Six Dead Men by Rae Stoltenkamp Page B

squarely on his chest and pushed him away forcefully. “No.” she repeated.
    Still trapped inside the centre of serenity they had created, Deed stumbled as Madie pushed him aside, pulled open the partially closed door and left his office too swiftly for him to react. Still in a state of bewilderment Deed moved stutteringly out of the pause touching Madie had produced and wandered to the door of his office. Johnson was up and ready for action at his own desk. He gave Deed an enquiring glance but Deed waved away the offer of assistance.
    He turned back into his office and was encountered by the accusing mound of his crumpled handkerchief. Deed bent to retrieve it and stared at it dumbly where it sat in his palm. Why on earth did you do that? Whatever possessed you? Are you insane? If she decides to lodge a complaint your career is over. Jesus Christ, Robert, you’re an idiot. He dropped the handkerchief onto his desk.
    Feeling the need to do something physical, Deed shuffled the files on his desk together into a pile and re-filed them. Madie's perfume still lingered in his nostrils? He stared down at the notes he had made of her interview. He rewound the tape on his Dictaphone and listened to it again. Then he tore the notes from his note pad, ejected the tape from the recorder and popped them both in an envelope. He licked the gum of the heavy duty envelope, folded the flap and moved to put it in his top drawer. Deed turned towards the jacket hanging behind his door and placed the envelope into the inside pocket next to his battered copy of Sonnets from the Portuguese. Only then did the detective in him feel he had awoken fully from a waking dream.
Danny Matthews aka DMs
    I saw my first video phone footage when I was sixteen. It was a revelation. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it — distribute.
    A few months later the boys and I were partying when Ronnie X brought round this girl he’d picked up at a club. She was high and hoping to score some more dope so what happened next was inevitable. X man was all about showing his prowess to the boys and liked to poke his girls in full view of the rest of us. He always managed this ‘cos the girls were more or less completely out of it. I’m not saying he slipped them rohypnol or anything like that, but he always picked the ones who were well gone already by they time they headed home with him.
    I downed my shot of vodka and wandered over to watch X man’s antics. He was huffing and puffing and the girl was squealing away. So I pulled my phone out of my pocket and began recording. I was all the big time directors thrown into one, eyeing up my angles, looking at the lighting. Yeah right! I didn’t care a shit about any of it. I was just enjoying the spectacle.
    The first person I showed the footage to the next day was Raj. “Holy crap.” Was his response. “Shit man DM’s. This is quality. Let’s have another look.”
    “First time was free my man. Second time you gotta pay.”
    He didn’t even blink. Just coughed up the two quid. I showed the clip to every other fucker I met up with that day and pulled the same trick I’d pulled with Raj. I got so cocky I began to up the price. I made it to six quid before people just walked away from a second viewing. And so was born my mighty enterprise.
    I gave X man a cut. He was my leading man after all.
    *****
    I’m rushing from HQ, as I like to call the garage where we operate our phone porn business. Me and Raj have spent the day sorting the resolution and editing our latest mobile phone snuff film production to distribute on the net. It was touch and go whether we would finish on time because Raj kept stopping to enjoy the merchandise. It doesn't take much to get Raj going. A shot of someone putting a pair of handcuffs on the girl was enough and he nearly lost it completely when the four guys in the video were howling like wolves and fighting each other for who got to go first. I finally told him to stop spanking the