Body Copy - Michael Craven [21]
And, like I said, that world was important to her.”
“Right,” Tremaine said. “When you’re married, it’s a give and take. I’ve been married. I know that to be true.”
“Look at me.” Sawyer said. “Do I look like the kind of guy who wants to go to Linens-N-Things this weekend?”
“No, you don’t,” Tremaine said, “but I bet that’s what you’re doing.”
“That would be a smart bet. Because I love my wife.”
Tremaine nodded and said, “Did Roger Gale love his wife?”
“I don’t know,” Sawyer said. “He acted like he did. But Roger Gale was a master manipulator. It’s what he did for a living.”
“And it’s what he lived for.”
“That’s right,” Sawyer said.
Tremaine liked Jack Sawyer, got a kick out of his candor, felt like he could ask him real questions.
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Tremaine said, “Who, if anyone, do you think I should talk to?”
“It’s a tough call. Nobody seems to know anything. I’m sure you’ll talk to Evelyn, but she won’t tell you much.”
“Do you think she has much to tell?”
“I doubt she’s hiding anything, but she didn’t like the attention the murder brought. You know, nice people down at the club don’t get murdered. So, even if there are little things that might help you, personality traits and whatnot, they’ll be tough to pull out of Evelyn.”
Tremaine said, “It always helps me to talk to people who knew a victim, even if they don’t have much to say. I might find out later that they gave me more than I realized.
This guy Matt Bishop, he basically just told me how great Roger Gale was . . . But he might have helped me. I just don’t know yet.”
“Well,” Sawyer said. “I don’t want you to find out later that I helped you. I want to help you now. There’s this ad hack right down the road, Tyler Wilkes, that’s who everybody thinks might have done it.”
“I’m hearing his name a lot.”
“Tyler runs an agency in El Segundo called Think Big.
You’ll love this guy. You think you’ve seen some poseurs around here? This clown’s so caught up in competition and advertising, he might have been able to convince himself that Roger needed to die so he could win himself a sneaker account. Wait till you see his agency. He ripped off the design of this place just shamelessly. And did a bad job at that. He’s also got a blow habit, so maybe he’s crazy.”
“How do you know about the blow?”
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Michael Craven
“The whole industry’s a sewing circle, not just the indi-vidual ad agencies.”
Tremaine kept talking to Sawyer. Turned out, Sawyer ended up asking as many questions as Tremaine. Wanted to know about his surfing career. Specifically, the parts where girls in bikinis came up out of nowhere and propo-sitioned the world’s number one.
“I thought you were married,” Tremaine said.
“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear.”
“It didn’t happen that often,” Tremaine said.
“Just lie to me and tell me it did.”
Tremaine laughed and said, “Okay, it did.”
Sawyer got a faraway look in his eye and said,
“Really?”
On his way out, almost not believing he hadn’t asked him yet, Tremaine said, “So, Jack, what do you do here?”
Sawyer said, “I’m just an old hack, now. Back in the day, though, I used to be a pretty good art director. Used to partner with Roger on all the early stuff.”
Tremaine respected the old guy, still doing his thing after all these years.
“These days, though,” Sawyer said. “I just come in here to make sure the place doesn’t go to shit. Make sure it doesn’t get too phony.”
“I bet Roger would have appreciated that,” Tremaine said.
“I hope so.”
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C H A P T E R 11
Tremaine walked back to Laurie Donnelly’s office after a long day at the agency. He was looking forward to talking to her, but he was really looking forward to finishing his talk with her, for no other reason than he wanted to go back to the trailer and catch an evening surf. He entered her space, with the four walls each a different height, and almost ran into her as she was on her way out of her office.
Now, standing right in front of him, she said, “Want to grab a beer?“
It took Tremaine