The Fallen (Amos Decker #4)(122)

“He found out about the space in your office, where you kept the fentanyl shipments. He was obviously good at measuring: the mausoleum and your office footprint.”

“I thought there was a bottle missing from one of the boxes. That was you?”

“That was me.”

“Donna told me about your finding out Toby had the construction plans for the FC. But I never thought you would put two and two together. You made it sound to her like Toby just had a beef with Maxus because of how they treated him.”

“I got lucky there because I didn’t know at the time that Lassiter was a bad cop.”

Lassiter barked, “You know nothing about me.”

“I know enough,” said Decker.

Ross said, “So getting back to business, what was in the letter from this Nigel guy?”

“It told about a trip that Baron and Nigel took to Australia.”

“Australia? What about it?”

“They visited the typical places. But then there were a number listed that I’d never heard of. I googled them before I came here. Only one of them interested me: Kalgoorlie.”

“What’s so special about this Kalgoorlie place?” asked Ross.

“I’ll show you. You got a sledgehammer?”

Ross glanced at the mausoleum. “Why? The treasure’s not here.”

“I think it is here. It’s what I meant when I said you’d focused on the wrong parts of the O’Reilly letter. Have one of your guys take a sledgehammer to the wall of the mausoleum.” Decker pointed at the wall right behind Ross. “That wall.”

Ross jerked his head around. “Why?”

“Just do it, you got nothing to lose if I’m wrong,” said Decker.

Ross ordered one of his men to grab a sledgehammer and attack the mausoleum. The man hefted the tool and slung it against the wall. The marble cracked. He did it again, and then again. A chunk of the marble fell off. The man kept hitting it until revealed behind the marble was a large section of mortared bricks framed by the marble.

Ross looked over at Decker. “What the hell is going on? They’re just damn bricks!”

“Loosen one up and take it out.”

The man did as Decker said, using a crowbar. When he finally pulled out a brick, he stumbled under its weight and nearly dropped it on the ground.

“It’s heavy as hell,” said the man as he set it down in the dirt.

“Gold usually is,” said Decker.

Ross exclaimed, “Gold! You’re saying the whole mausoleum is made of gold?”

“No, I think just that wall.” Decker pointed to the ground. “That’s why the crypt is only sunken on this side. That was the reason for the concrete foundation—to keep it stable because of the added weight of the gold. Only over the years it didn’t work out so well. The gold’s under the brick veneer.”

“Check it,” Ross ordered another of his men.

The man grabbed a chisel and hammer and worked away at the brick until he had chipped off part. He gasped and looked up. Ross held a work light over the brick. The veneer of brick was gone and underneath was a lustrous gold color.

Decker said, “Now you can see the connection to Australia.”

Ross glanced at him. “But what is this Kalgoorlie place?”

“Kalgoorlie is the site of the Golden Mile, perhaps the greatest concentration of gold deposits on earth.”

Lassiter said, “But how did you figure that out?”

“I couldn’t think of another reason why Baron would have gone there. From all accounts, he just cared about making money, not taking vacations. He engaged a private ship, and brought back a fortune, probably in gold dust and nuggets. And then he turned it into gold bars covered by a brick overlay, using the molds he ordered from O’Reilly’s.”

Ross looked at the large wall of bricks and did a swift calculation. “There must be hundreds and hundreds of gold bars in there.”

“Must be,” agreed Decker.

“But Decker, how did you work out it was in the wall of the mausoleum?” asked Lassiter. “Not just from the thing being partially sunk in the dirt.”

“I knew something that you didn’t, and neither did Costa.” He pointed to Baron. “He let me in the mausoleum when we first came up here. Inside, I saw that a couple of walls were fouled with the stains that you would expect to see in an old burial vault. But on the interior that wall was all covered with white streaks just like it is on the outside. Over time brick and mortar will leach out white alkaline. You’ve probably seen it on brick chimneys and walls. It actually happened to my house back in Ohio, and the guy who repaired it told me about it. Now, marble is a porous material, so what’s underneath it will eventually end up on the outside of it. Knowing from the O’Reilly letter that Baron had purchased molds and clay, I knew he was going to make bricks. I also figured the brick was probably under the marble and that the white alkaline had eventually leached through. Coupled with the trip to Kalgoorlie, it made me think that concealed in the brick were the gold bars. And on the inside of the mausoleum I noticed that the interior was about a foot narrower on that side of the wall.” He rubbed his leg. “I smacked my leg on a crypt because it was jutting out farther than the ones on the other side.” He glanced at Ross. “Sort of like in your office. The extra space was to accommodate the brick. The other walls didn’t need that additional space. They were just solid marble.”