Body Copy - Michael Craven [17]
50
B O D Y C O P Y
“Keeping score.”
“Exactly.”
Nina and Tremaine moved on and now entered another unusual room within the open space created by four wood walls, each a different height. The wood walls had windows cut into them. There wasn’t a ceiling on top of the walls, but rather an open view to the top of the hangar.
An attractive woman with blonde corkscrew hair stood up from behind her desk. She looked to be about forty.
“There you two are,” she said.
She walked around her desk and approached them. Her skin-tight, dark blue jeans rubbed together on her way over.
Sticking out her hand, she said, “I’m Laurie Donnelly.”
Tremaine, shaking her hand, replied, “I’m . . .”
“Donald Tremaine. You were quite a surfer,” Laurie said.
“You’ve done some research,” Nina said.
“Yeah, when I heard he was coming in, I looked him up.”
Laurie looked at Donald. “Still have your looks, I see.
Still have the blonde hair. Not as long though. Looks a little like Redford’s in Butch Cassidy.”
Tremaine smiled, embarrassed.
“You’ll have to excuse Laurie,” Nina said. “Like I said, she’s an incorrigible flirt.”
“I’m not sure I know what that word means,” Laurie said. “Nina’s an intellectual. I just tell it like I smell it.”
“With that, I’ll leave you two alone,” Nina said.
“You sure he’ll be all right?” Laurie said.
“He’s a private eye; he’s been in dangerous situations before.”
“Not this dangerous,” Tremaine said.
51
Michael Craven
“Oh, he’s got a sense of humor, too,” Laurie said.
“I wasn’t kidding.”
Nina said good-bye to Tremaine and Laurie and left.
Laurie Donnelly was the kind of person Tremaine needed. She had a position of stature at the agency and was happy to use it to help him out.
Laurie said, “Who do you want to talk to first?”
“How ’bout you?”
“Let’s do me last. I’ve got a few things to do, stat. But I can get you started and all set up for a full day.”
Tremaine said, “Why don’t I start with the girl who found Roger, Mary O’Shaughnessy?”
Before he had even finished his sentence, Laurie was on her phone.
“Mary, it’s Laurie Donnelly. The gentleman I was telling you about earlier is going to be coming by to talk to you shortly. Be as cooperative as possible and answer all his questions.”
It’s not possible that Laurie heard Mary’s response because the receiver was already back in its cradle. Slammed abruptly down.
Then Laurie looked at Tremaine and said, “She’s ready when you are.”
Laurie set up some other interviews for Tremaine, told him who he was going to talk to, then winked at him and said she’d see him later.
52
C H A P T E R 9
Mary O’Shaughnessy and Tremaine sat in a small conference room that had a small table, some chairs, and no windows. Tremaine looked at Mary, probably twenty-six, attractive, but desperate to be taken seriously. She was sitting so upright that it had to hurt, and she had her hands tightly clasped in front of her, almost like she was praying.
“So you wanted to talk to me first?” Mary said.
She couldn’t contain how impressed she was with herself over that fact. Tremaine nodded at her question.
“I thought it would be good to talk here,” Mary said.
“This is called a solitary room. It’s for people who want to take a break from the action of the agency, and just sit in here and think. You don’t have to be a creative to use Michael Craven
it. Like, I use it sometimes, even though I’m an account executive.”
“A creative?”
“Yeah, that’s what they call the writers and art directors. Creatives.”
Tremaine wondered if they called her group Kind-of-Annoyings. He said, “Account executive. Laurie said you were an assistant account executive.”
He had to point it out. Look at this girl, with the ridiculous posture and the little up-and-comer smirk. He just had to.
“Well, I am, but that won’t last long. I’ve already been promoted once. I started as a receptionist.”
Tremaine moved on. “So, you found Roger Gale that Saturday morning?”
“Yes!” she said.
She was so proud of it. Proud of being the one to find a dead guy.
“He was sitting there at his desk, it was very early