The finding of a gold nugget in Alice Springs generated a lot of interest in the Australian town, and in a way that also seemed to draw attention away from the Animalians that also lived nearby, even if it was Animalians that actually found the gold nugget. And in some ways, it was a complicated mystery to solve. For one thing, no one knew who owned the nugget. Archibald Walters, the rancher who owned the land where the nugget was found didn't claim ownership of the nugget and assumed that someone had to have planted it there. Largely because the terrain wasn't something that would indicate the presence of gold deposits in the region immediately around the town, and if it did, and particularly in the region around Archibald Walters' ranch, Archibald Walters wouldn't have a ranch. The search for gold would have meant someone would have established a mine there.
Thus, there were two lines of action that were needed to be done and they came from two different areas. Archibald Walters did the first one, which was to set up a camera near the area where Marla found the gold nugget. He had the nagging suspicion that someone had a personal interest in his ranch and the land it occupied, and that was the reason for planting the gold nugget there. That someone would see it and get excited at finding the gold and then petition for the rights to establish a mine or something along those lines. But Marla and the group that brought him the nugget, thinking it was his, didn't see who put it there. Thus, he bought a surveillance camera and set it up in a way that would scan the area.
"You'll be sure to share what this camera finds, if it picks up anything, right?" asked one of the constables from the Alice Springs Police Department.
"I can," Archibald Walters nodded as he hammered the metal bar down into the dirt with a metal mallet.
The work was a sort of step-by-step process and wasn't one that many would think of doing right away. The metal bar was not immediately on the corner of his ranch, but was to be placed about ten yards away, and Archibald Waters hammered it into the ground, making sure it would go down deep enough that the wind wouldn't knock it over. He'd also moved his cattle to a different field on the ranch to make sure they didn't knock it over either. From there, he would be able to fasten the camera to the top and coming from an electronics store with a good reputation and instructions on how to set up the system, he was certain that if someone WAS coming onto the ranch, he'd catch it. Though, that was largely on finding out who might be coming onto the ranch and not much more than that, and it naturally attracted the police who were working on the other part of the mystery.
The police's part in the mystery wasn't too different from Archibald Walters' part. They couldn't express the personal suspicions Walters had, as that was delivered was a gold nugget that no one claimed ownership of and the fact that it had been found lying on the ground. They'd asked around, including interviewing Marla and those that had been with her when the nugget was found, but all that revealed was the circumstances around the nugget's discovery, though the police did ask that the former miner be on call to help them with some of the scientific aspects of the research, as they weren't the sort of geological experts to have much information. The former miner had been quite helpful, largely in pointing out the nugget had likely been cleaned before it was placed on Archibald Walters' land, so they couldn't tell where the nugget originated from. In a way, it didn't seem like much help, but it at least gave them a good starting point and enough facts that neither Marla and her gym members nor Archibald Walters seemed to have been involved with the nugget beyond its discovery.
From there, finding the owner of the gold would be something rather simple for the police, or at least they had a standard formula for it. They started with some phone calls to the formal gold mines in Australia, if only to see if maybe an employee of the mine had smuggled the nugget out of the mine rather than letting it go through the processes that the mine used to process the gold found and then prepared for use as parts of watches or anything else. From what those calls revealed was that they had no knowledge or evidence of an employee smuggling gold out of the mine, and this indicated that wherever this mystery nugget came from, and whoever owned it, it had been found privately, and likely at an unknown site. To the police, so long as it wasn't found on private property, that part wasn't too much of an issue. If someone had found a gold vein on his land, that was his business. But the fact that it was found left on Archibald Walters' land then provided some questions to the police and made them just as interested in finding the owner of the nugget.
This then lead the police turning to putting out posters that included a photo of the nugget along with some base description of the nugget. The description included the nugget's weight and some base descriptions that provided the message that the police knew this likely wasn't a nugget smuggled out of an established mine. They also provided a message that if the owner of the nugget were to come forward and provide an explanation as to why it had been left on Archibald Walters' property as well as where the nugget was found and how it was found that there would be no criminal charges filed. There were a couple of people who called into the station to claim ownership of the nugget, but when asked for details, they then couldn't name the street corner that the nugget was found on, the name of the rancher who owned the land, or even who found the gold nugget to begin with. This only confirmed that the people who called were more trying to play to the fact that no one knew who had placed the nugget there and were trying to cash in on it. These callers were then met with suspicion over this, and often had their claims denied.
"Though, I'd wonder on why you'd want the information," Archibald Walters spoke as test shook the metal pipe, "given that ya ain't lookin' to charge anyone with anything."
"That's to get some knowledge on who it is and place a face to things," the officer answered, "because of how strange all this is. I mean... for all you know, it could have been a complete accident that the nugget ended up in the grass on your ranch here. And if it was an accident, there'd be no crime to investigate, wouldn't there?"
"I suppose you're right there, mate," Archibald Walters replied, "but I've had enough success with my ranch and knowledge of people being jealous to have my suspicions..."
"Suspicions are fine," the officer answered, "but without evidence... there is no legal reason to treat this as though it's entirely a criminal case. And we can't go into that sort of situation where this person is criminal until we have evidence."
"Most crooks ain't gonna just fess up though," Archibald Walters pointed out, "even if you promise not to prosecute if they reveal a criminal act."
"Which would confirm the likelihood of possible continued actions that would constitute a crime, and if they come onto your ranch to do it," the officer then lead the argument forward with a small waive of his hand, "then we can move in ways that would treat whoever placed the mystery nugget on your land as a criminal. As right now, for all we know, the gold got there because a clumsy and/or drunken idiot wandered by your ranch, was playing with a gold nugget, tossed it in the air, failed to catch it and it landed on your property... and our guy walked on without even recognizing that."
Archibald Walters looked to the officer and then nodded. He had his suspicions that someone had some sort of interest in his property and for reasons that he didn't know, but he supposed the officer was right in that they couldn't legally act until there was actual evidence of a crime. And if Archibald Walters' camera did catch evidence of something "criminal," he wouldn't not share it with the police. After all, what other choice did he have, go as the Animalians living in Alice Springs to follow the scent of every person that came by his ranch and hope they could "intimidate" someone into confessing. Despite all her muscle, which was impressive, Archibald Walters had the sense that Marla wouldn't have attacked or threatened him unless he threatened her first. So, he had to play within the letter of the law and see where things go.
"And if I get something strange... I'll pass the footage onto you," Archibald Walters told him.