Body Copy: A Novel

CHAPTER 1

Donald Tremaine, the ex-pro surfer, the ex-husband, the current private eye and Malibu trailer park resident, looked in the mirror and said, Happy birthday, old man.

He was thirty-nine. He didn’t feel thirty-nine, though. He didn’t. He felt forty-six. But that was because he’d celebrated the night before with a couple friends and more than a couple cocktails.

Tremaine dropped to the floor and cranked out fifty push-ups. As he finished number fifty, he said, Ouch.

His morning routine hurt a little more than usual. That was also because of the previous night’s activities, not because he was officially one year older. That’s what he told himself, anyway.

Still down on the ground, he looked over at his ancient English bulldog, Lyle, sleeping in the corner. Back in the old days, Lyle would come over and lick his face when he did push-ups, but not any more. Nowadays, Lyle would just look at him then go right back to sleep. He wouldn’t even consider trotting over.

Where’s the love? Tremaine would say.

But Tremaine knew Lyle was just old, a lot older than thirty-nine. At least on the dog scale.

Tremaine was in a good mood despite the sting in his head. He was giving himself a nice birthday present. Real nice. Two months in Australia surfing the best waves the continent had to offer. He needed it, too. He’d worked a lot of cases in a row, and he was tired and ready to get out of L.A. for a while.

Nice thing about being a private investigator, you could usually get out of town when you needed to. When business was slow or when he wanted to clear his head, Tremaine would hop in his car and drive down or up the coast—sometimes just for the day—and surf the California spots he’d been surfing all his life. But not this time. This time he was headed across the globe to ride waves he hadn’t seen since he quit surfing professionally.

How long had it been, man, fifteen years?

Tremaine, up on his feet now, looked down at his big surfboard bag. All packed. Clothes and equipment for two months, and three different surfboards. All he had to do was drop Lyle at the neighbor’s and head to the airport. But not yet. It was only 9:00 A.M. He had some time to kill before his flight. So he grabbed the New York Times—the Gray Lady—and a cup of coffee and walked outside. He then climbed the ladder on the side of his trailer, coffee in one hand, paper under his arm.

Tremaine stood on the roof of his trailer looking due west. He had a clear view of the ocean, just one of the perks of living in the Old Colony Trailer Park in Malibu, California. Sure, you could also see a McDonald’s and a row of Dumpsters just off the Pacific Coast Highway, but boy, could you see that ocean. The Pacific. Big—giant—and right there. Just down the hill and across the two-lane highway. The vast, blue-green mass was practically his backyard.

Tremaine had a couple chairs and a table set up on the roof, so he sat down and got to the paper. First up, the front page. Then sports, then the arts.

It was quiet. The wind rustled his paper a little, and a car or two zoomed by down on the PCH, but for the most part it was quiet. Nice and quiet. Just Tremaine, his paper, his coffee, and his slowly disappearing hangover. Then that quiet was broken.

A black Volvo station wagon pulled up next to his trailer and parked in the guest spot. A young woman got out of the car and looked up on the roof at Tremaine, who was looking at her.

Excuse me, I hope this isn’t a bad time. I’m looking for Donald Tremaine. Are you Donald Tremaine?

Tremaine looked at the stranger. A brunette, early to mid-thirties, a shadow across her face as she shielded her eyes from the sun. And, Tremaine couldn’t help but notice, attractive. Quite attractive. He was a P.I.; he noticed these things.

Shit, he said under his breath.

Excuse me?

Tremaine thinking, this is someone coming to me with a case. It sure as hell wasn’t a groupie from his old surf tour days. The random groupies had stopped showing up a while ago. Shame about that. No, this had to be a case. Tremaine normally didn’t turn down cases, almost never, but he was going on vacation no matter what. Yes, she was attractive, but that absolutely did not matter. That wouldn’t affect his decision. It wouldn’t.

Tremaine said, Yes, I’m Donald Tremaine. How can I help you?

I wanted to talk to you about hiring you. Should I come up? she said.

Tremaine liked that she wasn’t afraid to do business on the roof of a trailer. But it might be a little more professional to talk inside, even though he wasn’t taking the case. He stood up and said, I’ll come down.

