Page 106 of Girl in the Water

He grabbed for his pocketknife but came up empty, bit back a curse as he remembered. He’d forgotten to take the knife out of his pocket when they’d left for Brazil, and security had taken it away at the airport. Can’t take stuff like that on a plane.

He scooted over to the hall table and opened the drawer, retrieved Finch’s knife he’d brought to the US when he’d brought Daniela all those years ago. He freed the blade, then carefully cut into the canvas bag.

He’d been right about the piece of plastic. There were two sheets. And sandwiched between them… “A bag of rock salt?”

“No.” Daniela helped him work the thing out—a pound bag of sugar, with Lavras Raw Natural Sugar in blue font stamped on the bag.

The contents had the brownish white color of raw sugar, large grained. Sugar crystals as big as the ones in rock candy. Probably made for those fancy upscale artisan coffee places.

But why would Finch hide a bag of sugar. Unless…

Ian cut the bag open and poured some into his palm. Licked the granules. “Sweet.”

Daniela raised an unimpressed eyebrow at this method of investigation. “It’s sugar.”

“Yes, but do you know what these crystals remind me of?” He held out his palm for her inspection.

She stared at him. “Sugar?”

“Raw diamonds. This is almost exactly what small diamonds look like before they’re cut.”

“How do you know what raw diamonds look like?”

“Murfreesboro, Arkansas.” He grinned, feeling more optimistic by the second. “Crater of Diamonds State Park. Went there as a kid with my mother. She had family nearby. Tourists can look for diamonds out in the field. Before you go out, some guy shows you what to look for.”

“Does anyone ever find anything?”

“Every single day. Biggest one ever found was over sixteen carats.”

“I want to go there,” she said immediately, with a smile of pure enthusiasm.

He nearly said he would take her but bit back the words before they could slip out. Instead, as she leaned closer, he lifted his palm for her inspection.

She flashed him a dubious look. Took a granule. Put it on her tongue. “Definitely sugar.”

Ian hummed. “We’ll see.”

He took the handful of granules to the counter and tossed them into Daniela’s steaming cup of coffee. He stirred with his finger and ignored the heat, his blood rushing faster in his veins as he waited. “Grab one of the blue bath towels.”

Daniela ran to the bathroom and was back in two seconds. She lay the folded towel on the kitchen counter. Ian poured the coffee onto it.

The coffee soaked into the towel. The sugar had melted. Except for two granules. He picked them up and rinsed them very carefully in the sink.

“I’ll be damned.” He held them out on his palm. “Raw diamonds.”

They turned at the same time to stare at the bag of sugar they’d left on the floor.

“There could be a bunch more in there.” Excitement bubbled in Daniela’s voice.

“I’m betting there are. Diamonds are not like drugs,” he thought out loud. “Airport dogs can’t sniff them out. And mixed in with the sugar, nobody can spot them with the naked eye.” He looked at her. “It’s a pretty damn good disguise. Any minute now, I’m going to be forced to think that Marcos Morais is smarter than he looks. I’m not going to like it.”

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Can you use this to get him?”

“You bet.”

Her smile widened, and she jumped forward to hug him, but just for a second, just an expression of sheer joy, completely lacking romantic overtones. Then she stepped back.

Little by little, her face turned serious. Her eyes were clear green pools. “Could I ask one thing? The last thing. I swear.”