Finn shrugged. “The usual reasons. Equipment’s more expensive, the coal’s harder to get to, and there’s less of it, which means more man hours and more money invested in getting it out of the ground to start with. Dawson also got sued last year. There was a cave-in at one of his other mines further up in Virginia. Killed almost a dozen men, injured that many more. Despite the dwarf ’s attempts to keep it quiet, the accident got a lot of press. Dawson had insurance, but he still had to pony up almost thirty million for the families.”

I whistled. “That’ll put a dent in anyone’s wallet.”

Finn polished off his muffins and reached for the basket of rolls. I passed him some butter. “It put a bigger dent in Dawson’s wallet than most. It wiped out most of his personal fortune. He’s barely making ends meet these days and is mortgaged to the top of his ten-gallon hat.”

“So he just doesn’t want the diamonds, he needs them.”

“Like a wino needs wine,” Finn agreed. “But wait, there’s more. Guess who one of his primary lenders is?”

Another easy guess. “Mab Monroe.”

Finn pouted. “You ruin all my fun. How did you know?”

I shrugged. “I remembered seeing Dawson’s name in the file Fletcher compiled on Mab. Even if I hadn’t, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch. The woman’s got her hands in everything in this city. Including Dawson’s pocket, I imagine.”

“In a big, big way,” Finn said. “Mab’s been floating him money for the past several months. She’s writing it off as a speculative business venture.”

I looked at him. “Speculative venture? So she knows about the diamonds then.”

“Probably,” Finn said. “Dawson must have told her about them, maybe even given her a couple of samples as a good faith gesture.”

“So all Dawson has to do is get rid of the Foxes, and he can tear up the whole mountain mining diamonds.”

“Pay off his creditors, become solvent again, and make himself and Mab Monroe a pile of money,” Finn added.

“You were right, Gin. Tobias Dawson isn’t going to stop until Warren Fox’s land is his. He can’t afford to. Not with Mab Monroe breathing down his neck to come up with something worthwhile.”

“Knowing the dwarf ’s dirty secrets is all well and good, but we knew I was going to have to kill him all along,” I said. “What I want to know now is how I can pull it off—and get away clean afterward.”

Finn buttered another roll. “I’ve been working on that too. Like I said before, Dawson is all about his business. Mining is his life.”

“So I take him out at his house or the mine office. No big deal.”