Desperate Measures

by Stephen Leather

  Most of my jobs are incall and a lot of them are for thirty minutes. I understand why. It is because Sacha wants to make as much money from me as possible. If I do one hour incall then I charge £150. When Oliver was in charge, I would keep £100 and give £50 to Oliver. Now I keep £75 and I give £75 to Sacha. But if I see two customers for half an hour each, then I earn £200 and I keep £100 and give £100 to Sacha. That means that I earn the same but Sacha earns £25 more. But what is not fair is that now I am having to work twice as hard as I worked before. Before I could have sex with one man to earn £100 but now I have to have sex with two men. I am working twice as hard.

  Outcalls are still for one hour. It would be impossible to do outcall for just thirty minutes. Outcall means travelling to where the customer is so that will cost money and take time. If I do an hour’s outcall then I charge £210 and now I keep £105 and I give £105 to Sacha. But I have to pay for my taxi and not all my outcall customers tip me so if I have to pay for my taxi then I earn less for outcall then incall but Sacha gets more. Before when I did an hours outcall I would keep £140 and Oliver would get £70 so now outcall is not such a good deal for me. But I prefer outcall because it means I am not so rushed. I can relax a bit. When I am in my room seeing customers for half an hour then I am not relaxed.

  At about five o’clock Natalie phoned me and said that I had to do two hours incall with Sandra at her flat. I didn’t want to do it because I know that Sandra is still not happy with me but I know that I can not argue with Natalie because if I do she will tell Sacha and then I will be in trouble.

  I got to the flat just before the customer was due because I didn’t want to talk to Sandra but actually she was okay and quite sweet to me. I asked her what she thought about Sacha and she said she wasn’t happy. She said her boyfriend was not happy and I told her what had happened to Nancy’s boyfriend Chris. Nancy had phoned me to tell me that she had gone to see Chris in hospital and that he was really hurt. The doctors had asked him what had happened and he told them that he had fallen downstairs. He said that if he told them what had really happened then Sacha would kill him and kill Nancy. Sandra said she didn’t think Sacha would kill them but I told her that he had said he would cut me with a knife and that he would kill my son. He has our passports and our ID cards and he knows where we live.

  Sandra said it would not be a problem to get a new passport because all we had to do was to go to the Thai Embassy in London and tell them who we were. And it would be easy to get a ticket and go back to Thailand. We could say that we had visas in the passports that were stolen so we wouldn’t have a problem leaving the country. I said that maybe Sacha did have friends in Thailand and that if he did then he could still hurt us. Sandra said that when we got to Thailand we could change our names and get new ID cards because it is easy to change your name in Thailand. But I am not sure if that would work. I think Sacha is a very bad man who is not scared of anybody and I think that if we run away and he finds us then really he will hurt us a lot and maybe kill us. I have never met anyone as evil as Sacha.

  The customer’s name was Owen and he was English but not from London. He was from a city called Newcastle which is up near Scotland and he had a strange accent that I could hardly understand. I think he had taken Viagra because he had a red face and sniffed a lot and he stayed hard for the whole two hours. Sandra gave him oral and then I gave him oral and then he had sex with Sandra from behind and then I went on top and then he wanted oral from me while he kissed Sandra and then he made love to me doggy-style and then he wanted me to lick him while he had sex with Sandra. He made love for the whole two hours and I was exhausted. After Owen had gone I went home without showering because I wanted to get away from Sandra. I don’t think she has a good heart and I do not think I can trust her. I wanted to talk to Vince but when I called him his phone was off. I left a message saying that I wanted to talk to him and that I needed to buy some more cocaine.

  I had five more customers after I got home and the last one left at three o’clock in the morning. Three of them asked for anal and I had to tell them that I do not do anal. When Natalie phoned me I asked her to change what was written on my cards because so many customers want me to do anal and she said I should do it and charge more but I said I didn’t want to do it so she said she would talk to Sacha which was nice of her. When I had finished work I was so tired that I did not even shower I just fell asleep on the sofa.

  I woke up when there was a banging on the door and it was Sacha coming to collect his money. I gave him £750 and he went. He didn’t say anything about anal so maybe Natalie hadn’t spoken to him. I went into the bedroom and fell asleep right away. I had bad dreams all night and in them Bee was covered in blood and shouting at me that I should run, run, run because I was going to die if I stayed where I was. I want to run, really I do, but I don’t know where I can run to where I will be safe.

