Body Copy - Michael Craven [85]
“It’s okay. They’re gonna think I’m in the office early to work. Never hurts. Even at this stage in my career.”
“I’ll tell you what I need as we walk in.”
They got inside, got to Sawyer’s office, and Tremaine told Sawyer what he’d discovered. Kelly Burch, the secret affair, the love letters, the disguise, the double life that Roger Gale had been living. Then Tremaine said to Sawyer,
“I know I’m not wrong, but this case is insane. Nothing is as it seems. I needed to bounce this off someone who knew Roger well. Who knew what he was capable of. And what I’m wondering is, now that I’ve told you what I found, does it connect to anything you know about Roger?”
Sawyer took a long pause and then said, “We had a big, crazy costume party here at the agency once. I’ve got some pictures of it. I think you’d be interested in seeing some of them.”
Jack Sawyer went into a filing cabinet in his office and produced a photograph from the costume party. And there was Sawyer dressed as a clown, standing next to Roger Gale dressed not as a recognizable character but as someone else. A guy with long black hair and big black glasses.
Sawyer said, “Roger came to this party, not wearing a costume-party costume. He just came as someone else.
That was his costume. And nobody recognized him for a while. It was typical Roger, playing with people’s minds.”
Tremaine looked at the picture from the costume party.
It was the same guy who was in the picture Angela Coyle had shown him.
267
Michael Craven
Sawyer said, “This help you out?”
“I was sure. Now I’m positive.” Then Tremaine said,
“When Roger Gale was with the girl, Kelly, he went by a different name, too. He called himself Dean Latham. Not just a random choice. Gale used the letters in the moni-ker ‘The L.A. Ad Man’ to come up with, to create, Dean Latham.”
Sawyer nodded, but his face betrayed confusion, this onslaught of bizarre information hitting him at such an early hour.
“Read these letters he wrote to her,” Tremaine said.
Tremaine produced the letters, handed them to Sawyer.
Sawyer read them, then just kind of stared for a moment and said, “Wow. There’s a lot in there. Love, lust—obsession, maybe.”
“Yeah,” Tremaine said. “And Gale couldn’t tell Kelly how he felt when he was Roger Gale, ad exec, L.A. Country Club man-about-town. So he became someone else when he was around her and told her his deepest feelings.”
“You think she knew who he really was?”
“I don’t know,” Tremaine said. “I’m sure she knew he wore the wig. If the sex was as great as he says in the letters, I’m sure she yanked on his hair a time or two.”
Sawyer managed a laugh.
Tremaine said, “I don’t think she cared who he really was. She was a drug addict, maybe he paid for her blow.
But I’ll tell you this. She probably knew him as well as anyone. The guy sure as hell went out of his way to keep people in the dark.”
Sawyer looked at the letters, at the picture, then at Tremaine.
268
B O D Y C O P Y
Tremaine said, “You read those letters . . . Those were real feelings from a part of Roger Gale that he never showed anyone else. In the end, the guy who wrote them . . . That’s Dean Latham, not Roger Gale. Same body, different guy.”
Sawyer said, “In the ad business, we call that body copy.”
Gallows humor. Tremaine knew he liked this guy.
269
C H A P T E R 3 8
After leaving Gale/Parker, still in his car, Tremaine called John Lopez. If he’d needed his help before, he’d definitely need it now. Luckily, Lopez answered. And listened. Listened as Tremaine told him his theory and his plan. This was when the bullshitting between them was over, and Lopez didn’t make any of the jokes that were par for the course. No, he just listened and, in the end, agreed to Tremaine’s request.
Then Tremaine made another call. This one he pulled his car over for. No distractions. The midmorning traffic was in full swing—it was almost nine now—so Tremaine ducked into a random parking lot in Marina del Rey that serviced some small businesses. He sat in his car facing a 20/20 Video, a nail salon, and Rubio’s Fish Tacos.