Murder on the Equator Box Set

by Becca Bloom

  Agent Vasquez tucked his notepad back into his pocket. "Until I find out, will you please stay out of my investigation? Do you not realize that your interference only makes you and your sister look guiltier?"

  Sylvia plunked her hands on top of her hips. "You cannot honestly believe my sweet Tia Rosa is a murderer. Of all the ridiculous ideas ever expressed in this room, that has got to be the most laughable."

  Go, Sylvia!

  Agent Vasquez shifted his weight. "I have to investigate everyone and I'm only able to eliminate a suspect when the facts support their innocence."

  Sylvia crossed her arms and looked at him incredulously.

  Shifting his weight again, he added, "Look, I had hoped my warning would achieve a different result, but I was clearly wrong. Though I do suspect some illegal trespassing and several infractions of transport laws, I do not believe Mrs. Jimenez is guilty of anything other than foolishness. There is a murderer about, and it is my experience that someone who kills once has fewer qualms about killing again. So let me rephrase my warning: If I find any of you interfering in my investigation again, I will lock you up. Is that clearer?"

  We all looked at Sylvia. I couldn’t speak for the others, but I was waiting for her to toss him out of her kitchen.

  “While I appreciate that your threats spring from concern and a need to protect my family and friends, I will ask you to show more respect for your elders and my guest while in my kitchen,” Sylvia stared Agent Vasquez down until he bowed his head in compliance. Three cheers for Sylvia!

  And then, she turned her attention to us. Pointing her finger in a gesture she must have inherited from Abuelita, she said slowly and clearly, “As for you, it is enough. There is no further need for your involvement now that Agent Vasquez admitted his disbelief in Tia Rosa’s guilt. Let him do his job and let’s allow Jessica to act like a tourist on vacation rather than feel obliged to tag along with you while you pretend to be detectives. Can you do that? Or is it too much to ask?”

  I gaped at her, feeling like my mother was in the room and effectively putting everyone in their place. Even Agent Vasquez looked impressed. Tia Rosa and Adi were the first to acquiesce. Abuelita, on the other hand, widened her stance and returned Sylvia’s stare. This would not end well. And it was mostly my fault.

  Holding my hands up in a truce, I said, “I’ve heard there’s a lot of cool things to see around here, and it would be a shame not to see them. I wouldn’t mind going back to the waterfalls to have a better look. Afterward, I’ll make my grandma’s doughnuts.”

  “Doughnuts?” asked Abuelita, licking her lips.

  With that one magical word, peace was restored in the kitchen and I went to bed that night with a good conscience, anticipating a glorious morning of sleeping in.

  Chapter 21

  I rolled over, pulling my pillow on top of my head to drown out the thunder pounding outside and attributing the loudness of the clouds to the high altitude.

  Again, the incessant pounding, followed by an impatient voice. “Jessica!”

  Cracking one eyelid open, I confirmed it was still dark outside. I didn’t believe in waking up early. The early birds could have their worms, and eat them, too, for all I cared.

  “Jessica!” Abuelita shouted again, rapping on the door with increased force.

  Grumbling to myself, I flung off the covers and trudged to the door. I didn’t even bother to put on my nice face. It didn’t appear until closer to eight in the morning. Anyone who dared wake me up before my alarm rang deserved to see me grumpy.

  Yanking the door open, Lady greeted me with an extended paw. Her tail thumped between Abuelita and Tia Rosa’s legs.

  “Some guard dog you are.” I shook her paw and struggled to maintain my surly attitude when she nudged her nose under my hand.

  Abuelita and Tia Rosa looked much too chipper and alert. My annoyance returned with a vengeance.

  “What are you doing here so early?”

  Tia Rosa answered, “You want be tourist. We take you to hot spring.”

  Oh, so they were doing me a favor in getting me out of bed at…. I looked at the clock. “At five thirty in the morning?! I don’t enjoy anything at five thirty in the morning. I’ll be a tourist after eight.”

  Abuelita was having none of my whining. Clapping her hands, she said, “You hurry. We go before sun come up.”

