Letters From Al by Pieper, Kathleen (i am reading a book txt) 📗

"Okay, maybe some time later. Not now, if you don't mind. I don't want anything to spoil the way I feel right now. So, come on. I'm dying to get into those old trunks next."

"Okay, come on." Giving her a hand up he wiggled his eyebrows menacingly at her, making Maddy laugh.

Opening the heavy trunk lid revealed nothing but more old clothes and some newspapers in one. The period clothing Maddy decided to keep since they were in better condition from being in the trunk. The second trunk was beautiful with dull brass hinges and rich leather. Inside, more clothes and she felt her heart race. Alec lifted the heavy tray and underneath was several bundles of letters tucked away. One bunch was tied with a faded red ribbon and the others were tied with plain string.

"Oh, my goodness, Alec, look." Maddy whispered excitedly, holding up the two packets of yellowed letters.

"There you go with the whispering again. Is that what you're looking for?" Rocking back on his heels he paused and squinted.

"I don't know, but they've got to be as good as the diary. Do you see any documents, like stock certificates or anything?"

"When I read these it will be like seeing what great Aunt Madeline thought and felt. See, the ones with the red ribbon must be from her husband." Eyes wide, she stared from the letters to Alec excitedly. "The others, I don't know. There are initials A.C. in the return addresses. I can't tell until we get in some good light, they're so faded."

"Well, at least it's something." Alec said as he looked through the rest of the trunk but found nothing else.

"Come on. I can hardly wait to get downstairs and see what they say." Standing up, she was startled when the attic door slammed shut with a loud bang.

"What was that?" Alec said, frowning. The loud slam sent the slender cord with the light bulb swaying back and forth.

"Could that have been the wind?" Maddy asked in a small voice, clutching the letters and diary tightly.

"What wind, in an attic?" He replied tersely.

"It was just a suggestion. Besides, what else could have caused it?" They both made their way to the attic door. It was shut tight as if were locked.

"Alec, can you get it open? I know we didn't lock it when we came in. Is it stuck?"

"Well, it's stuck good. Could someone have locked us in?"

"Who would lock us in? That's silly, it must have slammed shut accidentally and then locked, didn't it?" Maddy was reaching for explanations as she stood closely behind Alec.

"If it slammed shut accidentally, someone had to lock it, Maddy. You didn't happen to bring any of those keys up you were talking about, did you?" She shook her head.

"I haven't gotten that far, finding out which keys go where. Do you have your cell phone?"

"No. What a time to leave it in the car." He belittled himself.

She went over to the dirty window and used the bottom of the curtain to wipe the grime off and was shocked to see movement below in her yard.

"Alec! Come here. Look! There's a strange man in grubby clothes running down the sidewalk away from the house."

Maddy pulled him closer to the window and pointed to the little clean circle she'd rubbed on the dirty window.

"Do you know him?" They watched the young man with long, stringy hair trying to hide something under his arm as he ran away. "What's that he's got in his hands?"

"Alec, he's got the leather briefcase, my Aunt's leather briefcase. Aunt Polly and I found it stuffed behind the old desk in the library. How could he know about that? Alec, we've got to stop him, maybe the missing bonds are in there."

"Well, it would help if we could get out of here." Alec said in frustration.

"It's locked remember? Besides, he just jumped into a van and drove off. We'll never catch them now." Alec joined her at the door, testing the hinges and finally leaning against it. Agitated Maddy flailed away at the door until he pulled her down to sit next to him.

"Maddy, settle down, I don't think it's locked, I think it's jammed or blocked from the outside. We can't move it. What was in that briefcase, anyway?"

"I'm not sure. Papers, I think old receipts. I hadn't had time to look at them closely. We found the case when we were cleaning and it didn't look like much more than bills and things so I thought I'd look them over later. I can't imagine anyone taking old papers, for goodness sakes. Oh, Alec, the briefcase was in my bedroom, I hope he didn't take my purse and cash. Why would anyone steal old papers unless they knew what they were?"

"Like what?" Alec said uneasily.

"Like old stock certificates that my aunt had misplaced. But how would anyone know about that particular briefcase?"

"That's a good question, Maddy. Come on, we have to get out of here somehow. I've got to call the office and get an APB out on the van. I wish I could have gotten the license plate number."

They looked out the window once more hoping to see someone passing by they could call to, but no one was around. Alec went back to work on the door while Maddy sat on the window ledge holding the letters and diary.

"You're just raising more dust with all that activity, Alec."

"Okay, we're going to have to break out this window, then and signal for help. Stand back." Just then she saw a familiar sight below. It was Tommy. Tommy the boy from the grocery store was coming to mow the lawn, she'd forgotten. He rode up on his ten-speed bike and leaned it against the garage, looking around. Yelling and screaming, they pounded on the window and managed to raise it a crack. Looking up, Tommy squinted into the sun and finally waved back.

"Tommy! Tommy! Up here, we're stuck. Come