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wouldn’t that be going
against what your boss wants?”
    “ You really
think I do everything my boss wants?” I said. “I spent most of my
time listening to women who wanted to completely remove his
manhood. I was hosing down fires all the time. In those
circumstances a little bit of obvious rebellion is sometimes
required to keep the peace.”
    Ramos looked confused.
    “ Alistair was
as popular as Hammy with the girls. The fact that it was Hammy and
not Alistair with a whip around his throat is pure chance. No one
wanted Alistair here, but thanks to Hammy’s desperate need for
money, they had to put up with him or leave. Not many of them are
in a position where they can just walk. My job was to minimize the
antagonism towards Alistair. Sometimes I listened to them vent
about the creative things they would like to do to him. Other times
I fermented a small bit of rebellion. It didn’t make any difference
to the finished product and it gave everyone some breathing
space.”
    Ramos shook
her head. “I really do not understand why you do this job,” she
said. “At least I’ve got the option of arresting the people who
annoy me.”
    “ Obviously
not always,” I said. “You still haven’t arrested me and I am
betting that there has been many a time when you have been sorely
tempted.”
    “ Isn’t that
the truth,” sighed Ramos, but she was smiling. I was going to put
that into the win column.
    Back in the hallway Ramos noted me frowning.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
    “ There aren’t
any cameras which are facing the alcove,” I said.
    “ I know,”
said Ramos. “It was one of the first questions we asked the
cameraman. Unfortunately easy cases like that do not usually go our
way.”
    “ That
statue,” I said, gesturing towards the truly horrendous piece of
artwork that Hammy had pointed out to me on the first day I worked
at the club. It was a plaster mold that Hammy had commissioned of
himself with a dancer wrapped around him. According to Hammy it was
a work of art. I thought it reflected his personality perfectly,
cheap and nasty.
    Going by the
look of distaste on Ramos’s face, she agreed with my
opinion.
    “ It shouldn’t
be here,” I said.
    “What does it matter if somebody moved it?”
she asked.
    “ It matters
because whoever moved it put it directly in front of the only
camera which gives a view into the area heading towards the
alcove,” I said. “You might not be able to get vision of the alcove
itself but it would have let you know whether anyone was in the
general area.”
    “ You are
telling me that the only camera which covers this area was blocked
by that monstrosity?” Ramos looked as if she couldn’t believe
it.
    I nodded. “I didn’t notice it at first
because we constantly move it around. It is so horrendous that Hugh
and I made sure it wasn’t in any of the footage. We figured no
audience should be subjected to an image that raw, regardless of
what Alistair believes.”
    “ Which means
that whoever killed Hammy knew the camera was here and knew that it
was the only one. This wasn’t a crime committed on the spur of the
moment. There looks like there has been some planning to this one,”
Ramos said thoughtfully. “How many people knew where the cameras
were?”
    I shrugged.
“Pretty much everyone who worked here. The patrons had no idea
about the filming but staff were all completely aware. Most of them
had been interviewed at some point and Alistair, Hugh and I were
hardly discreet in what we were doing. Alistair was more interested
in the customers anyway.”
    “We’re going to need to get hold of that
footage.”
    “You’ll have to speak to Hugh. He’s a tech
genius and he has all these cameras connected to a wireless network
As far as I know each of the cameras was uploading elsewhere and he
will have all the footage.”
    “Anything else you can tell me about the two
weeks you worked here?” asked Ramos as we walked to our cars.
    “I think we’ve