  Looking down at Lady, I said, “Seriously? You couldn’t keep these two away and let me sleep? If you’re going to stay here, we’re going to have to discuss terms and conditions.”

  “Why you talk to dog? You crazy.” Abuelita pushed past me and walked into my room, pulling out the drawers of the dresser to reveal zippers, packets of needles and thread, and notebooks full of Adi’s drawings.

  “Not as crazy as people who wake me up this early. What are you looking for?”

  “Bathe suit.” She tugged on the last drawer and found it bursting with fabric samples. “Where you keep clothes?”

  Having brought so little, and knowing I was only staying for a month, I hadn’t bothered to rearrange Adi’s drawers to situate my stuff. Opening the closet door, I flipped the top of my carry-on open and pulled out a pair of board shorts and a polka dot tankini top.

  “We wait. You change. Bring dry clothes.”

  With that, Abuelita left my room, leaving me little choice but to do as she said. It’s not like she’d let me go back to sleep.

  In short time, I joined them, carrying my wad of clothes inside a rolled up bath towel.

  Tia Rosa held out her plastic bag. “Put dry clothes here. I carry.”

  Resigned, but still not happy about it, I asked, “Where are you taking me?”

  “Las Piscinas de la Virgen is hot spring under waterfall. Is close. We walk.” Abuelita turned for the door, holding it open for us.

  “Baños have many waterfall. Is why it have name, Baños de Agua Santa,” explained Tia Rosa.

  “Holy Toilet Water? That’s sacrilegious.”

  Abuelita poked me with her finger. “You need learn Spanish. Baños no mean bathroom only. It mean bath. Holy Bath Water.”

  I still thought it was an unfortunate name for an otherwise charming town, but I had woken up enough to know to keep my opinion to myself.

  Lady clambered down the steps ahead of us, grabbed a meaty bone from her food dish, and returned to her post in front of the door. Traitor. Abuelita had clearly bought her loyalty.

  The pre-sunrise air had a chill to it. The bakeries hadn’t opened for the day yet, but the breeze was heavy with the comforting smell of fresh baked bread. Birds chirped and whistled, rustling the leaves in the trees as they hopped around the branches and sang. It was hard to stay in a foul mood when such pleasant smells and sounds invaded my senses.

  “The mineral water good for heal skin,” Tia Rosa said three blocks later.

  I raised my arm. The blisters were drying up, but I was now peeling much like a snake shedding its skin. It looked as glamorous as the comparison sounded.

  Deprived of at least two hours of slumber and my morning cup of coffee, I didn’t bother to make conversation. Nothing I said would make much sense anyway. Still, I didn’t want to be rude, so I nodded in acknowledgment and tried to smile at Tia Rosa as she explained the healing properties of the mineral springs.

  Ten minutes later, we stood at the foot of a waterfall running over the side of the mountain and lit by green lights at its base.

  There were several pools and few enough people, I didn’t mind stripping down to my swimming suit and dipping a toe in the water of a small pool nobody occupied near the waterfall. I soon understood why the other pools were more popular. The water was scalding. Just how I liked it. Sitting along the edge, I slowly lowered myself into the murky water, reminding myself that the color had everything to do with minerals and nothing to do with dirt. My muscles knew it. They melted into soft putty within seconds.

  Sighing because breathing took too much energy, I let the warmth envelop me like a
blanket Mom or Dad used to snatch from the dryer and wrap around me when I was cold or sick.

  “Open eyes. You miss sun,” snapped Abuelita.

  Sure enough, the sun was on the rise. A minute ago, it had been completely dark outside and now, bright yellow rays illuminated the clear sky and sparkled off the steam rising from the pools. I looked at the waterfall behind me and appreciated the uniqueness of the place I was at. Where else could I relax in a natural, hot water spring at the base of a mountain surrounded by cascades? No wonder Mom and Dad had loved it here.

  Tia Rosa bumped into me. Her glasses had fogged up so that she groped around blindly. “I sorry. I no see with glasses. I no see worse with no glasses. You see waterfall? I paint it at art class with Miss Patty. She great teacher.”

  “I’d like to see it.”

  “You come my house and I show it you. I make delicious lunch.”

