“Wouldn’t that also raise red flags with Macanas?” Harv asked.
“It definitely would. He’d find out about it for sure. I’m fairly certain we won’t find a residential address for Macanas in any of the cadastral surveys.”
“Tell Nate what you told me about that large property purchase two years ago.”
“A large chunk of land bordering Macanas’s property was jointly purchased by two corporations. Jinotega Norte Corporation and EMI. I remembered doing a Google search. Nothing came up for Jinotega Norte, but there were a bunch of listings for EMI, and one of them jumped out at me. Edmonton Mining Industries is a medium-sized Canadian company that primarily extracts copper, silver, gold, and uranium. It operates several sites around the world.”
“Uranium? Is that being mined in Nicaragua?”
“No,” Estefan said.
“Could a uranium mine be in the works?”
“Absolutely not. I’d know about it for sure.”
“Is there uranium in Nicaragua?” Harv asked.
“Technically, yes. It’s found all over the world, but concentrated uranium ores are rare. Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada are some of the bigger producers. Super-high-grade deposits are only found in Saskatchewan.”
“What about copper and silver?”
“It’s quite common for gold mines to also contain copper and silver in the ores. Some of the mines in Atlántico Norte are producing silver, but extracting copper isn’t as cost effective.”
“Estefan, don’t take this wrong, but why didn’t you look into Jinotega Norte? Didn’t the connection to EMI make you curious?”
“I was curious, but two years ago before any of the murders, it didn’t look out of place. It was before I suspected Raven was working for Macanas. EMI hadn’t approached any landowners about leasing, and neither company applied for any mining permits. It looked like an investment or land-banking purchase.”
“I see what you mean. The purchase seems suspect now, but back then…”
“That’s right. Unless specifically requested, my office… well, me… I don’t generally get involved in private-party sales or leases. My jurisdiction is over government-owned land, mostly forest preserves. It’s like the Bureau of Land Management in the US. If a logging company buys some private property bordering BLM land, the BLM would get involved to make sure streams and rivers were protected from silt damage. Rivers cross from private to public land and vice versa. It works the same way down here, but many mining sites are bootlegged, so there’s no environmental oversight.”
“Are any of Macanas’s mines permitted?” Harv asked.
“Yes, but not very many. He permits just enough to keep the heat off.”
“What would you bet that Jinotega Norte is a Macanas-owned shell company?”
“I’d bet a lot,” Estefan said. “If Macanas owns Jinotega Norte, the question becomes, why did he buy the land jointly with EMI?”
“That’s a good question. Do you know how much land was purchased? Maybe it was beyond his reach alone.”
“I don’t remember exactly, but it was a pretty sizable chunk. I remembered it because it was within my overlay area of potential high-yield sites in Jinotega.”
Nathan broke into the conversation. “Maybe the question should be reversed. Why would EMI need Macanas to make the purchase?”
“Yeah, I see what you mean. A company like EMI would pursue a long-term lease rather than make a purchase.”
“Do other mining corporations buy land like that?” Harv asked.
“It’s not unheard of, but most of the landowners don’t want to sell. They’re way better off leasing than selling. They get a bunch of money and get to keep their land.”
“Is EMI currently operating any mines in Nicaragua?”
“No,” Estefan said, “but we’re being looked at by dozens of commercial operators, including EMI. It’s the primary reason Torres is hosting the gold summit. Nicaragua is a hot prospect right now.”
“It seems we’ve got more homework to do.”
They followed Estefan into his office. Inside the closet, concealed by a long raincoat, Nathan saw a gun safe. It looked capable of storing ten or twelve long guns with enough room for an upper shelf. It employed a combination dial and a brass handle on its door.
“Why do you keep the letters in your safe?” Harv asked.
“It’s fire resistant.” He shrugged. “I guess they’re important to me, even though I didn’t bother to read most of them.” Estefan opened the safe and removed two shoe boxes from the shelf. Behind the shoe boxes sat half a dozen boxes of various ammo and several handgun cases.
Nathan pointed. “It looks like you kept your Remington 700.”
“I offered to buy it when our kilo unit broke up, but no one could tell me who to pay, so my lieutenant told me to keep it. All of us kept our rifles. I haven’t used it in years.”
“You still keep a three-hundred-yard zero?” Harv asked.
“Just like you taught me.”
“Let’s talk about how we’re going to tackle these letters. Did your father date them?” Nathan asked.
“I think so, but I’m not positive.”
They carried the shoe boxes out to the dining room table.
“We’ll start by making sure all the letters are opened. Then we’ll put them in chronological order as best we can. Let’s reserve reading them until we have them organized.”
“I’ll get us a couple of kitchen knives.” Estefan returned a moment later.
Nathan grabbed a stack that was secured by a rubber band. “Once we have them in order, we’ll dig in. Each of us should have a pad of paper for making notes. Estefan, do you care if we color code the letters with a highlighter? I’m thinking we should put colored dots on the letters based on their relevancy to Macanas’s operations. A green dot for important, a yellow dot for maybe, and a red dot for not relevant.”
“Sounds good,” Estefan said. “I’ll get the highlighters from my office. I’ll also grab a stapler for any letters with more than one sheet.”
After Estefan left the room, Nathan shook his head. “He wasn’t kidding about these letters.”
“Looks like there’s several hundred, and some of the envelopes look kinda thick. This might take a while.”
“Hopefully, we can knock it out in a couple of hours. Not all of them will have what I’d consider tactical info. Most of them will probably have a mix of personal and tactical; we’ll just have to sort through them.”
“I’ll start opening the sealed envelopes.”
It took about fifteen minutes to get the letters in chronological order. They ended up with three stacks, each stack spanning a one-year period. Everyone grabbed a pile and began reading.
“Let’s look for common elements,” said Nathan. “If you see a name or place, like Macanas or general store, write it down on your pad. Every time you see the same name or place again, put a check mark next to it with the letter’s date in parenthesis. With a little luck, we’ll find people and places that are mentioned with some frequency. There’s got to be someone in these letters we can talk to. It’s reasonable to assume your father had the confidence of someone who fed him information on Macanas. Either that, or he overheard stuff. People love to talk.”
“I remember reading some pretty detailed letters. I can’t remember any specifics, but there were definitely names mentioned.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Nathan said. “After we’ve got them color coded, we’ll use our notepads to make lists of names and places. Each of us can take a stack.”
An hour later, a pattern emerged. Most of the letters expressed Tobias’s concern for the safety of the mill workers and miners. Several key people and places were mentioned over and over. The two people mentioned most often were the general store’s owner, Mrs. Perez, and the work bus driver, a man named Mateo. The three most referenced locations were the church, the general store, and the lumber mill. The open-pit mines north of town were chronicled with some frequency as well. About a third of the letters made some kind of reference to Macanas’s bootleg operations and the periodic helicopter visits. Everyone in Santavilla seemed to know that gold was being flown out of there on a regular basis.