Two Faces of Gold — Armand Croft

When the mother of MacCrimmon's infant daughter is drowned, it is rumored she was killed by members of her late husband's cartel looking for his stash of gold. At first MacCrimmon is more concerned with his daughter, who has gone missing, taken by her nurse. But when his good friend Father Gus is murdered while investigating property they jointly own outside of the dusty little desert town of Mecca, he is certain Gus had stumbled on the gold. When he sneaks onto the property at night he finds the current occupants may not have found the gold themselves, but they are willing to kill anyone who comes looking for it, including him.