle novel.”
“How about this? Is this straight out of a Lulu Pennywhistle novel?” Gael asked, waving a note card over his head. “I think I found something of yours.” Even though it was dark, Paloma instantly recognized her sketch of the black car. It was the note card she left in the planter with the words “I see you!”
A soft breeze swept across Paloma’s face. She hadn’t meant to leave her bedroom window wide open. She peered over her blanket toward a light tinkling noise that reminded Paloma of the wind chimes on her grandparents’ porch in Kansas.
Frida Kahlo sat at the vanity. She was dressed in a long green skirt with white ruffles, a red blouse, and a black shawl. Her bracelets clanked and chimed as she pinned a purple flower in her dark hair.
“I’m dreaming again, aren’t I?” Paloma asked, sitting up to face the artist.
“Sí,” Frida said, flashing Paloma a vibrant smile. “Dreaming is nice, no? But reality is better.”
“Frida, I have to help my friends, but I’m not sure what to do.” Paloma stared at Frida. “Do you think I can solve this?”
Frida tilted her head and smiled. “If you believe you can,” she said, “you don’t need me to tell you.”
A tap on the bedroom door startled Paloma awake.
“Frida?” she called out from under the covers. Her eyes darted between the door and the vanity. Frida was gone, the bedroom window latched close. Paloma stirred herself up just as her mom poked her head into her room.
“Get up, sleepy bird. You’re going to be late for class.”
As the cloudiness of sleep cleared, Paloma wiped her eyes. “I hate mornings,” she mumbled back.
“You were talking to Frida Kahlo in your sleep,” Paloma’s mom said, entering the bedroom and finding a seat at the edge of Paloma’s bed.
“I was?” Paloma said with nervous laugh. “Were we chatting about hummingbirds and watermelons?”
Paloma’s mom laughed. “I don’t know what you were talking about, but you said her name. Now, get up or you’ll be late, grouchy bird.”
Once her mom left, Paloma scrambled out of her warm bed. She grabbed her memory box and opened it. The peacock ring was still inside, and beneath it, the purple flower she wore in her hair their first night in Coyoacán. It was wilted and flattened now. She dug further until she found the original note Gael had passed her that first night at Casa Azul. Suddenly, she had a plan. She grabbed the note and her Lulu Pennywhistle paperback. Then she threw on clothes and rushed to get to school on time.
Once again, Gael and Lizzie met her outside during break. They needed to create a plan to catch Mr. Farill at Frida’s birthday celebration.
“So do you think that Mr. Farill left the key and that note for the Trench Coat Man?”
Paloma nodded. “Probably. I mean, he can’t risk being caught with the ring. So he’s hired the Trench Coat Man to take it from Casa Azul during the party. ‘Las mañanitas’ is his cue to go to the locked room, take the ring, and leave with it. The cameras won’t catch him because he’ll be in a mask like everyone else. And no one will notice him.”
Lizzie nodded excitedly and pulled out a piece of paper from her purse. “Look, we j
ust got this today. It’s our performance schedule for the party. We perform twice, but the second time is at eight fifteen p.m. All the mariachi groups will perform ‘Las mañanitas’ during the presentation of the birthday cake, just like the note said. It’s the perfect time for the Trench Coat Man to make his move because everyone will be singing and getting ready to stuff their faces with cake.”
“¡Exacto!” Paloma exclaimed. “What Mr. Farill and the Trench Coat Man don’t expect is that we will be there to stop them.”
“What if Mr. Farill is onto us?” Gael asked. “I mean, he is onto us. Finding those note cards yesterday proves it, doesn’t it? He knows you’ve been wanting to talk to us. He knows something is going on, verdad?”
Paloma wrinkled her brow. It was true. If Mr. Farill was onto them, they had to take extra precautions. “Just to be safe, you should wear a disguise to the party. There will be mariachis and folkloric dancers there. Gael, can you dress up as a mariachi, too?”
“I’ll get him a suit,” Lizzie said.
“How will we catch Farill in the act?” Gael asked. “What’s the plan?”
