Web of Lies (Page 50)

"Sorry," Donovan sniped. "I was a little more worried about flashing too much light around and getting caught than taking perfect pictures for you."

We lapsed into silence while we waited for Finn to read and decipher the documents. But I had a pretty good idea of what they’d say. So I leaned against the wall and started thinking about what came next – getting close enough to Tobias Dawson to kill him. Because that was the only way this thing was going to end, if my suspicions were correct.

Sophia stood beside me and twirled the baseball bat in her hand like it was a metal baton.

After about ten minutes of reading and clicking, Finn frowned. "That’s weird." He looked over at Warren. "Did you know Tobias Dawson has recently started construction on a new, separate mine shaft?"

Warren nodded. "That’s the rumor the miners have been spouting. There’s been more activity at the mine lately too."

"What kind of activity?" Donovan asked.

Warren shrugged. "More blasting, more drilling. Sometimes, we can feel the tremors down here. Once they were so strong, they knocked over some sodas in the store. Made a big mess."

"They feel sort of like small earthquakes," Violet added. "They’ve been going on a couple of months now."

"Well, according to this, Dawson is pouring most of his money and manpower into the new shaft these days," Finn said.

"Why would he do that?" Violet asked.

Finn read some more. His frown deepened. "That can’t be right," he muttered. "It’s not possible."

"What?" Jo-Jo asked. "What’s not possible?"

"What Dawson is drilling for," Finn said. "According to this, it looks like that shaft isn’t to get more coal out of the mountain. It’s for – "

"Diamonds," I said in a soft voice. "He’s found diamonds in the mountain."

Silence. For a moment, everyone looked at me. Then they all started talking at once.

"Diamonds?" Sophia rasped in surprise.

"That’s not possible," Violet Fox said.

"Darling, anything’s possible," Jo-Jo replied.

"So that’s why Dawson wants the land so badly." Donovan shook his head.

"I wonder how big they are," Finn said in a speculative tone.

Warren T. Fox was the only one who didn’t say anything.

Instead, the old coot stared at me, his eyes dark, pinched, and worried in his brown, wrinkled face. He knew what the diamond find meant as well as I did. Disaster.

For him and the mountain.

If the diamond I’d found in the safe was any indication of the size and quality of the others Tobias Dawson had discovered, the dwarf would tear the whole mountain apart to get every last gemstone out of the ground.

And it wouldn’t end there. Word would eventually leak out about the diamond find, and then, well, it would be worse than the California Gold Rush around here. Everyone would be bulldozing and blasting the area, hoping to find diamonds on their own land and get rich themselves.

They’d destroy the whole mountain in their hasty greed – and Warren T. Fox’s house and store lay at the epicenter. He’d go under first. The knowledge flashed in his eyes, steady, weary, certain.

Unless I did something to stop it.

I’d never considered myself to be any sort of environmentalist, but these mountains were as much a part of me as they were of Warren Fox. I took the same sort of pride in their beauty he did. If Tobias Dawson’s current mine was any indication of things to come, it would be a public service to stop this now. And there was only one way to do that – by killing Tobias Dawson.

Oh, I had no doubt that the dwarf had told a few of his most trusted men what he had found, like those two giants who’d come to the office to investigate the robbery tonight. But without Dawson around, without his mining expertise and know-how, it would be that much harder for his flunkies to do anything about the diamonds.

Even if they did make a move later on, I could always take them out too. No, killing Dawson was the key here. Eliminate the dwarf and the rest of the monster would more than likely die along with him.

Besides, the store, the land, the house. They were all that Warren and Violet had ever known. They were simply home. I knew Fletcher Lane would have done whatever he could to help his friend. The old man wasn’t here, but I was. And I was going to protect the Foxes – no matter what.

Warren raised his dark eyes to mine, asking a silent question. I nodded. Question asked and answered. Jo-Jo Deveraux saw the exchange. An emotion flickered in her pale gaze. It looked like relief – mixed with a spark of anticipation.

About what, I couldn’t imagine. But it was there.

After about three minutes, the babble of voices and conversation wound down.

"I just don’t see how it’s possible," Donovan Caine said. "Diamonds? Here?"

I nodded. "They have them over in Arkansas, why not here in Ashland? Tobias Dawson’s found plenty of coal in the mountain. That’s all a diamond really is – coal put under pressure long and hard enough to evolve into something else."

"How do you know that?" the detective asked.

"I know a little bit about stones, especially precious ones." I didn’t mention the fact I could hear their vibrations, tap into them, and get them to do anything I wanted. I never flaunted my magic, and I wasn’t about to do it now.

"But if Dawson’s already started drilling this other shaft to get to the diamonds, why is he still threatening us?"

Violet asked, confusion flashing in her eyes. "Why even bother? Why not just take the diamonds out on the sly?"

"Because the dwarf doesn’t own the mineral rights to the land," Warren rumbled. "I do. So legally, they aren’t his diamonds. They’re ours."

"And people might realize that, if he started mining them," Jo-Jo finished. "Word would get around. It always does. And then Warren could cause problems for him. Legal problems."

Warren nodded. "Or try to at least."

We all fell silent. I gave the others a few minutes to think, but my decision had already been made.

"Finn?" I asked in a low voice.

"Yeah?"

"What else did you find out about Dawson today?"

He stared at me with his green eyes. "All the usual info. Finances, business interests, hobbies, homes, social connections."

"Anything we can use?"

Finn stared at me. His gaze cut to Warren. He saw the resolution in the other man’s face and realized it matched mine. "Yeah, there are a few angles. Nothing too easy, of course, but I’m sure we can find something. There’s always a way in."