two reasons for their decision. The first reason was that Mara had a knack for solving mysteries, and the second reason was that they were curious how a pile of bricks and chicken soup would help solve a mystery.
Mara searched the internet for someone with the name Douglas Conway, and she found a billionaire by that name that lived in Hartford. He had worked hard all of his life, building a publishing firm that was worth billions of dollars.
Mr. Conway was eighty-nine years old and had been president of the company until he turned eighty, and then he retired. Having grown up during the Great Depression, Mr. Conway was known to be tight fisted with his money.
When Mara and her parents arrived in Hartford, they checked into a hotel and began making inquiries as to where they could find Mr. Conway.
The next morning, the Louis family drove to Mr. Conway’s estate. Mr. Louis knocked on the door, and when a security officer answered the door, Mr. Louis asked to speak with Mr. Conway.
The officer told him to make an appointment and then he closed the door. Mara was not going to give up so quickly. She knocked again, and when the door opened, Mara politely asked to speak with Mr. Conway. When the security officer refused to let her in, Mara began pleading, “Please tell Mr. Conway that Mara Louis is here to help him solve his mystery.” The security officer just shut the door in her face.
As Mara slowly walked to the car, she turned around to look at the mansion one last time. She saw a curtain was pulled back and an elderly man was watching her. Mara waved at the man, and then continued walking to the car.
Mara heard the door open up and the security officer told Mara and her parents to stop. “Mr. Conway will see you now”, he said. “I apologize for turning you away.”
Mara and her parents were escorted into a large room, where they were introduced to Mr. Conway. When the security officer did not attempt to leave the room, Mara asked if they could meet in private. Mr. Conway asked the security officer to leave the room.
Mara introduced herself and her parents to Mr. Conway. “Aren’t you the little girl who has solved several mysteries?” asked Mr. Conway. Mara was a little irritated at being called a little girl, but she let it go. “Yes” she told Mr. Conway, “That’s why we’re here. Over the past several months, I have begun having psychic visions, which have helped me solve mysteries.”
“I know that this will sound strange, but over the past week or so, I have had visions concerning you. Sometimes, my visions are a series of images that flash through my mind like a puzzle. Sometimes, I can put the puzzle together, sometimes I cannot.
Mr. Conway listened patiently, as Mara continued. “From my latest vision, I sense that you are deeply troubled by something. The images I see in my visions do not make a lot of sense. Maybe you can shed some light as to what they mean. Besides your name, and the name of Hartford, I see the name Greg, a tree, a padlock, a pile of bricks and chicken soup.”
When Mara had finished, she noticed that Mr. Conway looked surprised. “Are you in some kind of trouble, Sir?” asked Mara.
Then Mr. Conway began telling his story; “I own a storage locker in town. In it, I kept a large pile of gold bricks, which I have been accumulating over several years. There were over three thousand gold bricks, each worth approximately four hundred thousand dollars.”
“I had not been to the storage locker in over a year. A couple of weeks ago, I went to check on the gold bricks, and they were all missing.”
“Did you go to the police?” asked Mara.
“No, I didn’t, because it is very embarrassing. You see, I grew up during the Great Depression, and I have always been afraid of the stock market collapsing again, leaving me with nothing. So, I have been investing in gold bars, in case such a disaster should occur. If people knew of my fear, and my obsession with gold, they would think I was eccentric, or worse, crazy.”
“By my calculations, the gold is worth over a billion dollars,” said Mara.
“Who else knew of it?”
“Nobody that I know of”, said Mr. Conway. I have only one living relative; a great nephew named Greg Lockwood.”
Mara was busy writing everything down in her notebook. “Could Greg have found out about the gold?” she asked.
“Maybe.” said Mr. Conway. “He has borrowed my truck from time to time, and the key to the storage locker is on the same key ring as my truck keys.”
“What does Greg do for a living?” asked Mara. “Is he wealthy?”
