Quicksilver (The Forensic Geology Series, Prequel)
Page 13
He sampled his coffee, nodded his approval. “I’m in.”
~ ~ ~
Walter said, one day, apropos of the Shelburne case, “We did what we set out to do. We prevented Henry from committing suicide.”
I nodded. And added, “And you found the gold.”
Walter smiled.
“Didn’t you?”
Up at Notch Valley, in the confusion of events, Walter had lost the conglomerate pebble he’d found in the trough. Never got the chance to bring it back to the lab and put it under the stereoscopic microscope. Certainly never got the chance to put the hand lens to it at the scene. Still, in my estimation, Walter should know. If anyone could eyeball a grain in a pebble and ID it as gold, or not gold, Walter Shaws was the man.
In any case, for Walter, it was a moot point whether or not there was a hidden pocket of gold in that hillside. The land, Walter discovered, was leased. A widow in Burbank California held the mineral rights. Inherited from her late husband, who’d himself inherited the rights, several generations of rights holders who didn’t have the capital to do exploratory drilling. Walter had paid the widow a visit. She’d served him a good whiskey and thanked him for the information and said she’d consult with her financial advisor. The widow, Walter said, had played her cards close to the chest.
So when I asked, not for the first time, if Walter judged that grain in the pebble to be gold, he said, to stop me asking, “I might take a jaunt one of these days back to the gold country. Find the blue lead somewhere, in situ. Somewhere fresh.” He winked. “While I’m still able.”
Old man, my ass.
~ ~ ~
The next day I asked, “And if there is gold?”
“Ah.”
I got the coffee and donuts and we sat at the map table.
When he didn’t speak, I asked, “How does it feel to want something that people have crippled the land to obtain?”
He shot me a quartz-eyed look. “Conflicted.”
I said, again, “And if there is gold?”
He blew on his steaming brew. Circled the mug on the table, creating cooling air currents. “Let us say that I come across a sizeable grain embedded in the blue gravel.” He sampled his coffee, nodded his approval. “I would get out my rock pick.”
“Just the one grain?”
“In this scenario.”
I sipped my coffee.
He asked, “And you, Cassie? If you came across that grain of gold?”
A vision rose, along with the steam from my coffee. Me, walking the bedrock tunnel up at Notch Valley, the tunnel walls changing to cemented gravel. Me, entering the lost river channel. And then stopping in my tracks, chiseling my way to the virgin blue, the bright blue indigo wings of a jay. I shivered, feeling again the chill of the tunnel, the thrill of the blue. And now I envisioned another color, a bright sunrise. I envisioned a grain of gold in that gravel. A coarse grain, water-worn from its rough travels in the ancient river. About the size of a kernel of wheat—a description I’d found and liked while reading Lindgren. I saw it now clearly. That one grain. Shining gold.
“And you?” Walter repeated. “Would you get out your rock pick?”
I nodded. Who wouldn’t?
THE END
THIS ’N THAT
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~ Other books in the Forensic Geology Series ~
(all books in the series are stand-alone, and can be read in any order)
BADWATER
Forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws embark on a perilous hunt—tracking a terrorist who has stolen radioactive material that is hotter than the desert in August. He threatens to release it in America's most fragile national park, Death Valley.
But first he must stop the geologists who are closing in.
As the hunt turns dangerous, Cassie and Walter will need grit along with their field skills to survive this case. For they are up against more than pure human malice. The unstable atom—in the hands of an unstable man—is governed by Murphy's Law. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
And it does.
—Badwater is available at Amazon:
Ebook http://amzn.to/12V0bO4
Paper http://amzn.to/10wzWup
Audio http://amzn.to/11mgmpE
VOLCANO WATCH
NO WAY OUT—so says the note in the pocket of the murdered mayor.
The volcano beneath her town is seething, and the fate of Mammoth Lakes now rests in the hands of emergency planner Adrian Krom.
But Krom has his own agenda.
Investigating the case, forensic geologist Cassie Oldfield tracks mineral clues to discover how the mayor died—and what she found. As the volcano moves toward red alert, Cassie races to prevent 'no way out' from becoming a prophecy.
—Volcano Watch is available at Amazon:
Ebook http://amzn.to/10wAa4H
Paper http://amzn.to/12EzhbA
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”
― Mark Twain
I had some help identifying the wrong words:
Heartfelt thanks to the following, for support, suggestions, information, expertise, and for reading and commenting on the beta draft:
Tom Colby, G. Nelson Eby, Raymond C. Murray, Richard Quinn, Catherine Thomas-Nobles, Emily Williams, J.T. Yeager.
GOLD & MERCURY: EXTRAS
Following is a short list of articles and videos on the getting of gold and the use of mercury to get it, and related odds and ends. From any of these sources you can hyperlink your way to deeper reading.
JUST FOR FUN:
~~ “Facts, pictures, stories about the element Mercury in the Periodic Table”
http://www.theodoregray.com/periodictable/Elements/080/index.html
~~ “COULD YOU... WALK on the liquid metal MERCURY? (Hg)” – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGv_YVQHu7U
~~ Video of gold being dissolved in mercury—YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKxCw889qck
~~ “Recreational Gold Panning”
http://www.sierraoutdoorrecreation.com/Activities/Gold_Panning.cfm
~~ A place to find chiastolite in the wild:
http://www.minrec.org/pdfs/CHIASTOLITE%20ARTICLE.pdf
~~ Another place to find chiastolite in the wild:
http://rockhound-field-trips.ning.com/profiles/blogs/in-search-of-chiastolite
~~ Pretty pictures of chiastolite:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=%22chiastolite%22&num=50&lr=&as_qdr=all&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4r0pUpmgEtKy4AP_zYGoBw&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1367&bih=640
GETTING GEEKY:
~~ “Mercury Contamination from Historical Gold Mining in California”
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3014/
~~ “Mercury Contamination: The Bear River's Gold Rush Legacy” (what NOT to do when you find old sluice boards)
http://bearriver.us/mercury.php
~~ Health Effects | Mercury | US EPA
http://www.epa.gov/hg/effects.htm
~~ “Prospecting for Gold in the United States”
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/prospect2/prospectgip.html
~~ “Giant Gold Machines - Hydraulic Mining”
http://museumca.org/goldrush/fever19-hy.html
~~ “The Dead Rivers of California”
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/gold_rush_tales/california_gold_rush-tale65.htm
FOR SERIOUS GE
EKery:
~~ “The Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California” Waldemar Lindgren, Frank Hall Knowlton
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Tertiary_gravels_of_the_Sierra_Nevad.html?id=cpYNAAAAYAAJ
http://www.amazon.com/Tertiary-Gravels-Sierra-Nevada-California/dp/1141649667/
~~ “Tertiary Gold-Bearing Channel Gravel in Northern Nevada County, California”
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1968/0566/report.pdf
~~ “The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California” Josiah Dwight Whitney
http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=jR9bAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PP2
MAPS
MAP 1
The California Gold Country
Within rectangle: general neighborhood of story
MAP 2
The Yuba River Watershed