Blindman's Bluff (32 page)
Authors: Faye Kellerman
Pine glanced at them and tried to shrug them off. “You can fix those up. You guys got all sorts of stuff so you can trap me into saying lies.”
“But that’s just it, Joe,” Oliver said. “We don’t want lies. We want the truth.”
“Martin is telling us the truth,” Marge said. “We’re just curious if his truth is the same as your truth.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“You were there. We have witnesses saying you were there. The guy whose house you broke into. He heard people talk about it,” Marge said. “He overheard people talking about
you.
How Martin was pissed at you because you didn’t finish off Gil Kaffey.”
“I
wasn’t
there!”
“Your fingerprints say you were there.”
“You’re lying. I wasn’t there.”
“No,
you’re
lying. You
were
there,” Marge said. “You can keep lying or you can help yourself by telling the truth.”
Something finally got to Pine, and he started sweating in earnest. Still, it took another couple of hours, several cups of coffee, and a half-dozen nutrition bars before Marge and Oliver noticed his psyche cracking. They excused themselves and went out of the room, leaving Pine alone to weigh his options.
The two of them stared at Pine in the video camera for a minute or two. Then Marge looked at the clock. “Decker’s due back in two hours. I’d love to wrap this up before he comes.”
“He’s coming apart,” Oliver said. “Now’s the time to bring up Rondo Martin.”
Marge took a swig of water and regarded Messing and Pratt going after Cruces. She turned up the volume, hearing Wynona trying to seduce Cruces into talking about the murders.
But we have your fingerprints at the scene, Martin. We also have witnesses who heard you talk about it. Plus, we have Joe Pine in the other room. He screwed up tonight. He got caught. He’s telling us things. We want to hear your side of the story.
Marge turned the volume down. “Let’s go.”
They returned to the interview room. Marge said, “I just checked in with Martin Cruces, Joe. I’m telling you that this is your one chance to tell
your
side of the story.”
“I wasn’t…” He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I need sleep, man. Maybe after I sleep, I’ll talk.”
“We have your fingerprints in the Kaffeys’ blood, Joe,” Oliver said. “We have an eyewitness who told us everything. Just tell us what happened.”
Pine’s eyes darted from side to side. “What eyewitness?”
“Joe…” Marge leaned over and spoke softly. “You think we’d come down on you if we didn’t have your fingerprints at the scene? You think we’d come down on you if we didn’t have an eyewitness who said that you looked him in the eye and then pulled the trigger? You think we’d arrest you for murder if we couldn’t deliver the goods?”
“You’re lying,” Pine answered.
Marge moved in close to him and spoke softly. “We’re not lying, Joe. Martin Cruces is talking. It’s not right for you to take all the
shit when you were just part of the plan. Now’s the time to man up. You gotta start thinking about yourself. Because you can’t explain away fingerprints and eyewitness testimony.”
“You don’t have an eyewitness,” Pine insisted. “That jackass mighta heard things, but he never saw me before in his life!”
“Which jackass is that?” Marge asked.
“The court guy.”
“The court guy whose condo you broke into?”
Pine didn’t answer.
“Joe, we know you didn’t pick his condo at random. Who sent you there?”
“Okay…” Pine took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll tell you this, okay. Martin sent me over to scare him. That’s the only thing I’ll admit to, okay?”
“Why did Martin Cruces send you over to scare the court guy?” Marge asked him.
“’Cause he overheard his cousin talking about the crime.” Under his breath, Pine uttered, “Fucking idiot!”
“Tell us about it,” Oliver said.
Pine sighed. “Can I get something to eat around here?”
Marge got up and came back with an assortment of candy.
Pine unwrapped a Snickers bar and ate half in a single bite. “Cruces said that the court guy overheard his moron cousin talking about the murders. He told me to break into the court guy’s house and scare him.”
“So why were you assigned to scare the court guy?” Oliver said. “Why didn’t the moron cousin scare him?”
“’Cause he’s an idiot and can’t do anything right. He got arrested before he could get to the court guy.”
“What’s the cousin’s name?” Oliver asked.
“Alejandro Brand.”
Strike one!
Marge thought triumphantly. “The court guy overheard Brand talking about the murders?”
“Yeah.”
“What did the court guy overhear Brand say?”
“Hell if I know, but it made Cruces nervous. So he tole me to take him…to scare him.”
Marge went in for the attack. “Martin Cruces didn’t lie to you, Joe.”
Oliver said, “The court guy did hear Brand talking about the Kaffey murders.”
Marge said, “The court guy overheard Brand talking about Martin Cruces…and the court guy overheard Brand talking about
you.”
