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?”
“Lieutenant Peter Decker. Can I get you anything?”
Cruces’s voice was slurry. “Are you…like The Boss?”
“I’m in charge of the detective squad.”
“So tell your people to stop lying.”
“What do you think they’re lying about?” Decker sat across from Cruces, giving him space. He’d move over later to the middle seat for intimidation or intimacy depending on how the conversation was going.
“They keep telling me I was involved in the Kaffey murders. I wasn’t anywhere near the Coyote Ranch. I was at a bar, getting drunk. You checked out my alibi. I was where I said I was. Why you come back and hassle me?”
“Because your bloody fingerprint was lifted from the crime scene.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Forensics doesn’t lie.”
“But you do.”
“I do lie,” Decker admitted. “But this isn’t one of the times.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Martin, I don’t care if you believe me or not. We have your fingerprint and you, my friend, are in deep trouble. Not only do we have forensics, we have an eyewitness who puts you there.” Decker leaned across the table. “I found Rondo Martin. I’ve been interviewing him for the last twenty-four hours. He’s locked up and he’s safe and you can’t get to him. None of your cousins can get to him either, because we’ve arrested almost all of them. Rondo can’t wait to testify against you.”
“You don’t know how many cousins I have,” Cruces told him. He looked upward and closed his eyes.
“Martin…” Decker moved over to the middle chair. “Even if someone did manage to whack Rondo Martin, it still wouldn’t do you any good. We’ve got everything that he told us videotaped, and we’ve already made copies. Help yourself and talk to us.”
“I never seen no videotape.”
That’s because it didn’t exist. Since Cruces did seem to have oodles of cousins, Decker decided that saying he had a videotape would be a good idea. He actually should make one in case something did happen. “Why in the world would I show it to you?”
“I wanna see it.”
“If you cooperate, maybe I’ll show it to you. So this is what we have, Martin. We’ve got José Pinon telling us all about you and Esteban and Miguel and Gordo and Julio Davis-the guy who gave you your alibi. We’ve got Joe telling us where Julio is. We have bloody fingerprints, we have an eyewitness who puts you at the scene.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“Martin, it’s over. Joe Pine told us everything because he was looking at the death penalty.”
“So José tells you lies to save his skin and I’m supposed to be upset? It’s bullshit.”
“It’s not just him, Martin. It’s José and the rest of your homies from Bodega 12th. We’ve got them all…except maybe Julio.” Decker liked to throw in a bit of truth. “But we’ll find him. It’s only a matter of time.”