Paloma handed him the handwritten note he’d given her the night they met. “Remember how all this mighty high jinks got started? The only way we can catch Mr. Farill in the act is by getting him to bring out the ring. In my Lulu Pennywhistle book, she traps a notorious villain by writing a fake note to convince him that his plan for the night has somehow gone wrong. He is then forced to take action and, in the process, exposes his true wicked self to everyone.”
“Lulu is a genius,” Gael said. “We can do that, too.”
“I like it,” Lizzie added.
“Lizzie, we will need you to get us access to a microphone and speaker during the party.”
“I’m a mariachi, Kansas. It’s no problem!”
“Gael, I’m asking a lot from you. You’ll need to get into the locked room, do a quick switcheroo with the pouch, hide under the desk with our phones in position, and wait for Mr. Farill. What do you think?”
“‘Switcheroo’?” Gael asked with a wide smile, pulling out a note card from his pocket. “I can do that.” He wrote it down. “We’re going to replace the ring with what?”
“I’ve got something perfect in mind. Leave it to me. I will deliver the note to Mr. Farill long before ‘Las mañanitas’ ever plays, confusing him and setting his confession into motion.”
“And the Trench Coat Man? What happens to him?”
“Once Mr. Farill is exposed and caught,” Paloma said with a shrug, “the Trench Coat Man is Mr. Farill’s problem.”
The night of the party, Paloma tied on a shimmery mask with a peacock feather. With her mask and the white dress her mom picked up for her, she felt transformed. She was no longer Paloma Marquez, regular girl from Kansas and wannabe Lulu Pennywhistle sleuth. She was Paloma Marquez—international tween detective, finder of missing rings, and thief catcher.
As soon as she walked into the living room where her mom and Professor Breton waited, they began to whistle and clap for her. “¡Ay, Bonita!” Professor Breton exclaimed.
“Okay, okay.” Paloma giggled, holding her hands up for them to stop embarrassing her.
“I had this made for you.” Paloma’s mom held out a necklace with an opal dangling from a gold chain.
“Your wedding ring!” Paloma gasped.
Her mom latched it around Paloma’s neck. “Now it’s yours. Something your father touched will always be with you. It’s your very own memory.”
Paloma touched the coolness of the red opal. The necklace was the most beautiful gift she could even dream of. Paloma gave her mom a long hug.
“Thank you, Mom,” she said. “I really love it.”
“There’s something else,” Paloma’s mom said. She pulled out Paloma’s cell phone from her purse. “Professor Breton says you’re his best student, so you’ve earned it back.”
“Thanks!” Paloma exclaimed. She tucked it into her bag as they headed out the door.
At Casa Azul, a mariachi band played outside to welcome guests. Paloma heard the crisp melodic tone of Lizzie’s trumpet. She exchanged a quick smile with her friend, who was dressed head to toe in an elegant black-and-silver mariachi suit, including a silver silk mask. Lizzie nodded at Paloma before tipping the trumpet to her lips again.
Paloma followed Professor Breton and her mom into the museum but not before spotting the Fortune-Teller outside hawking her jewelry to guests. Just then, the Farills appeared in front of them, welcoming them to the party with hugs. Paloma barely recognized Mr. Farill behind a golden-jeweled mask that matched Mrs. Farill’s. Tavo stood apart from his parents in a purple mask like one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wore.
“You look awesome,” Tavo said.
Paloma smiled. “Thank you.” She felt a pinch of regret that she was going after his father tonight. She had been so anxious to help Gael and Lizzie that she’d forgotten how this whole thing could affect Tavo. Still, what his father was doing to Mr. Castillo was wrong. He had to be stopped.
“Mom, do you mind if we go walk around?” Paloma asked, taking a good glance around the room for Gael. Where was he?
Paloma’s mom nudged her playfully. “Go ahead, little bird. Have fun! Just check in with me every once in a while.” Paloma nodded and walked off with Tavo.
As Tavo pointed out famous artists and politicians in the courtyard, Paloma kept an eye out for Gael, when suddenly she spied him with the folkloric dancers. He wore the full performance costume, making Paloma giggle. It was the first time she’d seen Gael without his black knit cap. She liked him in the sombrero. He winked at her and gestured to meet him near the punch table.
