Page 226 of The Hallmarked Man

She sprayed the freshener liberally around the kitchen, then hid her cigarettes behind a mixer in a wall-mounted cupboard.

‘Danny just wanted a bit of money,’ she said croakily, returning to her seat. ‘That’s not a crime. He’d never had much. He thought he was on to a good thing with that rich guy, but he was pushing his luck. Iwarnedhim.’

‘How was he pushing his luck?’ asked Robin.

‘Well – like – the rich guy paid for Danny to get veneers done, right, because Danny had really bad teeth. And Danny added a bit – a little bit – to the bill. He kept doing stuff like that. Trying to squeeze a bit more out of the guy, you know? I said to him, “be careful”, but he said he was the guy’s favourite and…’

‘Is that what they rowed about?’ asked Robin. ‘The rich man realised Danny was trying to take more money than he’d agreed to?’

‘Yeah,’ said Fiona. ‘It was starting to add up. He sort of cornered Danny about it, and that’s when Danny said the – the thing he said – for a joke. It was just a joke. But the guy took it seriously. He told Danny what he’d just said was blackmail.’

‘But Danny and the man weren’t having sex?’

‘No,’ said Fiona.

‘Then what could Danny blackmail him about?’

‘Well… this guy likes secretly watching and filming. He gets off on them not knowing he’s there.’

‘But Danny knew the man was there?’

‘Well, yeah. All the – some of them knew, yeah.’

‘Where did the filming happen?’

‘The guy’s got a flat, with a two-way mirror. He had it all kitted out… Craig fronted for him, with the builders.’

‘Craig pretended it was his flat? That the alterations were for him?’

‘Yeah, exactly.’

‘D’you know where the flat is?’

‘No. I just know that’s where it all happened.’

‘So, the rich man hires adult actors to be in his private films?’

‘Yeah. He doesn’t want to use sex workers. He doesn’t trust them. He’s just making his own films, for private use. It’s all legal. He pays good money,’ said Fiona. ‘Reallygood. That’s why Danny kept going back.’

‘But only some of the people filmed know the man’s watching?’

‘Well, yeah,’ said Fiona huskily, looking at her neon pink nails rather than at Robin. ‘The pros all know, but not the… not the amateurs… Craig told me, there’s always someone there who didn’t know they were being filmed. One time it was a girl who works for the rich guy, she’s, like, an assistant, in his office. One of the pros chatted her up in a bar and he took her back to the flat, and she thought it belonged to him, and she was wasted and the rich guy watched this guy doing her, and filmed it. And he did the same thing to two young guys who’re part of some charity thing the rich guy runs. He got two pro boys to lure them back to the flat, and the rich guy filmed it all and watched. But the amateurs were all up for it,’ said Fiona quickly. ‘It wasn’t rape. They weren’t drugged or nothing. Nobody was underage. They were all consenting.’

But not to being watched and filmed, thought Robin. Even Fiona seemed to know what she’d just described wasn’t entirely innocent, because she added,

‘Craig told me the pros had to persuade the amateurs to take money, at the end. Like, for a taxi or whatever, but, like, more than they needed. So, you know, they were on film taking cash.’

Robin’s mobile buzzed again.

Wheaton back in car, looks like he’s heading home.

‘Does the rich man ever appear on camera himself?’ Robin asked.

‘No, never. He’s behind the mirror.’

‘So what did Danny say to the guy, that sounded like blackmail?’

‘The bloke was having a real go at him about the money, so Danny said, “I bet myindiefilms’d do well, if I give ’em more publicity.” And the guy went fucking apeshit. Danny was scared. He tried to pretend he wasn’t, but he was.’