Innkeeping with Murder - Tim Myers [43]
He looked over to find a puzzled expression on Elise’s face. She said, “That doesn’t make any sense. How can they make any money if they give their stones away?”
Alex laughed. “What they give away are large common stones, usually not worth much of anything. But the tourists feel lucky unearthing a hunk of smoky quartz, so they buy another bucket.”
“Why, that’s not honest at all.” Alex didn’t need to see Elise’s face. He could hear the outrage in her voice.
“I used to think so myself. But if you know the right questions to ask, they’ll tell you the truth. Some of the buckets are ‘guaranteed,’ those are the ones that are salted, and some of them are ‘native.’ It works. You have to remember, if there was much hope of finding anything valuable, they’d operate as a real mine instead of a tourist attraction. Some tourists have surprised them though, pulling a real quality stone out of one of their buckets. It’s happened more than once.”
Elise shook her head. “I still don’t like it. It just doesn’t seem like a fair hunt.”
Alex nodded his agreement. “If it’s fair you want, I’ll take you down the creek away from the main area. Whatever you find there is pretty likely to be a genuine find.”
“Well, at least they don’t salt the creek.”
Alex laughed. “Don’t kid yourself. Every time a busload of tourists come in, they scatter a handful of gem fragments right at the creek entrance. It must be working, because people keep coming back for more. It’s harmless enough, if you know the ground rules.”
Elise still seemed a little put off by the arrangement. Alex protested, “Hey, if you’re going to think badly of them, you probably wouldn’t have cared much for my father. I told you he salted our land with quite a few fragments hoping it would help the inn.”
“I believe I’ll side with your mother on that one.”
Alex chuckled softly. “Mom nearly skinned him alive. She made Dad go out and look for every stone he’d planted. I can still see the sheepish look on his face, but to this day, I can’t tell if it was from his actions, or just because he got caught. I could never prove anything, but I don’t think he ever stopped salting the land; he enjoyed it too much, and there are a lot more stones around the inn than the times Dad admitted to. I don’t know, with Dad, it was always hard to tell when he was serious and when he was just having a little fun.”
Elise said grudgingly, “Okay, I guess I can understand that. Promise me one thing, though. I want you to take me where no one has salted any stones, okay? If I find something, I want to be sure it’s legitimate.”
Alex nodded. “If that’s where Junior goes, we’ll go there, too.”
They drove on in companionable silence. Alex finally caught sight of Junior’s car on the road up ahead. It was pulled off to the side, and Alex could see Junior leaning against the hood. He thought about passing, but when he saw Junior’s slumped shoulders, he pulled his truck in behind him on an impulse.
Elise said, “Alex, he’s crying.”
“I know. Do you want to come with me, or should I go talk to him alone?”
Elise paused in thought. “Why don’t you go? You knew his father, and he might feel uncomfortable with me there, too.”
Alex patted Elise’s hand and got out of the truck. Only when the truck door squeaked did Junior look up to see Alex walking toward him. He tried to wipe away his tears, but quickly gave up.
Obviously embarrassed, Junior said, “Um, Alex. What are you doing out here?”
“I thought I’d take Elise rock hunting since she’s never been before.”
Junior glanced at Elise and waved slightly. Alex could see the man’s discomfort at having been caught in such an emotional state.
Gamely, Junior said, “I was going to try it myself. I thought it might take my mind off all that has happened. Then it started to sink in that Dad’s really gone.” A few sniffles escaped. “Alex, my father wasn’t the easiest man in the world to get along with, and it didn’t help that he was my boss as well as my