“We have to get out of here,” Lou Lou whispered urgently. She stuffed her camera and Danielle’s necklace into her satchel.
“We can’t go back up the stairs. We will run into whoever is up there,” Pea said. And whoever was up there was getting closer to the sótano door. Lou Lou recognized the male voice instantly.
“Jeremy!” she said. The softer female voice was difficult to hear, but Lou Lou assumed it was Elmira.
“I tried to follow Lou Lou but I lost her somewhere during the procession. I’m sorry,” Jeremy said.
“He’s talking about me!” Lou Lou whispered. The female voice said something she couldn’t make out. Jeremy spoke again.
“Yeah, the other one was with her, too. Peacock, right?”
“He’s talking about you!” said Lou Lou.
“Oh, I took care of the camellia. Don’t worry about that,” Jeremy said.
“He’s talking about Pinky!” The color of Lou Lou’s ears matched the bright red of her sneakers. She still couldn’t hear the woman’s replies, but she was more certain than ever that Jeremy was the Candle Lady’s accomplice.
Then Jeremy said, “I thought they’d figured it out, too. I tried to help them.”
Now Lou Lou was confused. Why would Jeremy, one of the criminals, want to help them?
“Pea, I don’t—”
“Shh,” Pea cautioned. The voices were even closer now.
“We’ll have to find a different way,” the woman’s voice said. “If only I could get him back. Quick, look around to see if he’s here.” Now Lou Lou could tell it wasn’t Elmira speaking. Still, the voice was familiar …
“Rosa!” Lou Lou exclaimed.
“What?” asked Pea.
“It’s Rosa up there with Jeremy!”
“Rosa? I thought she was on our side.” Before Lou Lou could reply, the talking stopped and she heard the back door open.
“Hola. What are you doing here?” Elmira had arrived. “Poking around without my permission, I presume! Looking for a bunny, perhaps?”
“Please, please return my pet,” Rosa pleaded. “We haven’t told anyone about your crimes. You know that—you’ve been watching us all the time.”
“Yeah, c’mon. Just give him back to Rosa. And stop all this mischief. You’ve done enough damage.” This was Jeremy speaking. It was an odd choice of words for Elmira’s accomplice. Then Lou Lou had a startling thought. What if Jeremy was one of the good guys?
“Pea, I might have been wro —”
“Yes, I know. Sounds like he has been on our side all along.” Pea saved Lou Lou from admitting her mistake.
“You know I can’t give that bunny back,” Lou Lou heard Elmira say. “And you’re loco if you think I can stop now. It’s true that I only planned to make enough money to pay for my Candle Lady Caribbean Cruise so I could finally rest my tired bones on vacation. But now that I have made reservations for the Candle Lady Chalet Getaway and the Candle Lady Carnival in the spring, I must continue my work.”
“Tía, how can you be so cruel?” It sounded like Rosa was crying now.
“Our abuelo would be ashamed if he knew how you were treating Rosa and the shop’s loyal customers,” Jeremy said. “What happened to the kind and helpful tía that I knew as a little kid? How did you become so coldhearted?” Lou Lou and Pea exchanged glances. ¿Tía? ¿Abuelo? Were Elmira, Rosa, and Jeremy related?
“It’s not like I enjoy hurting people, mis queridos,” Elmira said. “I love to help with everyone’s problems, but it’s important that my customers have enough problems so that I can solve them with a sale. That’s why you can’t tell anyone about my little pranks. You should have taken the share of the profits I kindly offered you to keep quiet. You wouldn’t believe how many customers have fallen for my scheme. It has been a smashing success!”
“We don’t want your money. We want to do the right thing, Tía,” Rosa said.
“Hacerlo correcto,” Elmira mocked Rosa. “You made a bad decision, niña. If you’d accepted my money, I wouldn’t have taken your pet to ensure your silence. And I know about those tricks you played painting the murals. Too bad no one really pays attention to the details except for those silly little girls.”
Lou Lou had had enough. It was one thing for Elmira to dismiss all the troubles she’d caused in El Corazón as “little pranks.” It was quite another for her to call Lou Lou and Pea silly or little. Without bothering with her chrysanthemums, Lou Lou raced up the stairs. Pea was right behind her and Helado bounded at Pea’s heels. Lou Lou threw open the sótano door and was met by three very surprised faces.
“Now you listen here, Elmira the Candle Lady. We know everything! You ruined Magdalena’s dress and stole Danielle’s necklace. You embarrassed Ella Divine and melted all the sugar skulls. You bunnynapped Helado. And worst of all, you killed Pinky! You’re the silly one if you think you are getting away with this, because we have proof that you’re the Mural Mystery culprit!”
As if he knew that proof was his cue, Helado jumped from behind Pea straight into Rosa’s arms. The surprise on Rosa’s face changed instantly to a beaming smile.
“¡Mi mascota!” Rosa kissed the bunny’s ears. “I can’t believe it’s really you, safe and sound.”
“We have photos and evidence of your other crimes, too, Elmira,” Pea said. Lou Lou fished Danielle’s necklace and her camera from her satchel.
“You’re busted, Tía Elmira!” Jeremy said.