“I’d say that he is probably worth twenty million dollars,” said Mr. Conway. “He is a building contractor. He laid brick for several years, and he gradually started his own construction company.”
“Where does he live?” asked Mara
“Here in Hartford” said Mr. Conway. “He is currently finishing the construction of a house which will be auctioned off, to raise money for charity. I paid for the building materials, and his company did the labor free of charge. Greg is also personally doing the brickwork on the house himself.”
Mara started comparing the notes, with the notes she had made about her vision. “How could I have been so dumb?” asked Mara. When I saw the word ‘bullion’ in my vision, I automatically thought of chicken soup. However, the real meaning was ‘gold bullion’. The images of the tree and the padlock meant Lockwood. I also saw an image of a house and a street sign for 89th Street. Does that street name mean anything to you?”
“That’s the street, where Greg is building the house,” said Mr. Conway.
“Will you please take me to that house?” asked Mara. “It has to be when Mr. Lockwood isn’t there. I have a very bad feeling that he is involved with the theft of your gold.”
“Well then, right now would be a very good time” said Mr. Conway, “because Greg is out of town for the day.”
Mr. Conway had his driver bring the car around, and he, Mara and her parents, drove over to the house on west 89th Street. When they got to the house, Mara noticed that there was a very tall fence surrounding the house. When she asked Mr. Conway what it was for, he explained that it was to keep the public away, until the day of the auction, to build anticipation, and suspense. He had been auctioning off houses for charity for several years, and he found that more bidders turned up on the day of the auction because of their curiosity. It also brought a higher price for the house.
When Mr. Conway unlocked the gate that led to the property, Mara and her parents got their first glimpse of the house.It was a two-story house with oak siding around the second story and the top two thirds of the first floor. The bottom three feet of the house was red brick, going all around the house. There were several large windows with blue shutters. Mara thought that it was one of the most beautiful houses that she had ever seen.
As Mara and her parents were given a tour of the house, Mara looked carefully at each room. She was looking at it in two ways. First, she imagined that her family lived there. It was without a doubt, the most extraordinary house that Mara had ever been in before. Secondly, Mara was looking for any clues, anything that did not seem to fit; something that might help her locate the missing gold.
There was no basement, and no secret room where the gold could be hidden, if it was on the property at all. After the tour, Mara asked Mr. Conway if there were any blueprints readily available. Mr. Conway led her to the kitchen, opened a drawer, took out a stack of papers, and handed them to Mara.
Mara’s parents and Mr. Conway went into the living room, to let Mara have some time to study the papers. After a while, Mara walked into the living room holding some papers. “There are two sets of blueprints,” she told them. “The first set is dated fourteen months ago, and the second one is dated four months later. As far as I can see, there are only two differences.”
“In the second set of blueprints, the foundation is wider and deeper, all the way around the house. Also, the second se
t of plans shows the brick trim around the house is twice as thick as in the original plans.”
“I have a hunch where the gold is.” Mara then asked her parents and Mr. Conway to follow her outside. Mara took a chisel that was lying on the porch, and after getting permission, she chipped away at the brick trim. After a few minutes, one of the bricks came loose.
Behind the brick, they all saw something shiny. Mara reached in, and removed a very heavy brick made of pure gold.
“This is what I think happened,” said Mara. “I think that your great nephew saw you visit the storage locker last year, and he got curious. He made an excuse to borrow your truck, so that he could hold of your keys. After he unlocked the storage locker, and saw the gold, he formulated a plan to steal it from you without you getting suspicious. He made a copy of the key, so that he would have his own key.”
“Mr. Lockwood made the new set of plans, reinforcing the foundation for the added weight of all that gold, which according to my calculations would weigh almost five tons. He also modified the design, to make the brick trim twice as thick, to hide the gold bricks behind the red bricks. Since the house is secluded, and surrounded by the fence, he brought loads of the gold bricks from his hiding place, and he did his own brickwork, in private, when everyone else had finished their work on the house.”
