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.”“How did you happen to notice the mine shaft?” Out of the corner of his eye, Neil observed R.J.attempting to remove the people from the slope and the crime scene.He was being met with some resistance, from Jake in particular.“I didn’t notice it,” Little José said.“Not at first.What I found was this.” He lifted one of the lanterns, illuminating the truck’s lowered tailgate where a long, cylindrical piece of iron lay.“It was right there in the middle of the trail.”Neil fished a handkerchief from his back pocket.“Who else besides you has touched this?” he asked.“Just Gary.”Careful not to smudge any possible fingerprints and incur the wrath of the CSI team, Neil used the handkerchief to lift the object.His hand dipped slightly at the unexpected weight.“It’s a chisel,” Little José informed him.“And finding this prompted you to go looking for a mine shaft?” Neil set the chisel back down on the truck’s tailgate.“Not the chisel so much as the footprints and tire tracks.”“Where?”“Everywhere.” Little José indicated the ground near them and up the slope.Neil took in all the people and vehicles and groaned inwardly.Any trace of those footprints and tire tracks was probably eradicated by now.Why hadn’t Jake called Neil first before storming out here and bringing three-fourths of his family with him.The three-fourths, he promptly realized with another glance at the slope, that included Carolina.His scribbling momentarily faltered.“This is private property,” Gary interjected.“No one comes up here who doesn’t work for the ranch.”“What about neighboring ranchers?”“They have no reason.And the fences are diligently maintained.We can’t afford to have our guests coming in contact with stray cattle.”“You rent out ATVs, right? Could any of the guests have come up here?”Concentrating required all Neil’s effort.Carolina’s pale yellow jeans and green trench coat made her hard to ignore.“These trails are too dangerous and off-limits,” Gary said.“Not everyone obeys the rules.”“I suppose.” Gary adjusted the knob on one of the lanterns.The flame caught, then glowed brightly.Up at the mine shaft, flashlight beams zigzagged over the ground and on the rock walls.“So, after you found the chisel and noticed the footprints and tire tracks, you went searching for the mine shaft?”“I didn’t know what I was looking for at first,” Little José explained, “only that someone had been here.I followed the tracks up the hill.Once I got close enough, I could see the hole hidden behind a pile of brush.They didn’t do a very good job camouflaging it.”“Or they were in a hurry because you surprised them,” Neil suggested.“What did you do after you found the shaft?”“I radioed the ranch.Reported my location and what I’d found.”“I drove straight out here as soon as he told me,” Gary said.“Then I called Mr.Tucker.He told me to contact you.”R.J.had done his job.He’d rounded up the family and was bringing them down the hill.Jake stopped briefly at a white truck then made straight for Neil.“Sheriff Lovitt.”“Mr.Tucker.Do you have any idea who might have done this?”“None at all.” He didn’t hide his anger well.“But whoever they were, they had access to some fairly sophisticated equipment.”“Why do you say that?”“Marks on the rocks.They might be using hand tools now, but the shaft was originally excavated with a high-powered drill.The experts will be able to tell us more.”“Experts?”“I’ve contacted the Arizona Geological Society.Asked them to send out a crew.”“Call them back.” Neil wrote furiously in his notebook.“Tell them to wait until someone from CSI contacts them and gives them the go-ahead to proceed.In fact, no one is to go within a mile of this mine shaft without permission.Is that clear?”Jake nodded curtly, not liking being put off but complying.“I wonder how much gold they’ve found so far, if any.” The question seemed to be directed at himself rather than Neil.“Maybe the crew from the Geological Society can tell you once they’ve examined the mine.” Neil wrote down a reminder to have someone research places in the state that purchased or processed unrefined ore.Jake raked his fingers through his hair, his expression showing shock and disbelief.Neil had seen the same look on countless victims during his career.“Did you have any idea there was gold on your property?”“No.”“Yes.” Carolina stepped forward, hugging her arms to ward off the increasing chill.Even if Neil wanted to, he couldn’t ignore her any longer.Whenever she got within visual range of him, everyone and everything else disappeared.It had been that way from their first encounter.“Those are just local legends.” Jake sounded irritable.She lifted her chin.“I disagree.”Neil almost smiled.Was there no one who intimidated her? He was instantly reminded of their conversation in the hospital cafeteria, and his fledgling trust in her increased a tiny fraction.He could see her having no reservations whatsoever about defying her boss.And since nothing had surfaced about him or his late wife on the radio, in the newspapers or around town, it appeared she’d kept her promise.For now anyway.“What legends?” he asked.“These mountains were heavily prospected about the time of the Civil War and until the late 1880s,” she explained.“Nobody ever struck it rich, but enough gold was found to generate rumors of a mother lode.It’s not unreasonable,” she added when Jake heaved a tired sigh.“Remember that strike they found outside of Payson twenty…twenty-two years ago?”“Not really.I was away at college.”She huffed.“Well, I do.”“How much gold did they find?” Neil asked.“Quite a bit.In the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”In today’s market, that amount could easily be doubled.“Have you had the area tested?” Neil asked Jake.He shook his head.“Gold fever had long since died by the time our grandparents bought the land and built the ranch.Not that our grandfather believed the rumors.”“But Grandma Ida did,” Carolina said.“That’s true.” The young woman interrupting them looked too much like Carolina to be anyone other than her sister.“She took us once to the Rim County Museum when we were kids.They had this old treasure map on display.A family in town had donated it after finding it among their deceased father’s belongings.Grandma showed us where the ranch was on the map and laughed, saying she should get Grandpa to dig for gold.”Neil’s glance traveled up the slope to the mine shaft, nearly obscure now in the dark.“I’d say someone else believed the legends, too.”“Or they have the map,” Carolina said.He turned to face her.“Is it still on display at the museum?”“I have no clue, I haven’t visited in years.”Neil underlined the words map and museum in his notebook.“You can’t seriously believe there’s a connection,” Jake said.“People are illegally mining for gold on your property, Mr.Tucker.” Neil felt compelled to point out the obvious.“No one would undertake such an operation without being reasonably confident it’s going to pay off.”His observation was followed by a round of silence.He used the lull to finish up his notes.“Hey, Jake,” Carolina’s sister said, her voice bright with excitement.“We could be rich.Did you ever think about that?”Chapter FiveWhile the Tucker and Sweetwater family members mulled over the ramifications of what a potential gold strike might mean to them, Neil went with R.J.to inspect the mine shaft, a process that required a good half hour.When they were done, he radioed the station
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