“That you screwed up by not whacking Gil Kaffey,” Oliver said.
Pine finished his candy bar. “That’s a lie, man. I wasn’t there. The court guy’s lying.”
Marge said, “Since Brand had the big mouth, Martin Cruces told Brand to take out the court guy?”
“That’s the first true thing you said in the last four hours. Cruces told
Brand,
not me. He gave the assignment to Brand. But then Alejandro screwed up and got arrested. So Cruces asked his other cousin, Esteban Cruz, to take out the court guy.”
Marge said, “And when Cruz screwed up, he told you to get your ass back from Mexico and finish the job, or he’ll fuck you over good. That’s what’s happening right now, Joe. Martin is screwing you over. Cruces told you to break into the court guy’s condo and finish him off.”
“Why go down when it was Cruces’s order?” Oliver said.
“Yeah, it was Cruces’s order.” Pine pushed sweat from his eyes. “But all I was supposed to do was scare him.”
Strike two!
They now had collusion: Cruces and Pine working together against Brett Harriman. Marge said, “So we have the court guy’s testimony, we have your bloody fingerprints…why don’t you just tell us what happened?”
Oliver told Marge, “You forgot something.”
Marge said, “What did I forget?”
“Our eyewitness.” Oliver leaned back in his chair. “Joe, you told us a couple of hours ago that all the guards were whacked. But the truth is…not everyone died.”
Pine was quiet.
“Rondo Martin survived,” Marge said. “And he’s talking.”
Oliver said, “So we have Martin Cruces telling his side of the story, we have Rondo Martin telling his side, we have the court guy telling his side of the story.”
Marge leaned forward. “Why don’t you tell us your side?”
Oliver said, “Joe, it’s real simple. Just tell us exactly what happened.”
A few seconds passed and then Pine began to talk.
He talked and talked and talked and talked and talked.
Though she kept a straight face, inside she was grinning.
Strike three and you are
so
out!
T
HE UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTS
were dozens of pages long. Marge handed them to Decker and said, “These were taken off the audio portion of the tape by the computerized voice recognition system. Then Lee programmed the system to put whoever was talking in front of the statement. There are lots of mistakes, but I think you can grab the gist of the interview.”
Decker skimmed through the paper. “What’s happening with Martin Cruces?”
“Messing and Pratt are still working on him.”
“How long have they been going?”
“About seven hours. We all figured as long as you’re here, maybe your title would make an impression on him.”
“Seven hours and he hasn’t asked for a lawyer?”
“Not yet,” Marge said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed, giving him just enough hope to think that he can weasel out of the forensics. The noose is going to tighten. Because at the end of the transcripts, Joe named names.”
Oliver let out a big yawn. “We’ll get him eventually.”
“Have you two gotten any sleep?”
“Not yet.”
“Want to go home?”
“Not on your life,” Oliver said. Marge seconded the sentiment.
Decker stifled an oncoming yawn. “Okay. Just let me review this to bring me up to speed. Then I’ll deal with Cruces.”
“Sounds good,” Oliver said. “Want some coffee? We’ve been living on caffeine.”
“That would be great.”
A few moments later, mug in hand, Decker went into his office, closed the door, and buried his attention in a stack of papers. There were tons of typos, but his brain was mostly able to correct them. The first two-thirds of the interview was Oliver and Marge cajoling Pine into confession, using everything from sympathy to lies.
In the last fifth of the interview, things got interesting. Although the dry printed words lacked emotion, maybe that was better. It was only Decker’s eyes and the text.
SCOTT OLIVER: Start from the beginning, Joe. How’d you get involved in the murders?
JOE PINE: It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.
MARGE DUNN: So how was it supposed to happen?
JOE PINE: No one was supposed to get hurt. It was supposed to be a robbery.
MARGE DUNN: How’d you get involved in the robbery?
JOE PINE: It was Martin Cruces. He had the plan.
MARGE DUNN: The plan to do what?
JOE PINE: You know. To get the money. Martin planned it for a long time.
SCOTT OLIVER: How long had Martin Cruces been planning this robbery?
JOE PINE: A long time.
SCOTT OLIVER: Weeks? Months?
JOE PINE: Maybe six months.
MARGE DUNN: That is a long time.
The same speaker in a row must indicate a pause, Decker decided.
MARGE DUNN: You mentioned money. That he planned it to get money. What kind of money? Cash? Jewelry? Valuables?
JOE PINE: Martin said that the old man kept a giganto wad of cash in a safe. I never seen the safe, but Martin said there was a safe so why should I think he was lying?
MARGE DUNN: Did you find the safe?
JOE PINE: No, things messed up pretty quickly.
MARGE DUNN: Did you take anything from the house?