“But, it doesn’t make sense” said Mr. Conway. “This house was to be auctioned off and then he would lose all of the gold.”
“I think that Mr. Lockwood was planning to bid on the house himself,” said Mara. “That way, he could keep the gold hidden for several years if he had to.”
“Thank you very much, Mara,” said Mr. Conway. “Now, I have the unpleasant job of calling the police.”
“Not necessarily” said Mara. When she saw the puzzled looks on their faces, Mara explained. She suggested a way to keep Mr. Lockwood out of jail, and teach him a lesson about stealing. After she told Mr. Conway, her idea, Mr. Conway nodded his head in agreement, saying that it just might work.
Mr. Conway started making some phone calls. In order to carry out the plan, Mr. Lockwood had to be kept away from the house for the entire week before the auction. Mr. Conway convinced his great nephew to accompany him to Los Angeles, on business.
Once Mr. Conway and Mr. Lockwood were on a plane to LA, some of Mr. Conway’s trusted friends from the publishing firm, arrived at the house with plenty of trucks. Under Mara’s supervision, they disassembled the outer brick wall and loaded the gold bricks onto the trucks. When they were finished and all three thousand gold bricks had been loaded, they transported them to the storage locker, which had a new lock.
After the gold was securely locked up, Mara headed back to the house with her parents. They returned, just as some bricklayers arrived at the house. With a crew of ten men, the double thickness of brickwork was completed in less than a day.
After the scraps were cleaned up, Mara could not tell the difference between the old and the new brickwork. By the time, Mr. Conway and his great nephew returned from LA, the mortar had dried.
On Sunday morning, the day of the auction, the fence was removed. Everyone got his or her first view of the newly completed house. Tours were given to all interested persons.
At one o’clock p.m., the auction began. Within thirty minutes, the bid was up to three hundred thousand dollars. The auctioneer reminded the bidders that all proceeds would go to charity. By the time the bid was up to five hundred thousand dollars, the bidding was starting to slow down.
It was at this point, that Greg Lockwood started bidding. When he bid a million dollars, he said it was because he had become sentimentally attached to the house. Just as the bidding was about to close, another person bid two million dollars. Greg got a little nervous, as he recognized the bidder as a millionaire philanthropist who supported worthy causes.
The bidding progressed to nine million dollars. Greg had good reason to bid so high. He knew that the hidden gold bricks alone were worth over a billion dollars. When Mr. Lockwood bid ten million dollars, the other bidder dropped out and the house was awarded to Mr. Lockwood. He wrote out a check to the charity foundation, and the papers were signed, giving him possession of the house.
Later that day, as Mara and her parents were saying goodbye to Mr. Conway, the gentleman noticed that Mara seemed troubled by something. “What’s the matter, Mara?” he asked. “Is there something that you want to ask me?”
“Yes,” said Mara “but it’s none of my business.”
“Nonsense” replied Mr. Conway, “Ask away”.
“Okay then,” said Mara, “Are you happy? I mean, with all of your money, are you truly happy?”
Mr. Conway pondered the question for a moment, and then replied, “Well, to tell you the truth, I thought that money and power would make me feel good, but I’m not really that happy.”
“Mr. Conway, when you die, who will get all of your money?” asked Mara.
“I’ll probably leave it all to charity,” said Mr. Conway. “I have no family, except for my great nephew and he is a crook.”
Mara smiled and said; “I know how you can become extremely happy for the rest of your life. Why wait until you are gone to give your money to charity? Why not give it away now? From what I have read, you are worth as much as twenty billion dollars. It would take you at least ten years to give it away.”
“Do you have any charities in mind?” Mr. Conway asked Mara.
“Well, there are a lot of schools around the nation that do not have enough books, and a lot of schools cannot afford computers, music, art and sports programs. Some schools do not have adequate playgrounds or libraries. In addition, many kids do not have proper clothing, or enough to eat.”
“Mr. Conway, you would be able to see the results of your donations immediately, and believe me, you would be happier than you have ever been in your life.”
