I am eleven years old. I can sleep in the room alone. I’ll be okay.”
Shortly after midnight, the spirit of Maria once again awakened Mara. Again, the spirit was crying.
Mara said “Hola, me llamo Mara”. The spirit replied that her name was Maria, but her father called her “Angel Pocita”, or “Little Angel.
In Spanish, Mara asked Maria why she was crying. María replied, “Yo soy muy frio, es oscuro. Yo deseo mi mama y papa.” Mara wrote it all down as best as she could, so that she could translate it.
What Maria had said was; “I’m very cold. It is dark. I want my mother and father.”
In Spanish, Mara asked Maria what had happened to her.
Then, the spirit started walking down the hall, beckoning Mara to follow her. They walked down the hall, and down the stairs.
When they reached the back of the house, Mara followed the spirit into the kitchen.
The spirit stopped, pointed down to the floor and said “poso” and a few other words that Mara could not understand. Then, the spirit vanished like the night before.
Mara went back to her room and looked up the word “poso”. It meant grounds, like coffee grounds. It did not make sense to Mara. She wrote down a bunch of notes and went back to sleep.
When she woke up, she told her parents that she had spoken to the spirit and that it was the spirit of Maria.
That day, Mara did a lot of reading and spent a lot of time going over hew notes.
She asked Mr. Fisher if any structural changes had been made, to the mansion since it was first built.
He said that he could find out and then, he drove into town. An hour later, he returned with a man that he introduced as Mr. Robert Hernandez.
Mr. Hernandez worked with the county and he brought with him, copies of the original blueprints of the house, as well as the current blueprints.
Mara asked him if any part of the original mansion had been torn down. Mr. Hernandez compared the two sets of blueprints and said, “Nothing was torn down, but about fifty years ago, the kitchen was expanded back about twenty feet. It went right over the old pozo.”
Mara was confused. “Why would it matter if the kitchen was built on top of coffee grounds?” she asked.
Mr. Hernandez was confused by her question for a second, and then he realized what she meant.
“‘Poso’ means coffee grounds,” he said. “But, ‘pozo’ means a well, like water well.”
Mara started flipping through her notes. “You mean that the kitchen was enlarged and now sits over an old well that used to be behind the house?” she asked.
“That is correct,” said Mr. Hernandez.
Mara called her parents and Mr. Fisher back into the kitchen. “I believe that I have solved the case. When she had everybody’s complete attention, she began her explanation.
“First of all, the spirit of Maria told me that it was cold and dark where she was. Second, when I asked her what happened to her, she led me down into the kitchen and pointed down to the floor and said a word that I thought was ‘poso’ meaning coffee grounds. Actually, she was saying ‘pozo’, which means well. There was an old well behind the house, now covered over by the back part of this kitchen.”
“Maria was never kidnapped. She fell down the well, probably hitting her head on the way down, which is why she never answered when her mother was calling for her. Maria said that she wanted her parents. If her bones are removed from the well, and buried with her parents in the cemetery, she will finally be at peace and the house will no longer be haunted.”
Mara walked over to the spot where the spirit disappeared and said; “This is where Maria disappeared. I’m guessing that the well is directly below the floor at this location.”
Mr. Fisher called the studio and had some of his crew bring some tools to his mansion. When they arrived, they removed some boards from the floor, and saw a well that had been capped off.
When they broke the cap off the well, Mara pointed a flashlight down into the well. About fifty feet below them, there were some bones and some clothing.
Within a few hours, all of the bones had been retrieved from the bottom of the well.
Mr. Fisher located the cemetery in Los Angeles where Juan and Elena Garcia were buried, and he got permission to bury Maria’s bones in her mother’s grave.
Upon Mara’s suggestion, Mr. Fisher had a Spanish priest meet them at the cemetery.
After the grave was located, some cemetery workers dug into the grave and when they reached the coffin of Elena Garcia, they stopped digging
They placed a small white coffin with the bones of Maria Garcia on top of her mother’s coffin.
