Bonnie and Lisa had decided to leave for their property early the next morning. They knew that Perry Mason was looking into things also and just wanted to see the property for themselves. When they had come to see the land, they had bought it as an investment property. At the time property in the area was being developed at a high rate of speed and they had thought that their property would someday be built on it. They had contemplated building on the property themselves. But life had happened and they were not a couple any longer.
In the meantime Paul had spent a wonderful night at the bed and breakfast and had helped himself to a large breakfast that Ann cooked for him. He was expecting Dr. Kennedy that day and so he spent most of the day working on his computer. He wanted to know more about this mayor Grant Jenkins and his father Jared.
The land that they were now working on had been in their family for the past forty years. Jared had been somewhat of a joke around town as he had always claimed that there was still gold in the mine. For the most part the people of town thought of Jared as a strange man with no common sense at all. They had laughed at him as he had gone to the mine day after day. That was until six months ago when he had found gold.
The gold had been verified at the bank and all of a sudden everyone in the town had gold fever. This had made the land that the women owned worth a lot of money. The gold could very well have continued onto their property and now the mayor and his father wanted to buy the land that the women couldn't have given away a year ago. Paul was waiting to hear from Dr. Kennedy on what he would find on the property itself.
Dr. Kennedy had been working on a project for a local university when he had gotten the call from Perry Mason. He had just turned forty-five years old and was looking for something different in his life. His project at the at the University would wait. This sounded interesting to him. The possibility of gold being in these hills had always posed an interest to him and he would have to go up to the land and take a look for himself.
As Dr. Kennedy drove the long hot drive up to the property, he listened on his tape recorder all the information on the land that surrounded the mine and the mine itself. The gold mine had been dug for almost twenty years and had just not brought anything of significance for years before closing in the early twentieth century. The mine had not brought out anything of significance until six moths ago when a man named Jared Jenkins had claimed that he had found gold. He had brought the gold to the local bank and had been bringing it in for the past several months. It did appear that he had found a new vein. But, where was this vein located?
Paul met with Dr. Kennedy and the two men went up to the property. Paul was surprised to find the two women Lisa and Bonnie there already. On the property there was indeed another entrance to the gold mine. This entrance had not been used in almost a century and was very dangerous. But Dr. Kennedy went to work checking the land around the girl's land.
"You don't have to stay and watch, this will take me days." he told them. "As soon as I find something I will come to the bed and breakfast and let you know what I found out." he told them.
Lisa and Bonnie were both very disappointed, but it was very hot out there in the desert and they both needed a break from the heat. There was no shade anywhere but under the rocks and they were both tired. Paul Drake elected to stay with the Doctor because of the dangerous mine entrance that they had been attempting to shore up and use.
But as Dr. Kennedy and Paul began to work it was not long before they discovered that someone had indeed been in the mine recently, very recently. The appearance of the entrance to the mine had been staged. There was evidence that someone had been there as they continued through the mine. Then they could hear the sounds of someone at work. Dr. Kennedy had a gps system on him to keep track of his location and knew from the sounds that the digging was taking place on the women's land.
As Paul and Dr. Kennedy went down the narrow corridor they listened intently to the sounds. As they stood at one of the corners they knew that someone was mining within a few feet from them. Paul turned on his video camera and recorder and came around the corner catching Jared Jenkins by surprise. He didn't have his gun by his side and was no match for the younger and stronger Paul Drake.
As the three men came out of the mine entrance, Paul confronted the older man. "You do know that you are guilty of stealing from this property? You are going to have to answer the questions of the police." Paul put the man in the car and turned to start towards the Doctor, but the doctor waved to him and said he wanted to go back into the mine.
Paul went back to the town and brought Jared to the police station. He there explained that Jared had been on the property that was located next to their property and that his gold had been taken from them. The police officer took the report and arrested Jared Jenkisn..
Dr. Kennedy had been working on the mine for just a few minutes when he heard a car pull up. He thought that Paul was coming back. It was the last thing that he thought or saw. Without warning he was struck by a shovel and died of a fractured skull.