Willy Brubeck probably was responsible for the most damning piece of evidence: a gun registered to Mace Kaffey that was matched to the bullets pulled from Kaffey’s own body as well as in the jacket taken from Neptune Brady. Why Mace chose to set himself up using his own gun was anyone’s guess, but it probably had more to do with desperation measures than with common sense.
The total evidence was enough for the Los Angeles D.A. to take the case.
Immediately a warrant was issued for Mace Kaffey’s arrest.
The man came into the police station armed with a posse of lawyers, all of them claiming that Martin Cruces was a lying psychopath and his statements were fabrication. The charges were foisted upon Mace because the police needed a quick solve. The money transfer never happened. The conversations between them never happened. And the phone calls on a couple of throwaway phones? Who knew why Cruces was calling Mace? And suddenly Mace had remembered that Guy had asked Mace to borrow his gun. The thugs must have picked up the gun when they rampaged Coyote Ranch.
The defense claimed that the murders were a case of robbery gone wrong, and the subsequent shootings were the thugs trying to get rid of witnesses against them. Mace needed all the spin and help he could get. The charges against him included the premeditated murders of Guy Kaffey, Gilliam Kaffey, Denny Orlando, Alfonso Lanz and Evan Teasdale, Alicia Montoya, and the attempted murders of Gil Kaffey, Grant Kaffey, Neptune Brady, Antoine Resseur, Piet Kotsky, Peter Decker, and Cindy Kutiel. It had taken almost a year to bring the case to trial. With the evidence and a star witness, the prosecution convinced a jury of twelve peers that Mace Kaffey was guilty of six counts of murder one. He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Gil Kaffey. But the jury remained deadlocked on the charges of the attempted murder of Neptune Brady, Grant Kaffey, Antoine Resseur, Piet Kotsky, Peter Decker, and Cindy Kutiel.
It was unlikely that Mace would be tried again by the state as he already faced the death penalty.
“IT’S STINKY THAT you won’t have your day in court,” Rina told Decker over dinner.
“You can only die once,” Decker answered.
“You’re lucky I wasn’t on that jury.” The verdict had been announced a week ago, but it was still on everyone’s minds. “That would have taken me away for months.”
Decker eyed her over a glass of cabernet. “You would have been recused.” They were in Tierra Sur restaurant inside the Herzog Winery, Decker’s favorite place. It had a friendly waitstaff, the best kosher wine list bar none, a lovely ambience, and a killer chef who made magic with every edible thing he touched. “Do you know what you want to eat?”
“I’m looking at the lamb.”
“Is it looking back at you?”
“That would be a little too rare for my taste,” Rina said. “What an evil man.”
“You’re still back on Mace?”
“It’s pretty astounding.”
“He is evil.”
“But…”
Decker took another sip of his wine. “Why do you think there’s a but?”
“You just have that look in your eyes…that you’re about to offer excuses.”
“I would never offer excuses for a man who executed six people and tried to kill me because I was involved in the case. They make very good lamb. If you want it, I’ll be happy to share my steak with you.”
“Great,” Rina said. “Let’s order a side of French fries.”
“Don’t do that. You take two and I eat the rest.”
“So control yourself.”
“I have no control.”
“So I’ll occupy your mouth with conversation so you won’t be tempted to overeat.”
Decker said, “And how are you going to do that?”
“I want your opinion of Mace Kaffey. Why did he do it?”
“I don’t think we’ll ever know, and my opinion isn’t worth anything.”
“It’s worth something to me,” Rina said.
Decker looked in the breadbasket, then pushed it away. “Why don’t you tell me your opinion. You followed the trial as closely as I did. And you have great insights.”
“Thank you.” Rina took a sip of her pinot noir. “But you have insider’s trading info.”
“You go first,” Decker said.
Rina gave her words some thought. “You think of sibling rivalry-as old as the Bible. But it wasn’t that the two of them were arguing and Mace killed Guy in a fit of passion like Cain and Abel. The murders were well-planned executions. Still, I don’t think Mace woke up one morning and decided his only solution was to kill his family. I think it was a gradual process.”
“I agree.”
“I think it was a confluence of things that led Mace to do what he did. First off, Mace took all of the blame when Kaffey was on a downswing. When the lawsuit was settled, Guy came away with a lot more than Mace.”
Decker said, “Mace was stripped of his board position, had his shares in the company taken away, and had his income reduced by half. But he was still making a hell of a lot of money.”
“Not what he was used to making,” Rina said. “We saw what happened during the trough of the recession. How the big three automakers flew to Washington on their private jets asking for billions of dollars. It’s hard to get used to a reduced lifestyle.”
Decker nodded.
Rina said, “I think Mace moved back east to prove himself with this Greenridge Project. But when the economy tanked and the project went way over budget, Mace saw his dreams of redemption being flushed down the toilet. It was pretty clear that Guy was getting ready to pull the plug.”
“Grant was involved in Greenridge, too.”
“I know. But Guy would take care of his son. No such guarantees with his brother,” Rina said. “So there goes Mace’s income and his moment of glory. His world was about to come crashing down, and he blamed Guy for everything. I think he was out to get Guy. Gilliam and Gil and the help were probably collateral damage.”
“Hmm, I’m not so sure about that,” Decker said. “I think Mace waited for a day when Gilliam, Gil, and Guy were all under one roof. Gilliam, had she lived, would have inherited a big share of Kaffey Industries. With her gone, the remaining shares would go to the boys. With Gil gone, all the shares would go to Grant. There was no way that Grant could handle the Kaffey Industries-East Coast and West Coast-by himself. Besides, Mace got along with Grant.
“I think Mace was hoping that Grant would give him the eastern division, including the Greenridge Project, and that Grant would take over the west where most of the business was.”
Rina said, “Also, I suppose with Grant alive, there’d be less focus on Mace because Grant would inherit everything.”
“You better believe it,” Decker said. “We really didn’t know who to focus on at first. Had Mace been the only man left standing, he would have been our best suspect.”
Their waiter approached. His name was Vlad and he was over six seven with black hair, blue eyes, and mouth as wide as a canyon. After he took their order, he refilled Decker’s wineglass.
“On the house,” Vlad said. “Besides, we’re at the end of the bottle.”
Decker smiled. “I’m happy to take the dregs off you.”
“What about you?” Vlad said to Rina.
“I’m fine with my one glass.” After the waiter left, Rina said, “I do have a couple of questions about the case.”
“If it’s only a couple of questions, you’re clearer than I am on it.”
“Did Mace arrange for himself to be shot?”
“I think he arranged for himself to be shot at,” Decker said. “The intended target was probably Gil, to finish off what the gangbangers had messed up at the ranch.”
“Then why did someone shoot at Grant, you, and Cindy?”
“That remains a mystery. In my mind, Grant being alive was Mace’s best excuse.” He gave the question some thought. “I will say this from a professional point of view. With all of the Kaffeys being wounded or dead, we were stumped. There was no one person who we could point a finger at. We really did begin to think of maybe an outside crime-like a robbery.”