The Spanish priest blessed the Garcia family, said a prayer for Maria, and then the grave was filled back in with dirt. By the time they had finished, it was dusk.
As everybody was heading back to their cars, they heard a noise behind them. When they turned around, they were astounded to see the spirits of Juan and Elena Garcia with Maria between them standing on top of their graves.
Maria waved at Mara and said “Mi mama y papa” as she pointed to her parents. Then she said “Gracias, Mara, mi amigo, gracias.
Then, the three spirits disappeared into the night, never to be seen or heard from again.
Mr. Fisher shook Mara’s hand and thanked her for solving the mystery of his mansion.
“Now, you will be able to sell it,” said Mara.
Mr. Fisher looked at Mara and said, “Now that the spirit of Maria Garcia is at peace, I think that I will finish restoring it and move back into it. I don’t think I will sell the old place after all.”
Mr. Fisher’s face lit up and he told Mara, “I think that this would make a terrific movie. Mara, would you like to star in it?”
Mara shook her head no, but added, “I think that Ryan and Jason Davis would do an excellent job playing the role of twin detectives. I’d love to see them on the big screen.”
Mr. Fisher thought about it for a moment and said, “I think you’re right. What do you think the movie should be called?”
Mara immediately came up with the title. “How about ‘Little Angel’?” she asked.
One year later, Mara and her parents were flown to California for the premiere of “Little Angel” starring Jason and Ryan Davis.
Mara got to sit between Ryan and Jason during the movie, with one arm around each of them. She could not have been happier.
The Case of the Lost Violin
Mara was very excited about going to Philadelphia. She was a big history buff and she could not wait to visit Independence Hall, where the declaration of Independence was signed.
The main reason that they were visiting Philadelphia was that Mara’s mother was going to visit an old friend that she had not seen since high school, some thirty years earlier. Mrs. Louis had lost track of her friend when her friend moved away from Baltimore after high school.
Mara was the one who inadvertently had the two of them together. Three years earlier, Mara was on the national news, both on television and in the newspapers, when she solved the mystery of the old cemetery, in Maryland.
Eleven months later, she solved the mystery of the lost paintings in Virginia. The collection was priceless, worth more than a billion dollars.
In addition, during the next year, Mara had solved the mystery of the haunted mansion in California.
When Sharon Giovanni saw Mara’s mother on the news in California, she recognized her as her old friend from high school, Lee Ann Morris. Sharon called the news station, obtained Lee Ann’s phone number, and surprised her with a phone call.
Over the next several months, the two women exchanged letters, e-mail, and phone calls, regularly. Because of their busy lives, they found it hard to find the time to visit each other in person. They finally found a wee
kend at the end of summer, when Lee Ann and her family could visit Philadelphia.
As their car stopped in front of 1216 Logan Street, Mara was impressed with the size of the house. It was a three-story red brick house, located in the older section of Philadelphia.
As Mara and her parents got out of their car, Mrs. Giovanni came out of the house to greet them. Her husband Joe and their youngest son Tony came out, as well.
Sharon and Joe had four children. The three older ones were away at college. Tony was thirteen and was the only one still living at home.
Twenty minutes later, they all sat down to a traditional Italian dinner. After more than twenty-five years of marriage, Sharon had learned all the secrets of Italian cooking from Joe’s family and the meal was better than any Italian food that Mara or her parents had ever tasted.
While they ate desert, and the adults had coffee, Mrs. Giovanni coaxed Tony into paying some music on his violin.
Mara loved classical music almost as much as she loved solving mysteries.
As Tony played, it was if the violin was singing. Mara had never heard such beautiful music in her twelve years of existence. The music touched her soul and brought tears to her eyes.
When Tony finished playing, Mara started clapping very loudly. She stopped when she realized that everybody was staring at her.
“Are you crying?” asked her mother.
“No”, answered Mara, there is something in my eye. She was embarrassed, and she felt even more embarrassed when she glanced at Tony and saw him smiling at her.
Mrs.