“I’m going to get punch for us,” she told Tavo as he began talking to another boy his age.
She found Gael in front of the punch, pouring two cups for her.
“One for you and one for Tavo,” he whispered.
“What happened to the mariachi suit?” Paloma asked, keeping her voice low, too.
Gael rolled his eyes. “Lizzie failed me. She got me a dance suit from one of her friends. Now I have to dance the Jarabe Tapatío with their troupe, so please let’s get this whole thing over with as quickly as possible,” he said, taking off his sombrero and running his hand through his dark hair.
“Can you get Lizzie and meet me by Frida’s pyramid in two minutes?” Paloma asked. Gael nodded and took off.
Tavo was still talking to the boy when Paloma returned to him. She handed him a cup of punch. “I have to find my mom real quick. Be back in a few minutes,” she said, and rushed off toward the red-and-yellow pyramid inside Frida’s courtyard.
“Over here,” Gael whispered. She moved quickly and squatted down beside Lizzie.
“I’ve got the note ready,” Paloma said, and flashed it at them. It was short and sweet. And, hopefully, just intimidating enough to make Mr. Farill feel nervous, run to the storage room, where they planned to catch him on camera holding the pouch, and confess everything on their phones. It worked for Lulu Pennywhistle.
“I’ve already talked to the DJ. He’s a friend and lent me his microphone and speakers,” Lizzie announced. “He thinks I’m playing a special song before ‘Las mañanitas.’”
“And I’ve made the switcheroo,” Gael added. “As soon as we’re done here, I’ll go set up the phones and hide.”
“¡Perfecto! Good luck to all of us!” Paloma smiled. “Remember, if anything starts going horribly wrong, just do what Lulu does.”
“What?” Gael asked.
“Stay awesome and don’t let the crook get away.” Paloma smiled and handed him her cell phone.
Lizzie rolled her eyes and darted off, but Gael lingered.
“One last thing, Paloma.” He pulled the eagle warrior medallion from under his shirt. “I’m giving this back to you for—”
“Protection,” she finished for him. She bent her head for him to loop it around her neck. “Gracias.”
“No m
atter what happens tonight, I want you to know that I’m not done knowing you,” Gael said. Paloma’s heart flipped in her chest. “You’re going to fly off to Kansas eventually, but our friendship doesn’t end at some imaginary border in the sky. We are birds. Our friendship is our wings. We are going to be part of each other’s sky for a long time, okay?”
“Okay,” Paloma said softly.
“Nos vemos, Paloma,” Gael said before rushing off.
Paloma remained crouched, stunned by his words. From across the courtyard, she spotted Mr. Farill with his wife and a couple who Tavo had introduced Paloma to earlier. It was still hard to believe that Mr. Farill could be so wicked when he seemed so kind to her. She stood up, straightened the medallion and red opal pendant around her neck, and peeked at Tavo, who was still chatting it up with a couple of boys.
Paloma knew that whatever happened tonight, Tavo would be hurt. She took a deep breath. Lulu hadn’t prepared her for breaking a friend’s heart. Paloma glanced again to where she’d seen Mr. Farill, but he wasn’t at his wife’s side anymore.
She scanned the courtyard for a man in a black tuxedo and gold-jeweled mask. Her heart raced as she realized she couldn’t spot him anywhere. Suddenly, from the DJ table, Lizzie flailed her arms at Paloma and shot her a panicked look. Once she had Paloma’s attention, Lizzie pointed toward the back of the courtyard. Paloma’s eyes zoomed in and caught Mr. Farill dashing off in the direction of the locked storage room, where Gael had just left to set up.
It couldn’t be! Paloma felt every hair on her body stand up. Mr. Farill was too early—why was he going back there now? She never got a chance to give Mr. Farill the note. And now Gael would get caught!
Lizzie suddenly started playing her trumpet over a microphone. A crowd including Paloma’s mom and Professor Breton gathered around her as she began to play a sweet melody. All of this was happening too soon.
Paloma followed after Mr. Farill. He ducked through the tree branches, unaware that Paloma was close behind. She hoped Gael had already positioned the cell phone and taken cover.
Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring Page 13