  Abuelita scoffed. “How you make delicious lunch? You no cook.”

  Tia Rosa’s face crumpled up. “I make best sandwich with tuna fish in Baños. Is world famous!” Her plump cheeks dimpled in pride at her accomplishment.

  Rolling her eyes, Abuelita said, “You open can. You great cook.”

  Coming to Tia Rosa’s defense, I said, “I can bake, but I’m a horrible cook.”

  “You put two cup salt in cookie? You put sugar in smashed potato?” countered Abuelita.

  “Is no fair. That before I get glasses. Sugar and salt look same.”

  Abuelita shook her head. “She confuse vinegar and olive oil. My kitchen stink for week.”

  “The bottle look same,” Tia Rosa huffed.

  As poor a cook as I claimed to be, I had to admit that not even I would confuse vinegar for oil. More than her eyesight was at fault there. Salt for sugar, on the other hand … I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one to make salt licks instead of cookies.

  “Like spray for stinky bathroom?” Abuelita harrumphed. “She use Glade to clean dust for two month and she no smell it.”

  I bit my lip to hold in my chuckle.

  Tia Rosa didn’t seem to mind. “My house smell like many lemons, okay?”

  “It stink like you make kitchen stink.”

  Tia Rosa had finally had enough. “Is not your kitchen. Is Sylvia’s. You bossy woman and you think you great cook, but Sylvia best.”

  “No is true. Adi is best—”

  “She no want to cook. She make the beautiful dress, but you no like. Why you no help her?” Tia Rosa didn’t back down when Abuelita got in her face.

  “Adi need stable work. The dresses is dream.”

  “She is young. If you good abuelita, you support her dream. You let her try.” Tia Rosa shoved her slipping glasses to their perch on her button nose.

  “If you so good tia, you make studio for Adi. She no have room for to work in small apartment.” Abuelita stepped forward, but Tia Rosa didn’t budge.

  “If you no do it, I do it. She good girl and she work hard.”

  “You let her fail. You terrible tia.”

  “Why she fail? Jake make good business. Sylvia make good business. They help her.” Tia Rosa looked at me and I tried to duck under the water before she dragged me into her argument. But I just couldn’t bring myself to dunk my head in the brown pool. “Jess help. She good on the computer.”

  “No. Today, Jess teach me fry the balls.”

  “They’re called goofballs,” I corrected, not too keen on becoming known as a fryer of balls.

  “How Jess help Adi? She no speak Spanish.” Abuelita looked so smug, I spoke before understanding the meaning of her words fully.

  “I’m signing up for classes at the language school next door.” Take that, Abuelita!

  Tia Rosa beamed at me in pride. (It could have been that her face was flushed from the volcano-heated water, but I liked the other option better.) “Hugo and Esmeralda wonderful teachers. You speak Spanish very fast and we make studio with Adi. You do the thing with computer. Is good plan!”

  She looked so happy, I couldn’t spoil her plans until I could think of how to do it gently. What she planned would take much longer than one little month and I had no intention of staying any longer than the return date on my airplane ticket.

  Abuelita pinched her pointy chin between her fingers. “I hate admit it, but you right. Baños no have good cake. Jess need stay more time. If Adi have studio, Jess have bake shop. Is good idea.”

  Suddenly, the hot water felt nauseating. I hopped up to sit on the ledge, leaving my feet to dangle in the pool while my body steamed in the cooler air. If I didn’t interfere soon, my troublesome friends would make plans for me and get their hopes up.

  “First things first, I need to learn Spanish. Remember, I’m only here for a month.”

  They unanimously waved off my reminder like they didn’t believe me.

  “Seriously, I’m only here for a month and I know I can’t learn enough Spanish to run a business. I can, however, teach Abuelita and Sylvia some of my recipes. I’d love to do that.”

  Again came the disbelieving, dismissive waves as they chattered between themselves in the language they knew I didn’t understand. The stinkers. If I left them to their own devices, I’d soon be running a doughnut shop in a foreign country. It was crazy.

