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

were valuable, the question was now, where were they? If they did exist would they be worth anything? Her father's friend in Chicago said they were. Someone else thought so, too.

She needed to talk to Alec but he was still at work. Nervous, Maddy called his number but his secretary said he was out of the office, and no, he didn't answer his cell phone. Darn. It would have to keep. Suddenly she remembered Tommy again, she should go help him. Carefully she gathered up all her notes, the letters and diary and put them into plastic bags and tucked them safely out of sight in a canister in the kitchen.

Upstairs Tommy was sitting, resting among the old clothes, newspapers, and boxes. Maddy handed him a can of pop and he grinned, gratefully.

"Hey, thanks Miss Maddy, I sure am thirsty."

"Well, Tommy, you don't have to work yourself to death up here." She looked around in astonishment. "Goodness, I thought this would take a couple days and you're almost done."

"Aw, it wasn't so hard. Most of them boxes piled up in the corner were empty. I just smashed them flat." His face clouded, "Miss Maddy, I did accidentally knock a little hole in the wall when I was in that bedroom though. I'm awful sorry, the doorstopper is gone and the knob went through because of the rain and, I can fix it though. I helped Miss Madeline once before in the same spot, we put wads of paper and she made glue out of flour. It was fun."

Jumping up excitedly he wanted to fix it then and there, but Maddy sat back and shook her head. "Tommy, don't worry about it. You come back tomorrow and we'll fix it properly with some plaster. Come on downstairs and I'll pay you for today."

They chatted amiably as they went downstairs carrying armloads of garbage sacks, it was getting late by the time they said good-bye. A half hour later, hamburgers sizzled on the stove and a salad was tossed and waiting for Alec while she sat daydreaming.

"I thought I told you to keep the doors locked." Alec stood in the doorway, hands on hips, a disapproving look on his face. Maddy jerked back to the present.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to lock it when Tommy left a little while ago, sorry."

"You've got to be more careful." Shaking his head, he took off his gun belt and hat and laid them on the counter. Taking her in his arms, he chuckled, "I sure can't stay mad at you for very long. Like maybe thirty seconds. What were you thinking so hard about?"

"Well, to make a long story short, Al Capone invested money, the money my aunt wouldn't accept, in the stock market. Even though it crashed in 1929, she didn't lose it all. In this last letter, his attorney is supposed to have sent the actual bonds to her. Get this: $20,000.00 worth and that was back then." Eager to hear more, Alec's dark eyes widened and he gave a low whistle as he settled into a kitchen chair.

"So, where are they?"

"I said I found out what we were looking for, not where they are. I just hope she didn't toss them like Leland thinks she did."

"Hmmm, twenty thousand dollars in 1929 was a lot of money then. If the company's still solvent it could be worth a lot."

"It is. I called a friend of my dad's on the stock exchange, it changed names, sold or something, and it's still worth a lot of money if you have the actual bonds."

"Wow, again. Maddy this could mean a lot to you, money wise."

"I'm not going get my hopes up, yet. But A.C. is definitely Al Capone, everything fits, names, dates and places. And because she wouldn't accept the money, he hired someone to make the investments for her. Look, I copied them." Handing the copies with her notes on them to Alec, he began to read intently.

"There are seven or eight letters. The first one is okay, but the rest are only partly readable. The third and fourth ones indicate the investment being done for her without her knowledge and then this one, this is cool," she pulled up a chair close to his and flipped the pages, "the very last letter is typed, written by his attorney. This says it all."

"Okay, I see. He sent her the bonds and said to keep everything to her self."

Maddy sat back smugly, passing the hamburgers. "I rest my case. She was left a legacy by old Al Capone himself, for saving his life. Isn't this awesome?"

"Sure sounds that way." Alec leaned back in the chair thinking hard. "But where are they? Did she accept them? Give them away, or burn them?"

"Well, that's the question we all want answered." Maddy said putting the papers down neatly, her story loosing momentum. "That's all I found out."

"Well, that's a lot more than we knew before. I've been thinking about that all afternoon, too. What would she have done with a bunch of paper bonds? There has to be another safe deposit box or a secret hiding place." Alec folded his arms thoughtfully.

"Where would someone keep bonds?" Alec wondered aloud.

Just then the doorbell rang and they both looked guiltily at each other. "Let's not say anything to anyone yet." She said quickly and Alec agreed.

"Hey, Leland, what brings you out and about? You look a little rushed." Alec said as Maddy returned with Leland Lancaster following. Nodding a greeting to Alec, he sat down and accepted a cup of coffee

"I've been busy, real busy, is how I've been. I came across a few things that don't add up concerning your aunt's estate, Maddy."

"Like what?" Alec and Maddy exchanged uneasy glances.

"I want you to know I just found these copies stuck together in a file among her income tax records. They were in some things Jack Drake brought down from Omaha. I don't know if he meant to give them to