The color drained from Elmira’s face and she looked crumpled, like someone had let all the air out of her.
“Give me the keys to the shop, Tía,” said Rosa. It was the first time Lou Lou had heard her raise her soft voice. “Leave now and maybe you will suffer no further punishment for your bad deeds.”
Jeremy closed Elmira’s suitcase and handed it to her. “Good thing you’re already packed.”
Elmira faced the small group. Lou Lou swore she saw the Candle Lady’s eyes watering. She dropped the keys to the shop on the floor and edged toward the exit.
“I am truly sorry about your camellia, Lou Lou Bombay,” Elmira said, actually sounding sincere. With that, she turned and bolted, banging the door behind her.
Lou Lou stared at where the Candle Lady had been. She felt a little bad for Elmira but only a little. She may have been a good person once, but now she’d inflicted too many tragedies on El Corazón.
Pea picked up the keys to the shop and handed them to Rosa.
“So Elmira is your aunt?” Pea asked Rosa and Jeremy.
“You got it!” Jeremy said.
“This candle shop has been in our family for years,” Rosa explained. “Our grandfather left it to me when he died and Tía Elmira was supposed to manage it until I was old enough to take it over. At first, she was a great candle lady, but when business was slow, she started spying on people to find out about their problems and sell them candles.”
“That makes sense. I always wondered how she knew about Uno and Dos’s feline feud,” Pea said to Lou Lou.
“Then it got worse when she started hurting people,” Rosa added.
“Hurting people and plants.” Lou Lou made sure Pinky was not forgotten.
“Right, people and plants and animals, too,” Rosa said.
“And you didn’t tell anyone about her crimes because she was threatening your bunny?” Pea asked.
“Exactamente. She told me I would never see my pet again if I revealed her secrets. She was always watching me and Jeremy. We didn’t even dare to speak her name out loud. And we also didn’t want to bring shame on our family’s candle shop by telling the world that our tía was a bad person. Our beloved abuelo worked hard to build this business. It wouldn’t have been fair to him to tarnish the shop’s reputation.”
“Plus, it would have been difficult to convince our family to believe us without proof,” Jeremy added. “Elders like Tía Elmira are respected in our family. We couldn’t just go around accusing her of things. We had no idea she was keeping all the evidence in a secret cellar until you two popped out of it!”
“But you thought if someone could figure out for themselves that Elmira was the culprit, they could help you without her suspecting and without making a big fuss that would hurt the shop.” It was all making sense now. “That’s why you changed the murals,” Lou Lou said.
“Yes!” replied Rosa. “And my primo, Jeremy, thought up the riddle.”
“I love riddles!” Jeremy said, and made a funny face. Lou Lou rolled her eyes at his goofiness, but she couldn’t help smiling. It seemed she and Jeremy had something in common after all.
“That’s why he had Rosa’s phone number. Because they are cousins,” Pea whispered to Lou Lou. And the phone conversation that she’d overheard must have been with Rosa, not Elmira, thought Lou Lou.
“So when I saw you at the crafts store you were buying paint for Rosa?” Lou Lou asked.
“Spying on me, eh?” said Jeremy. “Not very neighborly.” He winked good-naturedly. “That’s right.”
“And our plan with the murals seemed to be working.” Rosa picked up her story where she’d left off. “We were relieved that you two noticed them and wanted to solve the mystery on your own! But at the end, I suspected Tía Elmira knew what was going on. That’s why I asked Jeremy to keep an eye on you during the procession, to make sure you were okay.”
“I think it’s my fault that she knew,” Lou Lou said. “I told Elmira about the murals because I wanted her advice.”
“She fooled everyone into trusting her,” said Rosa. “What’s important is that you stopped her from committing more crimes—and you saved my dear mascota. Thank you so much, Lou Lou Bombay and Peacock Pearl. I will be forever grateful to you.”
“Yeah, thanks!” Jeremy said.
“De nada,” said Pea.
“It was no big deal,” Lou Lou added, even though she knew it really was a very big deal.
They all stood silent for a moment. Lou Lou’s stomach was growling since she’d forgotten to eat her sandwich. Her eyes stung from the black skeleton makeup that had run during their earlier game of dodge-Jeremy, and she was exhausted from all the excitement.
“Head home for cake and cocoa?” Lou Lou asked Pea just as Pea’s phone rang.
“¿Magdalena?” Pea answered. “¡Lo siento, lo siento! No, I didn’t hear my phone ring before. Sí, estamos en the candle shop.” Pea hung up. “We’d better go. Magdalena is coming to walk with us. Would you care to join us for a snack?” she asked Jeremy and Rosa politely.
“That’s very nice of you, but we are supposed to meet up with our family,” Rosa said. “Perhaps another time.”
Lou Lou and Pea said goodbye to Rosa and Jeremy. Rosa even put Helado down to hug them both. Lou Lou fetched her hat, Pinky’s altar, and Pea’s parasol, and they were heading for the candle shop’s back door when Pea turned around and called to Rosa.
“What’s the bunny’s real name?”
Rosa smiled. “I was calling him Ralph. But I like Helado much better. Yes, he will be Helado from now on.”