Body Copy - Michael Craven [55]
“On me? What do you mean, on me?” Wilkes said.
Tremaine pulled the Cutlass out of the spot and guided the car right, around the corner. Paul Spinelli’s building was now out of sight.
Tremaine said, “You know how you couldn’t tell what I was looking for when I first came in to your office?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” Tremaine said as he steered the Cutlass down a long alley behind a warehouse, then right again to an area of Dumpsters closed in by high cement walls on three sides,
“I work for Paul Spinelli. We were looking into you.”
Just after Tremaine said this, Marvin Kearns appeared 172
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from behind one of the cement walls. Tremaine and Tyler looked at him, stocky, bald, leather blazer over a tank top, mean-ass expression on his face.
Tremaine looked over and down. Tyler’s hand was visibly shaking.
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The three of them, Tyler, Marvin, and Tremaine, were now standing in the area with the Dumpsters and the three cement walls. Marvin Kearns stood stone-silent with a stern look on his face, those big shades adding to the mystery. Tremaine began talking to Tyler Wilkes.
Tremaine said, “You’re in trouble. Like I said, this man here is what you might call a very close associate to Paul Spinelli. Paul Spinelli thinks you’re going to get him in trouble. That you’re suspicious of him.”
Tyler Wilkes’s eyes were open wide now, sweat was forming on his forehead. Marvin moved closer to Tyler, just a little closer.
Tyler said, “What is this? I have no idea what Paul Spinelli is up to. All I did was invest in his company.”
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“Paul Spinelli hired me to look into you because he thought you were the type of person that might assume things that weren’t true. Example: After I came and talked to you, you hired someone to follow me. You know why you hired someone to follow me?”
Tyler Wilkes couldn’t speak. He tried, but nothing came out. So he just shook his head, no.
Tremaine said, “You did that because you think Paul Spinelli is up to something, don’t you? Instead of being confident that you’ve made a sound investment in his company, you thought you had a reason to be suspicious. So I played right into your hands. As soon as you found out I took pictures of the cement trucks, you thought, I knew it!
Spinelli’s a bad guy. And Paul Spinelli can’t live with that.”
Tyler, stuttering, said, “I hired the P.I. so I could tell Spinelli about you.”
Tremaine said, “I don’t think so. And neither does Spinelli. You wouldn’t have hired a P.I. if you didn’t think Spinelli was up to something. And, like I said, Spinelli can’t live with that.”
After Tremaine said this, Marvin Kearns moved his blazer to the side and pulled out a gun. A black Browning Hi-Power 9mm. It wasn’t loaded. But Tyler Wilkes didn’t know this, would never know this.
At the sight of the gun, Tyler Wilkes gasped. He was breathing very hard. Marvin Kearns didn’t point the gun at Tyler, but he moved even closer now and said quietly but with force, Marvin’s first line in this performance, “What do you know about Paul Spinelli?”
Tyler could barely get his words out. A stain appeared on the front of his pants. The poor guy had wet himself.
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“I don’t know anything. I swear. I don’t suspect him of anything. I never have, and I never will say a word to anyone about anything he does.”
Marvin Kearns took another step closer to Tyler. Tyler fell to his knees and clutched his chest. Marvin pursed his lips. Despite the calm Marvin betrayed, you could feel the rage beneath his skin. A really good performance, Tremaine was thinking.
“Now is not the time to lie, Mr. Wilkes,” Marvin said.
Mr. Wilkes. Marvin threw that one in on his own.
“I swear I don’t know anything. I swear. Please . . .
Please . . . Don’t kill me,” Tyler begged.
Tremaine and Marvin both knew now for sure that Tyler Wilkes was thoroughly convinced that this was a serious situation. The man thought he was going to get killed.
Next came the pivotal question.
Marvin said, “What do you know about the murder of Roger Gale?”
Tremaine