CHAPTER 2

Standing in front of the trailer’s door, the woman said, 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 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.

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 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 and that dark, almost black, hair. The way she sat in the chair, comfortable, but with her feet together, and her arms crossed, looking a little reserved. She had the perfectly tailored, expensive clothes, but then a necklace made of little bright blue and yellow glass beads that might have been made by an artist in the East Village of New York City. And just that hint of sadness in her eyes. It was all working for her; she had the mix just right. And, no, not attractive. A knockout. Yeah, that’s what his investigative skills told him. She had the kind of beauty that hurt you a little. Made you want to drop to the floor, get in the fetal position, and just sob.

Tremaine was considering doing that now. But instead, he asked Nina a question, the question. His curiosity had gotten the best of him.

What was your uncle’s name? Tremaine said, knowing now for sure, now that he could hear the words coming out of his mouth, that his trip to Australia was officially postponed.

Roger Gale, she said.

I remember the case. He was the advertising guy. Started the big agency over in Playa del Rey.

That’s right. I’m surprised you remember. It made the papers, but after like a day it stopped showing up in the press.

Tremaine grabbed the New York Times that he’d brought in from the roof. These guys did an obit.

Nina nodded and said, I still have it.

Tremaine began to think back about the obit and the couple other articles he’d read about Gale. He said, He was found in his agency—in his office—right?

Something—pain, sadness, confusion—showed on Nina’s face, and she took a breath before she said, Yes. They found him at his desk. Sitting at his desk. Dead. He had a head wound, but they realized later that he had been strangled.

Tremaine paused for a moment. Then switched gears and said, "Roger Gale. He came up with the famous campaign for Rogaine—Just admit it. You want your hair. Right?"

Yeah, that’s right, Nina said, smiling.

Where everybody in the commercials was admitting stuff that they really thought but were afraid to say.

That’s the one.

That’s a good campaign, Tremaine said. Funny. Smart.

Will you help me when you get back from your vacation?

I’ll help you right now.

You really don’t have to cancel your trip. I can wait.

I’m not canceling it. I’m postponing it.

She said, I kinda feel bad. I know that feeling right before a vacation, it’s a good feeling.

Don’t feel bad. If I went on the trip knowing I had a case to get back to, I wouldn’t be able to relax. I would be looking at a kangaroo and thinking about Roger Gale.

I understand. I’m like that with my work, too.

What do you do?

I teach Italian and art history at UCLA

Do you teach John Lopez’s brother?

Yes. He’s the person who put me in touch with John. You are a good P.I.

Tremaine now thought, a beautiful woman, a college professor, and a sense of humor. I’m glad I took the case. Even though none of those things caused me to take the case. I’m a professional, for Chrissakes.

Here’s the way I work. I’ll need a few days to do some research before I talk to you. I want to know more before I start asking you questions.

Nina nodded and said, Something I want to ask you…One of the reasons I wanted to look into this was because I felt the police just gave up. My uncle was kind of a big deal, you know? A prominent member of society. Not that that should make a difference, but it does. Anyway, the case is still technically open, but nobody’s doing anything about it.

Cold.

Excuse me?

The case is cold. That’s what they call it. What’s your question?

Does that surprise you? That the police aren’t paying any attention to a murder? I mean, a man was killed and the case is just sitting there.

Tremaine walked over to the coffee pot and poured himself another cup, number three, or was it four? He was beginning to get that shaky feeling—that shaky feeling he kind of enjoyed.

He said, The LAPD has to deal with an enormous number of cases. And, to your point, the fact that Roger Gale was a well-known person does give his case more attention. But that doesn’t mean it can be solved. Sometimes the police work is bad, sometimes the workload is just too overwhelming, sometimes it’s a combination of both. And sometimes…sometimes the case just can’t be solved.

Nina nodded and said, Well, I’m glad you’re going to give it a try.

There’s almost always something that can lead you somewhere, Tremaine said. It might be very hard to pinpoint, but it’s almost always there.

Nina stood up and pulled a card out of her purse. She handed it to Tremaine and he looked at it, focusing on the name. Nina Aldeen. It had a nice sound to it.

