Read Online Cut to the Bone by Alex Caan - Free Book Online Page A

video later, get a better idea of what Dan did. Why would anybody want to watch somebody else play a video game? Wasn’t the thrill, the escape, in playing yourself?
    Dan didn’t make a move to show them out.
    ‘You literally just make your own videos, filming yourself?’ said Zain.
    ‘Used to, that’s how we all started. Now it’s different. We have them produced for us.’
    ‘Who by?’ said Zain.
    ‘It’s a company we signed to,’ said Dan. ‘MINDNET.’
    ‘MINDNET?’ repeated Zain. ‘What is that?’
    ‘Just a media company. In Soho. They produce our videos, so they look professional, better quality editing and all that.’
    ‘And what do they get from it?’ said Kate.
    ‘A cut of our money,’ said Dan.
    ‘Your money? People pay to subscribe to you?’ said Kate.
    ‘No, from ads. We put ads on our stuff, and we get paid. Rubes gets paid in goods, but sometimes she gets money too for advertising shit. And games companies pay me. I got nearly two million regular viewers. And any ads I run, MINDNET take a cut.’
    ‘Why would you let them? If you can make your own videos at home, why do you need them?’ said Zain.
    ‘Better quality product. And they use their tools. They have weird software and shit, helps raise our profiles. I only had half a million people last year, and within months they got me up to two million. They think I’ll be hitting five or eight million in another year.’
    Kate felt her head filling with information, new and odd, parallel to reality. She had to separate the bits that mattered, that would be useful to her investigation.
    ‘Ruby has a contract with MINDNET?’ she said. ‘You said a moment ago she didn’t have a contract with anyone.’
    Dan opened his eyes wide, child-like, feigning innocence. Trapped and nowhere to go.
    ‘I thought you meant something else,’ he said. ‘Like sponsorship, branding. L’Oréal, that sort of stuff.’
    ‘What’s in her contract with MINDNET?’
    Dan shrugged.
    ‘We never discuss it. It’s personal. Like asking someone how much they earn – not my business. We all get different cuts.’
    ‘You must have a general idea?’
    ‘No, we all get different deals,’ he said.
    ‘What do they do? Just manage her videos, then? Her online profile?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Dan. ‘Sort of. They help with the clothes and make-up ones. Rubes still does diary-style stuff by herself.’
    ‘Do they script the videos they produce?’
    Something Harris had said . . . Was this a stunt? Would MINDNET set something like this up?
    ‘No, we are real, they don’t script us. Sometimes though, just the odd phrase maybe. We’ve got to be what our fans want – the MINDNET guys just remind us.’
    ‘Ruby OK with them?’ said Zain. ‘She happy with the way they were treating her?’
    ‘She is having some issues with them,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what, but she isn’t feeling them as much anymore. She’s talked about ending with them, but she wouldn’t spill. Said it didn’t concern me.’
    ‘Was she afraid at all?’ said Kate.
    ‘Seriously, I don’t know what’s going on, she never said. Might just be money. I know one of my YouTube buds is going through the same with someone else. Not happy with the cut they’re giving him. I don’t know if it’s the same. Ruby’s never said.’
    ‘Keep your phone on. We might need to speak to you again,’ said Zain.
    Kate smiled thinly at Dan as they left his apartment.

Chapter Twenty-one
    ‘Drop me back at HQ,’ said Kate. ‘I’m going to find out where MINDNET are, and what their issues with Ruby might be. Can you go and find Millie, the girl Dan pushed from the hotel balcony?’
    ‘Sure. He was weird, my instincts are telling me he’s all wrong.’
    ‘He was lying throughout that interview, or hiding something,’ said Kate. ‘He knows a lot more than he told us.’
    Zain checked his phone. ‘Ruby’s last tweet: “ Every man/woman is guilty of all the good he/she did not do. ”