“We can stack them in the study.” Nolan cringed inwardly at the thought of going in there because he couldn’t get the sight of Marielle’s blood out of his head. “Nobody’s using it much at the moment.”
It turned out that Rusty knew André too, because the team from North of Market was helping with the redesign at the home he and Erin had just bought near Santa Cruz. Between the three of them, they worked out which items needed to be moved, both boxes and furniture, and this was the most normal day Nolan had experienced in weeks. He tried to push the investigation out of his mind and focus on the task at hand. Rusty seemed like a nice guy, a man with the patience of a saint for putting up with Erin. Although Nolan wasn’t totally lacking in self-awareness, so he knew Rusty was probably thinking the same thing about him and Alexa.
“This place reminds me of my dad’s office back home,” Rusty said as they lugged another box into the study. “He never throws anything out either.”
“Where’s home?”
“Kittson County, Minnesota. You’ve always lived in California?”
“I grew up in Washington,” Nolan admitted. “Then we moved to Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until my grandpa left me this place that I moved to Amador County.”
“Gold Country, right? Erin said there’s an old mine on the property?”
“I can give you a tour later. The deeper tunnels are blocked off, but we use the more accessible parts to store the wine barrels.”
“A tour would be great. I minored in geology at college, and rocks always fascinated me.”
Nolan’s ears pricked up. “Really? Uh, did Erin tell you much about the problems here?”
“Yeah,” Rusty replied cautiously. “Don’t worry, I know how to keep my mouth shut.”
“A question we had was whether there could still be any gold left in the mine. Maybe deposits that they couldn’t get out with the old mining methods during the Gold Rush.”
“It’s true that mining techniques have changed over the years, but you’d need to ask someone who specialises in exploration or economic geology. I was more focused on earth history—sedimentology, palaeontology, that kind of thing. When I was a kid, I’d spend hours collecting fossils with my dad.”
“I used to collect interesting rocks with my grandpa, and I think there were a couple of fossils.” Nolan skirted a pile of cardboard boxes and lifted a smaller wooden box off a shelf behind the desk. “When I moved here, it turned out he’d kept everything.”
Every rock, every photo, every letter and card Nolan had ever sent. One of Nolan’s bigger regrets was that he’d lost touch with Grandpa Calder, but he also understood why his mom had wanted nothing more to do with that side of the family. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t tossed out any of this old junk? Because it was the one way he could feel close to the childhood he’d lost?
Rusty began rooting through the box and picked out a rock. “Yeah, this one’s an ammonoid. You found it around here?”
“They all came from here on the property or close by. The gold flakes were in the stream up on the hill—they’re not big enough to be worth much.”
Rusty held the ziplock bag up to the window and squinted. “A few bucks. If you panned for long enough, you might find enough to make a pair of earrings or a ring.”
A ring? Hmm. That put an idea in Nolan’s head… True, Alexa had looked slightly freaked out at the mention of marriage, but she was still here.
“Try looking around where the larger rocks have accumulated,” Rusty continued, “especially if there’s a bend in the stream. That’s where the gold gathers.” He picked up another rock. “This is a fossilised leaf, but I’m not sure what type.”
“Damn, I remember finding that one,” Nolan said. On the last day of his last visit to California before the cops arrived with handcuffs. “You think it would be possible to polish a piece?”
“How big a piece?”
Nolan held his fingers a quarter inch apart. “This big?”
He didn’t have the money to buy Alexa a huge rock, and she wasn’t the sort of woman who cared about size anyway. But a ring crafted with love, using materials found on the property…
“You could ask a jeweller,” Rusty suggested. “Or use this stone.” His eyes widened. “Do you have a safe?”
“No, never needed one.” The most valuable thing Nolan owned was his barrels of vintage Syrah, and now that Alexa had installed cameras and motion sensors at the entrance to the mine, he slept easier. “Why?”
“This looks like kimberlite. Or maybe lamproite—you’d have to check with an expert because they’re both igneous rocks, but their mineral composition—” Rusty shook his head, then pointed to a greyish lump in the rock. “Anyhow, they both contain diamonds.”
Nolan peered closer. “That’s a diamond?”
“You’d have to get it tested, but I believe so. A rough diamond. You’re saying you found this nearby?”
“Probably?”
