Chapter 24
Poe shared a glance with Bradshaw. She shrugged. He said, ‘Why do you say that, Mr Ryzcek?’
Ryzcek stared into his coffee. Seemed to be figuring out how to explain it.
‘I’ve been doing this for the best part of thirty years,’ he said.
‘And during that time, I’ve performed with over a thousand women.
They fall into a surprisingly small number of categories.
The rarest beast is the nymphomaniac. The woman who does it because she loves sex, and she loves the exhibitionist aspect of it.
Loves that men will be watching her over and over again.
Fantasising about her. The most common group is the women who are skint, or more likely, have a boyfriend or husband who’s skint.
They might do one scene, they might do three or four, but they aren’t looking for a career. ’
‘Is it worth it, financially?’
‘No,’ Ryzcek said. ‘They’re exploited. Unless you’re a megastar – and there are only a handful of them and they’re mostly in the States – all the girls are exploited.’
‘And the other types?’
‘There are the businesswomen. The ones in charge of their own destiny. They build up a decent online following, then offer a subscription service. Exclusive content, that type of thing. That’s a side-hustle for most of them, though.
Little more than a calling card. What they’re really after is punters. ’
‘They’re prostitutes?’
‘If that’s the only word you know for men and women working in the sex industry. Some of these girls – and I use that term loosely, as some are in their sixties – charge one, two, even three grand a visit.’
It made sense, Poe thought. Get their customers all hot under the collar and then tell them they can have a drop of the real thing, but only if they pay through the nose … ‘Any more types?’ he asked.
Ryzcek nodded. ‘The ones who aren’t in charge of their own destiny.
They come in looking like whipped hounds and they’re never on their own.
They always have a minder. The minder completes the consent and health forms. The woman signs it so it’s legal, but she never reads it.
Just signs where the guy points. And it’s the guy who gets the money, not her. ’
Poe nodded. Flynn had said that women were trafficked into the country to make pornographic films.
‘Tell me about the woman I’m looking for,’ he said. ‘Why have you been expecting someone?’
‘Because she didn’t fit into any of the categories I’ve just mentioned,’ Ryzcek said.
‘She was her own boss, but she wasn’t building a career.
Didn’t come in with anyone, but she was furtive.
Didn’t want her face on camera. She wore a mask the entire time she was on set, even during the lighting photographs. ’
‘What are they?’
‘Before the scene starts, the cameraman takes still photographs of each position so the crew know they have the right lighting rigs set up.’
‘And these photos aren’t used for anything?’
‘They were, back in the day. They chose the best photographs for the VHS and DVD covers. Nowadays, with everything getting dumped online, they don’t bother with covers. No need for them.’
Poe made a mental note. Even if the woman Esmerée claimed was her mother had worn a mask the entire time she was on set, the lighting photographs might have caught a sharper image of the tattoo on the sole of her foot or the one on her shoulder. ‘You didn’t see her face at all?’ he asked.
‘She wasn’t masked when she came in, obviously,’ Ryzcek said.
‘That would have been weird. But as soon as she got on set, she hid her face. It sometimes happens with the housewives and the students. They need the cash, but they don’t want their husbands or families or what-have-you finding out what they’ve been up to. ’
‘But she wasn’t like that?’
‘No, this girl was wary. Hard-nosed, but she was definitely hiding something. Or from someone.’
Which fitted with what Bradshaw had discovered and Flynn had confirmed. The FBI were searching for her. Possibly Vincent du Buk’s associates as well. It would explain why she was in London instead of New York.
‘And she was also kind of angry,’ Ryzcek went on. ‘As though she’d won the lottery but accidentally put her ticket in the wash. Like selling her body was the only way she knew how to make money, and she hated having to do it.’
‘Did you ask her?’
He nodded. ‘I did.’
‘And?’
‘And nothing. She told me to mind my own business.’
‘You said you got a look at her before she masked up?’
‘I did.’
‘What was she like?’
Ryzcek looked wistful for a moment. ‘She was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever performed with,’ he said.
‘The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Jet-black hair. Perfect face, perfect skin, perfect body.
She was wasted doing porn. She should have been an actress or a model or the trophy wife of a billionaire.
She had that rare beauty that transcends what she was doing that day, if you know what I mean. ’
Poe did. He felt the same way about Estelle. Each time she walked into the room, she took his breath away.
He asked Ryzcek some follow-up questions, but it was clear that other than Océane being extraordinarily beautiful, it had just been another job.
He’d remembered that she had tattoos, but other than saying the one on her foot was a face, he couldn’t describe them.
Poe gave him a business card; said he could call him any time if he thought of something. Ryzcek promised he would.
‘One last thing,’ Poe said. ‘Do you remember who you were working for that day?’
‘I do, Mr Poe,’ Ryzcek said. ‘A small outfit called Pure Pulse Productions.’