Body Copy - Michael Craven [2]
“I’m Nina Aldeen.”
Tremaine gripped her extended hand and officially introduced himself, “Donald Tremaine.”
Tremaine observed her, processing his first impression.
He noticed he was wrong about her being a brunette. Well, she was a brunette, but her hair was very dark, almost black. It accentuated her slightly pale skin and pretty blue eyes. Pretty blue eyes, Tremaine noticed, that held a hint of sadness.
Tremaine said, “Come on in. Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Inside, Nina sat down, sipped her coffee, and said, “I have to say, I don’t think I’ve been in a trailer before, but Michael Craven
this is quite nice. I didn’t realize they came with hardwood floors.”
“I put them in when I moved in. It came with sky blue shag carpet.”
Nina said, “Like you see in somebody’s basement.”
“Or van, even.”
“I bet you got it out of here immediately,” she said.
Tremaine had lived with it for more than three years.
He said, “Yeah, right away.”
Nina looked around a bit more. Tremaine looked at her looking around. At the floors, at the art on the walls, at the book collection. Tremaine thought, no need for the tour now, she’s seen everything.
She said, “I really like it in here.”
She meant it, he could tell.
“Thanks,” he said.
“It’s nice and spare. I always let things pile up.”
Tremaine nodded and said, “How’d you hear about me?”
“From John Lopez.”
“Great guy. Great cop. We grew up together.”
“He told me that.”
Then Tremaine said, “I don’t want to hear anything about the case.”
Some surprise registered on Nina’s face and she said,
“Oh. Why not? John told me you’d take the case if I paid you your fee. He told me what it was, I’m fine with it.”
Lyle, who had been in a deep sleep, picked his head up and looked in the direction of the woman. Lyle considered the stranger, squinting his eyes at her and sniffing the air in her direction. Within seconds, his head was back down and he was off to sleep.
6
B O D Y C O P Y
“That’s Lyle. You probably thought he was dead.”
“It might have crossed my mind,” she said. “Why don’t you want to hear about my case?”
“Because I can’t take it. I’m going on vacation. See that big bag over there?”
“I was wondering what that was.”
“Those are my surfboards,” he said. “I’m going on a surf trip.”
“John said you were a surfer. He said you used to be a pro.”
“Yeah, a pretty long time ago.”
“He said you were the world champion.”
“It was a pretty long time ago.”
Tremaine felt some anxiety in his chest. He didn’t want to talk about the tour, didn’t want to hear the question that people always seemed to end up asking: Why’d you quit?
She didn’t ask.
She said, “Well, it’s okay if you’re going on vacation. I’ll hire you when you get back.”
“I’m leaving for two months.”
Nina thought for a second, but no longer than that, and then said, “It’s been a year since my uncle was killed. I suppose I could wait two months, if that’s what it takes to hire you.”
“I know other P.I.s.”
“John Lopez told me not to waste my time with a bad P.I. who isn’t going to get anywhere. This is a case the police couldn’t solve. By the way, John told me to tell you he hadn’t worked on the case.”
Tremaine laughed at that.
Nina continued. “He told me you’d solved cases the 7
Michael Craven
police couldn’t figure out. That you’d done it a couple times. And if I was going to hire someone, I should hire you.”
“Lopez said that to you? He never says nice stuff like that to me.”
Tremaine wanted to ask her what her uncle’s name was, but he knew that if he did, he wouldn’t be going to Australia. He knew that if he started getting details on the case, particularly knowing he was going to work on it when he got back, it would ruin his trip. He’d be out in the waves, dropping in on a big one, but instead of enjoying the freedom of being thousands of miles away from home and the rush of gliding down a wave, he’d be thinking about the case he knew he was coming back to. What happened, why it happened, and who did it. He simply couldn’t help it.
He looked at Nina. That smooth, pale skin