JOE PINE: We found a little cash and rings and shit, but we didn’t have time. Cruces wanted us to bury Denny so we took what we seen around and got out.
SCOTT OLIVER: If it was a robbery, why kill anyone? And why take the time to bury Denny? You already had other dead bodies. Why not just get to the safe and split?
JOE PINE: Now that the old man and old lady was dead, it
was gonna be a problem. Cruces said they’d come checking every guard. He said that if we buried Denny and no one could find him, it would look like Denny did it and ran away.
SCOTT OLIVER: Then what about Rondo Martin?
JOE PINE: Cruces said that he’d take care of him, personally.
SCOTT OLIVER: Joe, it looked like the burial site was planned in advance. It looks to our eye like the murder was planned from the beginning.
JOE PINE: It was supposed to be a robbery, but things messed up real quick.
SCOTT OLIVER: Joe, you had a place all picked out—the horse grave.
JOE PINE: Cruces said get rid of the body. I started digging, but the soil was like concrete, man. Then I thought of the dead horses. I figured it would be easier to dig up a grave than start from nothin’.
MARGE DUNN: But you buried the body way below the horses. That took time, Joe. How’d you have that much time?
JOE PINE: I guess I worked fast. Things were fuzzy that night.
Decker stopped and analyzed the words. Their line of questioning was excellent. It was clear that this had been a carefully planned execution by the use of the horse grave. They were just trying to get Pine to admit it. Decker continued to read.
MARGE DUNN: If I had planned to murder Denny and Rondo,
I would plan to murder everyone around to eliminate witnesses, including Guy, Gilliam, and Gil Kaffey.
JOE PINE: Yeah, well as soon as Rondo bolted, that’s what Cruces decided to do. Just whack everybody. But that wasn’t the original plan. It was supposed to be a robbery and that’s why we had the guns. To scare the old man and convince him that we were serious. That’s why the son had to be there. That’s why the old lady had to be there. With guns to their heads, the old man would be more like…cooperative. No one was supposed to get hurt. That’s why we had a lot of people. To show that we were serious and to make sure no one got hurt.
SCOTT OLIVER: But people still got murdered, even if you didn’t plan it that way.
JOE PINE: I wouldna done it if I thought people would get hurt. It was supposed to be a robbery.
(Decker felt his eyes roll into the back of his head.)
MARGE DUNN: How many people were involved in the plan?
JOE PINE: I think there were six.
JOE PINE: Yeah, six.
SCOTT OLIVER: Why six?
JOE PINE: One for Denny, one for Rondo, one for the wife, one for the son, and two on the old man.
MARGE DUNN: We need names.
MARGE DUNN: Joe, if you want someone to help you out, you’ve
got to help us out. Cooperation is your best friend right now. Cooperation is your only friend.
(But Pine still was hesitant to rat out the others. So Scott tried a different tactic.)
SCOTT OLIVER: You had six people: one for Denny, one for Rondo, one for the wife, one for the son, and two for the old man.
JOE PINE: Yes, sir.
SCOTT OLIVER: What about the maid?
JOE PINE: See, that’s how things got fucked up. She wasn’t supposed to be there. She was supposed to be at church. We knew how to get into the house through the maid’s quarters because we knew that shit. Or Martin knew that shit. I dunno. Anyway, we were supposed to go through the maid’s bedroom. But we didn’t know that there was another one. She started screaming and then it all went south.
MARGE DUNN: What happened?
JOE PINE: Gordo tried to knock her out, but that didn’t work. ’Cause the bitch kept on screaming. So Martin just plugged her.
MARGE DUNN: Joe, we need the names.
MARGE DUNN: Joe, if you don’t help us, how can we possibly help you?
SCOTT OLIVER: It’s survival, man. Either you roll on them or they’ll roll on you.
SCOTT OLIVER: You seem like a decent guy. I know you never
meant to hurt anyone. Why should you take all the blame when there were others involved?
MARGE DUNN: Start out with just a name. Gordo. Gordo who?
JOE PINE: Gordo Cruces.
MARGE DUNN: See how easy that was. Gordo Cruces. Is Gordo Cruces a relative of Martin Cruces?
JOE PINE: I think he’s a cousin. Martin’s got a lot of cousins.
SCOTT OLIVER: So we have Martin, Gordo, and you. Give us another name.
JOE PINE: You know about Esteban Cruz. You arrested him.
That wasn’t quite true. The police merely stopped him. But why quibble.
JOE PINE: Cruz had two simple jobs and didn’t do either one. That’s what happens when you get your family involved. So Martin…he calls me up and tells me to get my ass back from Mexico, even though he sent me to Mexico in the first place.