Mr. Conway looked at Mara with a big smile and said; “Mara, you are a very wise girl. You have helped me to see how foolish and selfish I have been all of these years.”
“You just had your priorities mixed up.,” said Mara.
Mr. Conway hugged Mara and thanked her, before she and her parents drove back to Baltimore.
The next morning, Mr. Conway met with his lawyers and his accountants. The first thing he did was to make out a new will, leaving everything he had left at the time of his death, to charity. He specifically excluded his great nephew Greg Lockwood from inheriting any of his estate. Then, he started planning the distribution of his fortune.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Conway invited his great nephew to accompany him to a press conference. When they arrived at the conference, Greg noticed that it was being held at the storage locker. He became very nervous, but he tried to act as if he knew nothing about the storage locker, or its contents.
Mr. Conway began the press conference, by telling the reporters about his life. “For years, I have had the perfect life”, he said. “I had the best of everything; more money than I could ever want, and the power that went with it. But, recently, a very special person pointed out that I have never been really happy.”
“I am now eighty-nine years old. I may die tomorrow, or I may live for another twenty years. From this day forward, I will dedicate the rest of my life to helping the children in this nation, who are living in poverty, and who don’t have the means of getting a good education.”
“In this storage locker behind me, I have been storing gold bars for several years, hoarding them, because I was afraid of the stock market crashing and becoming poor. I was a child during the Great Depression, and I know what it is like to be poor. I never wanted to live through that again. However, while thinking only of myself, I ignored the poverty around me. Well, no more, will I ignore it. This gold is the first of my money that will go to helping schools and children around the nation.”
As Mr. Conway unlocked and opened the door to the storage locker, Greg Lockwood planned to act surprised when everyone saw the room was empty. However, as it turned out, Greg actually was surprised, when he saw that all of the gold was back in the storage locker.
Greg told his uncle that he had a meeting to go to, and took a cab to the house that he had just bought in the auction. Using some tools, he quickly chipped a few bricks loose and he was horrified at what he saw. Behind the front layer of bricks, was a second layer of bricks. The gold bricks were gone. Frantically, he removed several more bricks, and found just more bricks.
Greg realized that he had spent ten million dollars, half of his money, to buy a house that was not even worth one million dollars. He was too ashamed, embarrassed and humiliated to confront his uncle.
A month later, Mara received a nice letter from Mr. Conway, telling her how happy he was. He was getting hundreds of letters from schoolchildren, thanking him for his generosity, and for making them feel important, like they actually mattered to someone.
Mara was very happy for Mr. Conway. She was also happy for herself, because in less than three months, she would be going to a dude ranch in Texas, for a much-needed vacation.
I Am Not Worthy
After Mara had used her psychic dreams to solve the mysteries in Hawaii and Connecticut, Mara began wondering why she had been given this great responsibility. Therefore, she decided to meet with Pastor Joe, from her church. Since she often volunteered to help around the church, her mother was not suspicious when Mara told her that she was going to ride her bike over to the church.
When Mara got to the church, Pastor Joe invited her into his office and asked her what was on her mind. Mara did not know just how to begin, as she did not know if Pastor Joe would believe in psychic phenomena.
“Pastor Joe” she began, “for several months now, I have been having psychic dreams and visions, where I can see into the future. I know that it sounds crazy, but it is true. Do you promise that what I tell you stays between us?”
Pastor Joe promised to tell no one else. “Can you elaborate more about these psychic dreams?” he asked.
Mara explained how she first noticed her newfound ability. Then, she explained what happened in Hawaii, where she had dreamed about the man who would later kidnap the Japanese emperor, and his two children. She explained how she was able to swim through an underground cave and call for help and about the dolphins that saved her from the sharks. Pastor Joe did not say a word as Mara told the story.
When Mara had finished telling about the Hawaiian mystery, she told him about the most recent incident in Connecticut, where she not only located
Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery Page 17