“Exactly.”
Oliver said, “So what were you supposed to do when you got inside the condo?”
“Just like…take something…to prove you were there, you know?”
“Then why the gun?”
“Just in case…”
“In case of what?” Marge said.
“In case things get like…you know…complicated.”
“How would things get complicated?”
“What if he had a gun?” He smiled and sipped water. “A guy’s gotta protect himself.”
“So you knew who lived in the condo you were breaking into,” Marge said.
“Uh…no.” Pine shook his head. “No, I didn’t know.”
“You said in case he has a gun.”
“He…she. I’d only use the gun for protection.”
“Joe, you’re confused about something,” Marge said. “If you break into a person’s house and he uses a gun against you, that’s protection. If you use the gun against him, that’s called a home invasion and that’s a felony.”
“I wasn’t gonna use it,” Pine told her. “It was for protection, man.”
“You’re still committing a crime,” Oliver said. The two of them went back and forth on the gun until Marge broke in. “Why did you choose that condo?”
“What?” Pine answered.
“Why did you choose to break into that particular condo?”
“I dunno.” Pine’s eyes went to the floor. “It was on the ground floor. It was easy.”
“So to prove that you deserve a…promotion in the organization, you chose to do an easy B and E?”
Pine narrowed his eyes in anger. “It’s never easy…things can happen.”
Marge said, “And things did happen. You committed a felony, and because you were packing, now you could go away for a long time.”
“No one got hurt.”
“Your security guard days are over,” Oliver told him.
“That’s okay with me.” Pine sat back and folded his arms across his chest. “Who needs that shit?”
“The Kaffeys gave you shit?”
“Not the Kaffeys…that motherfucker Brady…reaming out my ass for being a minute late. I don’t need that shit.”
Marge noticed he hadn’t broached the murders. He spoke as if he had been merely fired. “What else didn’t you like about Neptune Brady?”
Her question unleashed the furies. For the next half hour, she and Oliver heard a litany of complaints about “that motherfucking, half-nigger, asshole Brady.” And while she didn’t feel any warmth for the Neptune, the punishment Brady had given Pine for his infractions fit the crime.
1. Neptune docked his pay whenever he was late.
2. He docked his pay if his uniform wasn’t cleaned and pressed.
3. He docked his pay if he heard inappropriate language.
4. He docked his pay if he’d miss a day without twenty-four-hour notice.
Oliver said, “So why’d you keep working at the job?”
The question momentarily threw him. “I dunno. It was steady money. Just not enough of it, know what I’m saying?”
“What’d you think of the Kaffeys?” Oliver asked him. “I dunno.”
“It’s not a trick question,” Marge told him. “Did you like the Kaffeys?”
“I didn’t know them enough to like them.”
“But you guarded them,” Marge said.
“Yeah, but that don’t mean we were bros. It was just like…yes ma’am, no ma’am. The guy never talked to me. I coulda been a piece of furniture. Once he reamed my ass for talking to the wife.”
“What were you talking to her about?” Marge asked.
“I said I liked her new Vette or something like that. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Don’t talk personal to the lady.’ From then on, it was good morning, ma’am, and nothing else.”
“Sounds like you didn’t like them.”
Pine shrugged. “I was furniture to them, but they were furniture to me.”
Making them that much easier to blow away, Marge thought. “I heard it was Guy Kaffey who brought you onto the staff.”
“News to me.” Pine frowned. “Why you asking me so many questions about Kaffey?”
“That’s kinda obvious, Joe,” Oliver said.
“Uh-uh, no way. I didn’t have nothing to do with that!” Pine slapped his arms across his chest. “I’ve been out of town.”
“Yeah, I know,” Marge said. “We’ve been looking for you.”
Pine tightened his grip on himself. “So I’m here.”
“You were out of town when it happened?” Oliver said.
“I was in Mexico,” Pine told him.
“What were you doing there?”
“I got family there. Hey, you wanna arrest me for the B and E, hey, what can I do? But I didn’t have nothing to do with the Kaffeys.”
“Joe, we’re in Homicide, not CAPS.” Marge gave him a moment to digest that. “We’ve been interviewing all the guards who worked for Guy and Gilliam Kaffey for the last few weeks. We’ve been looking for you, then you just happened to be in the closet of a guy that the cops were protecting. That makes us curious.”
“Yeah, Joe, about that,” Oliver said. “Why’d you break into a condo where there were cops in front?”
“They were out front.” Pine shrugged. “I was in the back.”
“But it didn’t bother you that the cops were out front?”
“Makes me a bigger man with the bros, you know?”
“Do you know why the cops were out front?”
“No idea,” Pine said. “I’ve been outta the country for a while.”
“How’d you feel when you found out about the homicides?” Oliver said.
Pine shrugged. “Shit happens.”
Marge said, “When did you go to Mexico?”
“I don’t remember the exact date, just that I went before it happened.” Again the arms crisscrossed his chest.
“How’d you find out about the murders?”
“My cousin called me. I thought, man, that’s real messed up. Then I was happy it wasn’t me doing the shift. I heard they all got whacked.”
He looked at them expectantly. Neither Marge nor Oliver responded. His knee started to bounce up and down. “Then I thought, I’m out of a job. So I stayed in Mexico a little longer.”
“Who’s the cousin?” Marge asked him.
Pine looked confused. “The cousin?”
“The one who called and told you about the crime,” Oliver said.
“Why you want to know?”
“So he can give you an alibi,” Marge said.
“Oh…okay. He’s not my real cousin, but we’re like brothers, you know?”
“His name?” Oliver asked.
“Martin Cruces. He worked for the Kaffeys, too.”
Marge willed her face to remain impassive. “Yeah, we know. He’s on our list.”
“Yeah…he’s the one who got me the job.”
“Martin did.”
“Yeah.”
“And he called you and told you about the murders?” Oliver said.
“Yeah, he told me all about it. Sounded real gory, man.”
Marge said, “Martin’s in deep trouble, Joe. Did he tell you that as well?”
Pine’s face momentarily froze. “That’s bullshit. I just talked to him, man. He don’t say nothing about that.”
“Yeah, you just talked to him, but we just arrested him,” Marge said.
Oliver said, “He’s right next door, talking to another set of Homicide detectives.”
Marge said, “So if you have something to tell us, now’s the time.”
“I don’t have nothing to tell you.” Pine’s eyes darted back and forth.
“That’s weird,” Oliver said. “Because Martin has plenty to tell us.”
Marge said, “We found your fingerprints at the Coyote Ranch, Joe.”
“’Course you did,” Pine said. “I worked there.”
Marge clarified. “We found bloody prints, the kinds that were made by someone who was there when the murders went down.”
“You’re in deep doo-doo,” Oliver said. “Martin is in the building, talking to us…this may be your only chance to explain what happened.”
“Don’t let Martin tell the whole story for both of you,” Marge said.
Oliver said, “Yeah, we want to hear your side.”