MARGE DUNN: Why did he send you away?
JOE PINE: Well, he didn’t exactly send me away. I just kinda left. But Martin knew where to find me. He calls me up and says if I don’t take care of that crazy gringo, he’s gonna take care of me and not in a good way.
JOE PINE: I shoulda never come back.
MARGE DUNN: What gringo?
JOE PINE: You know who I mean. The court guy in the condo. I didn’t hurt him.
MARGE DUNN: Okay, now we’ve got four names. Just two more to go.
JOE PINE: Cruces also got Miguel Mendoza and Julio Davis from the Bodega 12th, know what I’m saying.
MARGE DUNN: Julio Davis is missing. Any chance he skipped with you to Mexico?
JOE PINE: What do I get if I tell you where he is?
MARGE DUNN: I don’t know. I have to talk to people.
JOE PINE: Well, when you do, get back to me.
MARGE DUNN: What about Alejandro Brand?
JOE PINE: Brand is an idiot…a motherfucker juicehead. His big mouth fucked me up. When Brand told Cruces that the gringo heard him talking in the courthouse, Cruces told Esteban to take care of the gringo and Brand.
MARGE DUNN: He told Esteban to murder his cousin.
JOE PINE: Blood is only so thick, you know what I’m saying.
SCOTT OLIVER: So what happened?
JOE PINE: What happened was Brand got hisself arrested before Esteban could whack him. Then before he could get to the gringo, the idiot was stopped by the cops.
SCOTT OLIVER: Which idiot?
JOE PINE: Esteban Cruz.
SCOTT OLIVER: How is Martin Cruces related to Esteban Cruz and Alejandro Brand?
JOE PINE: I think they’re all cousins or something.
MARGE DUNN: Who chose the people to do the murders?
JOE PINE: Robbery not murder. And Cruces set everything up.
MARGE DUNN: So Martin planned these murders—
JOE PINE: Robbery.
MARGE DUNN: So Martin planned the robbery. What did he pay you to do the crime?
JOE PINE: Not enough.
SCOTT OLIVER: How much did you make, Joe?
JOE PINE: Ten grand cash plus whatever I could steal and fence.
MARGE DUNN: Martin Cruces paid you ten grand in cash?
JOE PINE: Lotta money, right?
SCOTT OLIVER: A whole lotta money. Did he pay the other men ten grand, too?
JOE PINE: I dunno. I never asked.
SCOTT OLIVER: What do you think he paid the others?
JOE PINE: Probably something but not as much. I told Martin I
needed a lotta money to do this because the police were gonna check out every guard who worked for Kaffey. So if he wanted my help, he had to come up with a lotta cash.
SCOTT OLIVER: Where did Martin Cruces get that kind of money?
JOE PINE: I dunno.
SCOTT OLIVER: You’re gonna have to do better than that, Joe, if you want us to help you. Where did Martin Cruces get the ten grand to pay you?
JOE PINE: Maybe he had a good day with cards.
SCOTT OLIVER: Even if Cruces didn’t pay the others as much as you, he had to get that kind of cash from somewhere. Where would a twenty-five-year-old security guard get that kind of cash?
JOE PINE: I don’t know. I didn’t ask him.
MARGE DUNN: That’s crazy, Joe. No one’s going to believe that Martin Cruces offered you ten thousand dollars in cash to do something illegal and you never asked where the money came from.
JOE PINE: He gives me a lotta cash for a robbery, I don’t ask questions, lady.
SCOTT OLIVER: I don’t believe that, Joe.
(Decker read on. They kept pressing the point, but it took until two pages from the end to get something out of Pine.)
JOE PINE: Okay, you want me to make something up. I’ll make
something up. Cruces said that he had a sugar daddy paying for everything. He called him El Patrón, but he never did say a name.
JOE PINE: I swear he didn’t say a name.
SCOTT OLIVER: Which patrón do you think Cruces was talking about?
JOE PINE: I don’t know.
MARGE DUNN: C’mon, Joe. You can do better than you’re doing.
(More pages of cajoling.)
JOE PINE: I swear I don’t know. Probably someone high up with a lot of cash who hated the old man. Cruces never did say.
The transcript ended. Decker put down the papers and finished up his third cup of coffee. Armed with a little bit of knowledge and a fresh cup of coffee, he was ready to face the fire.
“HELLO, MARTIN, HOW
are you doing?” Decker asked him.
Cruces lifted his head from the table. Despite the man’s bloodshot eyes and tired face, he was decent looking. His features were symmetrical with dark eyes, dark hair, a dark mustache, prominent cheekbones, and a square chin. He said, “Who’re you?”