of it. Or whether it was in any way relevant to my family and me. After all, we were only renting King’s Manor for a short period. Sure, I had a strange feeling about the place – more a wary instinct that something was slightly and deliberately out of kilter there. But so what? We’dsoon be returning to the States and no doubt another family would be moving in.
So how much should I tell Nicole and the kids? Did they really need to know that the house was said to be haunted and that the owner was, according to his wife, sick in the head? Wouldn’t it just alarm them? Make them feel uncomfortable staying there? It was a real dilemma and one I hadn’t resolved by the time I stepped into the café. Luckily I was there before the others so I had time to think about it over a cup of coffee.
When they finally turned up, weighed down with gift-shop bags, I’d come to a decision. And that was to say nothing, except that my first pint of real English beer had gone down a treat.
18
T emple stared at the photograph. It was in high quality colour and showed a naked girl in her twenties suspended from a ceiling by ropes tied to her wrists and ankles. There was a red ball gag in her mouth and a brown leather strap around her head to hold it in place.
Another girl about the same age stood to one side holding a long, thin cane. She was also naked except for a pair of nylon stockings. This girl was facing the camera and Temple recognized her at once. She had the same long dark hair and high cheekbones as the girl in the album that Angel had just shown him … Genna Boyd.
The photograph was on the sleeve of a pornographic DVD entitled
Bondage Heaven
. It was one of five DVDs they’d found at the bottom of the wardrobe in Genna’s bedroom. In another cover photo she was standing astride a young man who was lying on the floor having been ‘hogtied’ with ropes that rendered him helpless and immobile. The other three DVDs featured less painful forms of sexual activity – a lesbian threesome, solo performances with sex toys, various encounters between well-endowed men and women. Genna Boyd appeared on all the covers.
Temple was no prude when it came to pornography. But in the context of a criminal investigation – especially one involving murder or rape – his attitude shifted somewhat, became less tolerant and more wary. Porn was often the motivational factor behind serious sex crimes. And the discovery of the DVDs meant that this was an avenue of inquiry they would have to pursue.
Genna Boyd was obviously part of that vulgar and dangerous world; a world in which the boundaries of moral decency did not exist. The moment she stepped onto the set of a porn movie or became a sex worker, she set herself up as a potential target. It wouldn’t have takenlong for any number of sexual predators to spot her on their radar screens.
‘Have you noticed that all the DVDs were produced by the same company?’ Angel said. ‘And it’s based in Southampton.’
Temple flipped over the one he was holding. On the back cover was a crude montage of images showing Genna doing nasty things to various girls who were bound and gagged. Underneath that a small box containing the production credit –
Filthy Films, Southampton UK
. There were no other details, but it wouldn’t take the team long to find out all they needed to know about the company and who was running it. It would be a small outfit, for sure. Maybe a one-man operation. It didn’t take much in the way of manpower and resources these days to tap into the lucrative porn market. You no longer needed expensive equipment and crews. New high-tech cameras and PC-based editing meant that top quality material could be produced on a shoestring – and most performers came cheap.
As for distribution – well that was the easiest part of all. Footage could be uploaded onto internet pay sites or sold directly through virtual adult DVD stores. And the audience for porn was enormous. Temple had
So how much should I tell Nicole and the kids? Did they really need to know that the house was said to be haunted and that the owner was, according to his wife, sick in the head? Wouldn’t it just alarm them? Make them feel uncomfortable staying there? It was a real dilemma and one I hadn’t resolved by the time I stepped into the café. Luckily I was there before the others so I had time to think about it over a cup of coffee.
When they finally turned up, weighed down with gift-shop bags, I’d come to a decision. And that was to say nothing, except that my first pint of real English beer had gone down a treat.
18
T emple stared at the photograph. It was in high quality colour and showed a naked girl in her twenties suspended from a ceiling by ropes tied to her wrists and ankles. There was a red ball gag in her mouth and a brown leather strap around her head to hold it in place.
Another girl about the same age stood to one side holding a long, thin cane. She was also naked except for a pair of nylon stockings. This girl was facing the camera and Temple recognized her at once. She had the same long dark hair and high cheekbones as the girl in the album that Angel had just shown him … Genna Boyd.
The photograph was on the sleeve of a pornographic DVD entitled
Bondage Heaven
. It was one of five DVDs they’d found at the bottom of the wardrobe in Genna’s bedroom. In another cover photo she was standing astride a young man who was lying on the floor having been ‘hogtied’ with ropes that rendered him helpless and immobile. The other three DVDs featured less painful forms of sexual activity – a lesbian threesome, solo performances with sex toys, various encounters between well-endowed men and women. Genna Boyd appeared on all the covers.
Temple was no prude when it came to pornography. But in the context of a criminal investigation – especially one involving murder or rape – his attitude shifted somewhat, became less tolerant and more wary. Porn was often the motivational factor behind serious sex crimes. And the discovery of the DVDs meant that this was an avenue of inquiry they would have to pursue.
Genna Boyd was obviously part of that vulgar and dangerous world; a world in which the boundaries of moral decency did not exist. The moment she stepped onto the set of a porn movie or became a sex worker, she set herself up as a potential target. It wouldn’t have takenlong for any number of sexual predators to spot her on their radar screens.
‘Have you noticed that all the DVDs were produced by the same company?’ Angel said. ‘And it’s based in Southampton.’
Temple flipped over the one he was holding. On the back cover was a crude montage of images showing Genna doing nasty things to various girls who were bound and gagged. Underneath that a small box containing the production credit –
Filthy Films, Southampton UK
. There were no other details, but it wouldn’t take the team long to find out all they needed to know about the company and who was running it. It would be a small outfit, for sure. Maybe a one-man operation. It didn’t take much in the way of manpower and resources these days to tap into the lucrative porn market. You no longer needed expensive equipment and crews. New high-tech cameras and PC-based editing meant that top quality material could be produced on a shoestring – and most performers came cheap.
As for distribution – well that was the easiest part of all. Footage could be uploaded onto internet pay sites or sold directly through virtual adult DVD stores. And the audience for porn was enormous. Temple had
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