Letters From Al by Pieper, Kathleen (ebook audio reader TXT) 📕

"Yeah, they looked like giant money, paper money. But she just stuffed them inside the wall and plugged the hole and pasted them all over to make it smooth for the wallpaper. It looked real neat, too."

Maddy sat back on her heels, staring at the wall and grinning. The corner of a piece of paper caught her eye. Carefully she pulled the old wallpaper away, the glue cracked and dropped at her feet. Finally a large piece pulled away to reveal an entire section of wall neatly papered with the missing bonds!

"See, that's what I told you. Yep, that's them all right, the old papers. Gee, they look pretty good yet, don't they?"

"Yes, Tommy." She hugged him tightly, "They look real good. You are a genius. We found them. We found the missing bonds, Tommy. They were here all the time, and we didn't even realize it."

She jumped up and down and hugged him again, and doing a little jig in the midst of the mess.

Tommy looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"I've got to tell Alec and Aunt Polly. Now Tommy, this is very important. Don't touch the wall. Don't do any more work on the wall until we show Aunt Polly and Alec, okay?"

He squinted up at the wall and shrugged, nodding. "Gee, if they were worth something, I sure wouldn't have used them."

"It wasn't your fault, Tommy. They probably weren't worth much when you used them. But they are now and I'm going to buy you something really special. Just don't go anywhere until I get back with Alec, okay?"

Maddy flew downstairs, nearing falling headlong on the rug in front of the front door as she grabbed the phone to call Alec. No answer. She ran to the back door and over to Aunt Polly's where Alec and she were calmly having a conversation by the back gate. When he saw her, he held fast food sacks up like a trophy.

"Alec! Come, quickly!" Maddy caught her breath and screamed his name. The look on her face and the urgency in her voice made him drop the food and start running, his hand on his pistol. Maddy could hardly speak, she was so excited. Aunt Polly came huffing and puffing behind him.

"Maddy, what's wrong? Is someone in the house?" She shook her head and took a deep breath before grabbing his hand and motioning them to follow her.

"No, nothing like that. It's not who's in the house, it's what's in the house. Oh, Alec, I've found them, or rather, Tommy and I found them. He's guarding them now, come on." Still shaking and half-crying in excitement Maddy started up the stairs with her friends close behind, still not sure what was wrong.

"What? Maddy, what did you find? Why is Tommy guarding anything?" Alec tried to calm her down.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm just so excited. But Alec, we found the missing bonds."

"You found them where?" Incredulous, he looked at Aunt Polly and then back at her.

"You've got to see this to believe it. They couldn't have been any safer than if they'd been in the bank. Come on." Pulling Alec along, they burst into the back bedroom where Tommy sat staring at the wall. Slowly Alec walked up to the section of torn wallpaper and looked at the neatly pasted bonds on the wall. He gazed closely at them and let out a whoop.

"Maddy, you hit the jackpot. I can't believe it."

Aunt Polly inched closer and removed her glasses as she clucked and shook her head in disbelief.

"That's a lot of money pasted on a wall. What are you going to do with it?" Alec looked at her.

"Not what am I going to do with it, you're going to be my husband, it's what are we going to do with it? Besides, I told you my dream. If what I think is true, the town of Nielsen just got a library and we got a bed and breakfast."

"Maddy, that's great. You still want to do that? You have the most generous heart. That way people won't think I married you just for your money. You're too good to be true and I love you." He was laughing and hugging Maddy. Aunt Polly and Tommy laughed and danced a little jig behind them.

"I was the richest woman in town before I found the money, Alec." Maddy stopped moving and looked up. Her smile was eager and alive with affection and pure delight as she hugged him tightly.

There was a steady stream of visitors to the house until professional wallpaper people came and carefully removed every scrap of the bonds from the wall. The newspaper did a big story on it, the news wires too. They totaled up everything, and Leland and the bank figured Maddy's bonds were worth several million dollars. Which Maddy promptly converted and sold to start the "Madeline O'Keefe Memorial Library Fund," named in honor of her dear aunt. Tommy wasn't left out either. Money was set aside for his education, and a computer he wanted.

Shortly before the wedding Alec came over with disturbing news. After Maddy was attacked, he'd made a lot of trips between Nielsen and Omaha concerning the case. After he returned from his last trip he called both Maddy and Aunt Polly to his office.

"Well, we finally figured out who told Fred Simmons about the diary and letters and who hired him to scare you and steal them.” Alec’s voice was deep and serious, “Leland did overhear us talking and unwittingly told Jack Drake about it.”

"Of course, my aunt’s attorney, Jack Drake, would have merely had to look in the files. It's the missing piece," Maddy stated, the thread that tied everything together. "The one letter was signed by an attorney named Drake after Al Capone died and left her the bonds. Reginald J. Drake, it was Jack Drake’s grandfather."

"No wonder he was so accommodating when he was here. He knew the bonds were still around and worth something. That's