Call me or e-mail me when you want to talk, she said. I really appreciate your taking this, and again, if you want to go on your trip, I can wait.

I’ll call you in a couple days.

Tremaine walked Nina out. They both stood just outside the trailer, right where they had been when they first introduced themselves to each other.

Tremaine said, So, was there another reason you wanted to look into this?

Something happened in her eyes, and she waited just a second too long to talk.

Another reason?

Yeah. You said the cops not doing anything about it was one reason. Is there another one?

I said that? I guess I meant… She cut herself off and again paused before she spoke. Tremaine looked at her eyes. Something far away was in there, and he almost thought she was going to cry. But then he saw something else, a quick but fierce fight within her that showed she wasn’t going to let that happen.

She said, I don’t know what I meant by that. I think it was just a figure of speech. But in thinking about it now, she took a breath, I guess there was another reason. I guess I meant that some people in our family wanted to hire someone like you, but just couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Roger’s wife—his widow, Evelyn—or my mom—they were too hurt by it all to open it up again. If that’s even really what they wanted to do. I guess I felt like I could be the one to take some action, you know? Even if it was just hiring someone. As sad, as tragic as it was, the murder I mean, I was less emotional about it than they were—you know?

Yeah, Tremaine said. I’ll talk to you in a couple days.

And then he watched Nina turn and walk to her car with her arms crossed and her head pointed just slightly down.

CHAPTER 3

The first person Tremaine needed to call was his old buddy at the LAPD, John Lopez, not just to thank him for the referral but to get some information from him on Roger Gale. But before he did that, he’d have to take care of something else, something fairly important to him: the Daily Jumble. That game in the paper where you unscramble the words, then figure out the clever little riddle at the end. It’s very popular with the over-eighty crowd—Tremaine knew that. He would often say to himself, Jesus, Tremaine, you’re not even forty and you’re doing the Jumble every day like an old man. Start devouring Jell-O and yelling at the neighbors, and you’ll be an old man.

Tremaine liked to pretend the game helped keep his mind sharp, but he knew it was just a dumb puzzle that he was addicted to. Even more compulsive than his doing it every day was the fact that he timed himself. His best time ever? Thirty-seven seconds, start to finish. It was almost pathetic that he was proud of that. Extremely proud of that.

Tremaine had planned to do the puzzle on the flight to Australia, but since that wasn’t happening, he had to do it right away, before the day got away from him. The Jumble wasn’t in the New York Times, so Tremaine produced his copy of the L.A. Times. Not a bad paper—a good one—but he only subscribed for the puzzle.

Now he was ready. Pencil, stopwatch, puzzle. Tremaine sat at his kitchen table, pressed start on the stopwatch, and got started. The four unscrambled words were MYRIG, TEAGA, TOLBET, and WHALLO. The riddle was: What it takes to wear the latest designer clothes. The blank answer looked like this. A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

Tremaine was off to the races. The first one, MYRIG, was easy: GRIMY. He wrote it down. Then he knocked out TOLBET and WHALLO: BOTTLE and HALLOW. TEAGA? What was that? TEAGA. Hmm. Got it: AGATE.

He took the circled letters out of the solved words: The M and the Y out of GRIMY. Both A’s and the E out of AGATE. Both T’s and the E out of BOTTLE. And the H, an L, and the W out of HALLOW.

The new unscrambled word looked like this: MYAAETTEHLW. What it takes to wear the latest designer clothes…A what? A…A…Tremaine looked at the stopwatch, already over a minute. Shit. A…

Got it: A wealthy mate. Those clever bastards. Tremaine hit the stopwatch. One minute, forty seven. Not a terrible time, but not even in his top fifty.

All right, Tremaine had had his one minute and forty-seven seconds of fun, now it was time to get to work. To go on the real clock. He picked up his cordless and dialed.

Lopez. Tremaine, he said.

I figured you’d be calling after I sent Nina Aldeen your way.

You ruined my vacation.

What vacation?

I was off to Australia today for two months.

You don’t tell your friends when you’re leaving the continent for two months?

"Oh,