  They clearly had a plan to which I was central. Hustling me into the cooler pool, and then into the changing rooms, they marched me back across town just as the English school above the ice cream shop was opening for classes. They enrolled me in an advanced class which guaranteed some level of fluency within a month, provided sufficient practice. We left there with my hands full of brochures and printouts of homework I needed to complete before my first class that evening.

  My head was still in a whirl, and my hair was still wet, when we returned to the restaurant and what I hoped was a hearty breakfast. Too much thinking and not enough caffeine and nourishment had turned out to be a terrible combination for my future, which Tia Rosa excitedly shared with Sylvia and Adi the second we set foot in the kitchen.

  Ignoring her, Sylvia smiled sympathetically at me and pushed the basket of croissants in my direction while Adi poured a cup of coffee and set it below my nose.

  “Fernanda called for you a few minutes ago,” Adi said. “She sounded frantic, but she wouldn’t tell me what was going on.”

  “Why don’t you call her while I stir up some scrambled eggs and ham?” suggested Sylvia, motioning to the phone on the wall above the coffee maker. “Her number is under Gustamante in the address book. It sounds like she’s home from school, so she’ll probably answer.”

  I punched in the numbers and Fernanda answered on the first ring.

  “Oh, good, it’s you. I don’t know what to do. My uncle José went missing last night and it’s all my fault.” Fernanda’s voice trembled as the words tumbled out of her.

  “Slow down, Fernanda. What happened?”

  I heard her sniff and knew she was crying. Finally, in a whisper, she said, “I killed Uncle José.”

  Chapter 22

  “What?” I asked more in astonishment than in a desire for her to repeat her confession.

  “Well, I didn’t actually kill him, but I might as well have done it. He’s gone and we don’t know where he is.”

  “Why do you say you killed José then?”

  The kitchen fell silent and the ladies gathered around me to listen, their hands over their mouths in various stages of shock.

  “I said I didn’t see who he fought with the day my aunt Maria was murdered, but it was a lie. I did see. I just didn’t want to believe that he was a … criminal.” She said the word in a whisper, like she still didn’t want to voice the accusation aloud.

  It had to be about a boy. A boy she liked. She didn’t have to tell me, but I encouraged her to, knowing it’d be a huge weight off her shoulders to unburden herself from the secret she suspected had not only brought her aunt to her early end, but had led to the disappearance of her uncle.

  Abuelita harru
mphed. "I still think José kill wife."

  If he had fled, I was inclined to agree with her. “Who was it that argued with him and do you think this person murdered your aunt?”

  “It was Christian,” she said after a very long pause.

  “And do you think Christian killed your aunt?”

  Eyes widened and gasps were stifled. Except for Abuelita. She looked annoyed. “Christian no do it. José kill wife. I feel in my gut,” she insisted stubbornly.

  I had been so convinced of the same just a few moments before, but as the pieces fell into place, a new suspect came to the front. A man who desperately wanted to improve his situation, who liked to flaunt his cash and so would need to have plenty on supply. A man who we now knew had fought with José the day Maria was found murdered in her car.

  Fernanda said, “I don’t want to think Christian capable of doing it, but she did take away one of his best contracts because she offered a much lower price to Dario. Christian was not happy about it at all. He was afraid he’d lose more business to her.”

  Yikes! He definitely had a motive. “Why do you think he might have killed your uncle? How do you know José isn’t alive?”

  “Well, I don’t know for sure, but Uncle José didn’t show up at lunch or dinnertime yesterday. And we got a call from Dario this morning asking where he was. Evidently, my uncle was supposed to bring a batch of liquor to him and he never showed up.”

  Not good. Not good at all. Abuelita had overheard the same at the bar the night before. José never showed. But was it because he ran away? Or because he was dead?

  “Fernanda, you need to tell all of this to Agent Vasquez. It could help him solve this case.”

  “No! What if he puts me in jail for lying?”

  “You’re a minor. He wouldn’t do that.” Not that I knew so for a certainty. “Tell him that you just remembered. That you didn’t know it might be important or something. If you don’t do it, I will.”

  “Oh, good! Thank you so much for talking to him for me. I knew I could trust you. You’re the best friend ever. Gotta go! My baby sister is crying. Bye!” The receiver clicked.