Body Copy - Michael Craven [45]
“I like to take my clients out. It’s good for business.”
True, Tremaine did take clients out from time to time.
Especially ones like Nina Aldeen.
“So Roger had an affair.”
“Yes,” Tremaine said.
“You’re sure?”
“I got the information from a pretty good source.”
“Who?”
Michael Craven
“I can’t tell you that. Part of the deal with the source for parting with the information.”
Nina smiled and said, “I understand. I’m not paying you to tell me everything. Just the one thing I want to know.”
Tremaine thought, this one’s a cool customer, respecting him, respecting his job. He looked at her, seeing and feeling now a real familiarity.
But it was different, too, her appearance, now that he was getting to know her. Nina’s face was beginning to change in a way, in the way that once you get to know someone they actually look a little different, even though it’s all the same parts stuck together in exactly the same way.
Tremaine sipped his beer and Nina sipped her wine, and they weren’t exactly looking at each other, they were just relaxing, there was a comfort between them now, the Pacific on one side through the glass, the lively restaurant on the other.
This kind of feels like a date, Tremaine thought. Wonder if she feels that way?
“What about Tyler Wilkes?” she said.
“I don’t know what Tyler Wilkes is up to. He’s not a good guy, I know that much. I’m confusing him right now.
Getting him paranoid. And then I’m going to use his para-noia to find out what he knows.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
She smiled again. “I won’t forget,” she said.
“Neither will I.”
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B O D Y C O P Y
They ordered lobster—they were at the Lobster—and when their orders were in, Tremaine said, “I’ve been thinking about your book. It’s a brave subject.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I mean,” she said. “Not so much for the compliment, but for acknowledging that the subject matter is kind of a tough one to deal with.”
“Like I said before, I know from personal experience.”
She went on. “It’s one of the few things in life I’ve ever done that my whole heart is into. I’m facing my fears, in a way. Just getting it all out and analyzing it. And as painful as it is, I know it’s the right thing to do because I can feel it in my heart. That sounds like a Hallmark card. What I mean to say is, I can feel it in my gut.”
Tremaine nodded. He knew what she meant, he knew that feeling.
“When I talked to John Lopez about hiring you, that’s what he said about you,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“That you did things from your gut. That you didn’t always have a reason other than that.”
“Sometimes that’s the best reason.”
A moment of silence, then Tremaine said, “So, no smart-ass remarks about me from Lopez?”
“Oh, there were a few.”
“Can you remember any?”
“He might have said something about your trailer.”
“What about it?”
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Michael Craven
“Something like, ‘If your car breaks down, you can always drive your house.’”
Tremaine laughed and said, “It’s a trailer, not an RV.
Not a bad joke though. I’ll have to get him back for that.”
“Hey, don’t tell him your source. You wouldn’t tell me yours.”
“Fair enough.”
They ate, delicious. They dropped the case talk and got back to books, and, more specifically, her book. Tremaine liked hearing about it, the poetry she put into telling her story. Then, out in the parking lot, Tremaine found himself saying, “Want to take a walk on the beach? Walk off dinner? Tell me more about your book?”
“Yeah,” Nina said. “I’ve lived in L.A. for a while now and I’ve never taken a walk on the beach at night.”
Tremaine had Nina follow him to a spot off the Pacific Coast Highway about halfway between the Lobster in Santa Monica and his trailer park. She pulled her Volvo behind his Cutlass, off the main road onto a little dirt road between the PCH and the ocean. She got out of her car, he got out of his, and they walked toward each other. The ocean was loud but not too loud, the waves crashing into the sand.
“This is a great little spot. How’d you find