Kyle led the way into City Hall’s marble foyer, which was lined with busts of past mayors and statues of Diego and Giles. It was bustling with people, and Lou Lou and Pea nearly bumped into a bride and groom posing for a photograph.
“Perdón,” Pea said, then added, “¡Felicidades!”
Lou Lou, Pea, and Jeremy followed Kyle up a staircase to a long hallway. As they walked, they passed Mayor Montoya’s dark office and Lou Lou thought about poor Putt Putt the puli.
“We have arrived, Earthlings!” Kyle said when they reached a door marked CITY ARCHIVES/ARCHIVOS DE LA CIUDAD.
“Quick, open it and let’s go in before someone sees us,” Lou Lou said. Kyle unzipped his backpack and took out a giant key ring holding at least fifteen keys.
“Yowza! What do you need all those for?” Jeremy asked.
“To unlock the mysteries of the universe, of course,” replied Kyle. “Also one is for my house, one is for my auntie’s house, one is for my sister’s room—but don’t tell her I have it—one is for—”
“Okay, okay. Just let us in,” Lou Lou interrupted.
“I always forget which key it is,” Kyle said. Lou Lou stamped her foot impatiently. “I’ll just have to try a few.” As Kyle tested the keys in the lock, Lou Lou noticed that the door on her left said VICE-MAYOR’S OFFICE. It was slightly ajar, so she could see that the office was empty.
“Pea!” She nudged her best friend. “That’s Andy Argyle’s office! I’m going to take a quick peek.” Before Pea could answer, Lou Lou ducked inside. Lou Lou’s nerves felt jumpy—it wouldn’t be good to get caught snooping around the vice-mayor’s office. But what if there was a clue that Andy Argyle was hiding? Lou Lou had to have a look just in case.
The vice-mayor’s office was furnished with a large wooden desk, bookshelves, and two chairs. A black-and-white argyle jacket hung from a coatrack in the corner above two pairs of Andy Argyle’s shiny shoes. On the wall near the desk was a photograph of Amanda smirking in front of a gazebo by a river. To its left was another photo of her father in a gazebo in a field, and a third of the Argyles together in a gazebo in front of a grand house.
Lou Lou walked over to the desk. The surface was bare except for ten or more miniature gazebos, each one different. How strange, thought Lou Lou. She moved on to the bookcase, which held a row of issues of the same magazine, Gazebo Enthusiast. The vice-mayor sure does like gazebos, she thought.
On the upper shelf of the bookcase was a small gazebo statue, a book called The Top Ten Gazebos of the World, and gazebo bookends. Lou Lou stood on her tiptoes to see the top of the bookcase and caught a glimpse of the ceiling. The entire thing was painted to look like the dome of a fancy gazebo.
“Wow!” Lou Lou said. Even though she didn’t like Andy Argyle, she couldn’t help but be impressed. Then Lou Lou heard Pea call her name.
“Lou Lou! Kyle opened the door! Hurry!” Lou Lou scampered back to join her friends. Kyle and Jeremy were already inside the City Archives, but Pea was waiting at the door.
“Find anything?” Pea asked.
“Nothing related to the diary,” Lou Lou replied. “But a lot of gazebo stuff. I’ll tell you more about it later. Let’s go in!”
Pea hesitated. They were about to break the rules by going into the City Archives, and Pea wasn’t a fan of rule-breaking. Lou Lou could understand, but the importance of looking for the diary was greater than other concerns.
“Don’t worry,” said Lou Lou. “Just think of how nice it will be to get the Bonanza and your hats back.” Pea took a deep breath, nodded, and followed Lou Lou through the door.
Once they were all inside, Kyle flipped on the light and dimmed it to the lowest setting.
“Shouldn’t we keep it off?” Pea asked nervously.
“No one will notice it if we shut the door,” Jeremy said, pulling the heavy door closed behind them.
The City Archives was a medium-size room that looked like a mix of Abuela Josie’s attic, a library, a museum, and an office. There were stacks of dusty books, overstuffed filing cabinets, and photographs on the walls. Lou Lou glanced at a row of photos from previous Bonanzas, each of which was labeled with the city’s age and the name of the host neighborhood. At the end of the row was a blank spot and a label that said, Two Hundred Years, El Corazón. It made Lou Lou’s ears burn to see that someone had crossed out El Corazón and scrawled Verde Valley underneath. Lou Lou had nothing against Verde Valley, but the Bonanza situation felt so unfair to her own neighborhood.
Lou Lou stood beside Pea and looked at the images from past celebrations. Some showed caracoles, some were crowd scenes, and others were photos of various performances. Pea gazed longingly at photographs of fancy hats, including one of a girl surrounded by hatboxes, captioned Marta Oro, Milliner’s Apprentice, 1928.
“We’d best start looking for the diary so we can get your hats back, Pea,” Lou Lou said.
Lou Lou and Pea went to help Jeremy and Kyle sort through a pile of books. But first, Pea noticed a glass display case in one corner half-hidden by a large box.
“I think I see Giles’s actual jaunty cap!” Pea went to have a look. “The fabric has worn so well for being—” She stopped in mid-sentence and crouched down to peer at a lower shelf in the case. “I found it!” she said, careful to keep her exclamation to a whisper. “I found the diary!”
Lou Lou, Kyle, and Jeremy rushed over. Sure enough, there was the small book on the same shelf as a letter opener engraved with the initials GW.
“Wow! Great job, Pea!” said Lou Lou. “Now let’s take a look before someone notices that we’re here!” Lou Lou tugged at the handle of the display case, but it didn’t open. She changed her grip and tugged again.
“Hmm,” she said when it still didn’t budge. She was reminded of a time not so long ago when she and Pea were trying to open a door in the candle shop. All it took was some muscle and determination—surely the same was true here. She gave the handle a harder pull. No movement. “Arrr!” she said like one of her dad’s movie pirates.
“Do you think it’s locked?” asked Pea.
“There’s no place for a key. It’s just stuck,” replied Lou Lou.
“Move aside, por favor!” said Jeremy. “I’ll open it for you. Piece of cake.” Jeremy gave it his best pull, but the door didn’t open for him either.
“Piece of cake, huh?” said Lou Lou.
“Dun dun dun!” From behind Lou Lou, Pea, and Jeremy came a noise indicating that they should be impressed. “Comet Cop to the rescue!” Kyle cried. “I’ll open the door with my invisible super-strength multipurpose space tool!” Kyle pulled something from his bag.
“That’s a regular old screwdriver, Kyle,” Lou Lou said.
“And we can see it, so it’s not invisible,” Pea pointed out.
Kyle ignored them and stuck the screwdriver into the little space under the display door. He pried it open with a pop!
“Told you it was multipurpose!” he said.
“I don’t think we can argue with that,” said Jeremy. “Job well done, Kyle.” Kyle beamed and looked at Pea. She smiled.
“Yes, buen trabajo!” Pea said.
Lou Lou picked up the diary from inside the display case and flipped through it. The pages weren’t blank, but luckily the diary wasn’t very long, so it wouldn’t take too much time to read. Lou Lou was going to suggest she skim through and read passages aloud while the others listened for clues that it was a fake.
But then they heard the door creak open.