Faye Kellerman: Blindman’s Bluff

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?