  Chapter 79

  Friday July 10. I wish I was dead. Really. My life now is horrible and I don’t think there is anything I can do to make it better. I have to do whatever Sacha says and if I don’t he will hurt me and my family. I want to run but there is nowhere I can run to.

  They came to my flat at eleven o’clock in the morning. It was Yuri and Sergey. Yuri did all the talking while Sergey just stared at me and grinned like it made him happy to see me cry.

  Yuri said that customers had complained that I did not do anal. I said that I never did anal, I would do anything else and I would give good service but I did not do anal. Yuri said that anal was nothing, I was a whore and whores did whatever their customers wanted them to. I said no, I wasn’t a whore, I was an escort, and escorts could choose what they did.

  He shook his head and said that I was not an escort, I was a whore. If a customer wanted my mouth, I had to give him my mouth. If a customer wanted my pussy then I had to give them my pussy. If a customer wanted my arse then I had to give him my arse. I was a whore and I had no choice. I was so unhappy that I could not speak, I just stood there shaking my head.

  What happened then is so horrible I do not want to talk about it. I do not want to think about it. Sergey said something in his language to Yuri and they both laughed and then Yuri grabbed me and took me into the bedroom and they both took off my clothes. I tried to scream but he used the belt of my robe to tie my mouth and then they threw me on the bed and they both did anal to me. Both of them did it and do you know what, they did not even use a condom. They were so rough and the pain was so bad that I nearly passed out. They were cursing me and saying that if I ever complained about anal then next time five men would come and they would rape me all night. They said I was their whore and I must never ever argue with them again.

  When they had finished they left me on the bed and I just lay there crying and then after fifteen minutes Natalie rang and said I had an incall customer. I went to the bathroom and when I washed myself there was blood. Quite a lot of blood, actually.

  The first customer was okay. He was a businessman in his forties, I think, and he only wanted oral. But then I was busy all day. I had twelve customers. Three of them wanted anal and I did it. I just lay there and let them do it to me. It hurt a lot because Sacha’s men had been so rough but I did not cry, I just lay there and tried to imagine that I was somewhere else and that it was happening to somebody else. I tried to feel like a block of wood because nothing can hurt a block of wood.

  After the first customer went Vince phoned me and said he was sorry but his phone battery had died last night and I said I need some cocaine and he brought some for me and I gave him £200. Using cocaine is the only way I can get through the day now. It gives me energy. I wanted to tell Vince about what had happened to my life but I don’t think he can help me so I didn’t. I don’t think anyone can help me now. I feel so alone and sad, sad, sad.

  Chapter 80

  Sunday July 12. On Saturday I had twelve customers. Seven were for half an hour incall, four were for one hour incall, and one w
as a three hour incall. Four of the customers wanted anal. Actually now anal is not too bad. It doesn’t hurt if I relax and think about something else and it means I don’t have to look at the customer. I try to do it doggy style now too because that means I don’t see the customer and I can close my eyes and think about something else. I still make noises as if I enjoy it because otherwise they might complain to Sacha that I am not giving good service, but really I hate every minute.

  The outcall job was okay, actually. He was a businessman from Bristol which is in the West Country. His name was George and he was about fifty-five and he was quite gentle. He couldn’t get very hard so we didn’t make love properly but I gave him a massage and oral and for most of the time we just lay cuddling on his bed. He actually let me go after two hours even though he paid for three.

  I needed some toilet rolls and I knew that the Chinese supermarket in Chinatown usually had some so I booked an Uber taxi and went there. When I got out of the taxi I saw Cat coming out of the supermarket with two carrier bags. She was wearing a facemask but it was definitely her. She didn’t want to talk to me but I wouldn’t go away. She said she didn’t want to talk to me but I said that she had to because what had happened to me wasn’t fair. I had worked for the agency for more than four months and I had been a good worker. But I had been working for her and Oliver and now I was working for Sacha and that was not fair because I hadn’t chosen to work for Sacha.

  Cat said it wasn’t her fault. Sacha had taken over the agency and there was nothing she could do. I asked her why Oliver had let Sacha take over the agency and Cat laughed and said that there was nothing Oliver could do. Sacha was Russian Mafia and he could kill people. I said I wanted to speak to Oliver and she said I couldn’t because she didn’t know where he was.

  Cat said that Oliver had gone with Sacha and two other men and she hadn’t seen him since and his mobile was switched off. I asked her what she thought had happened to Oliver and she said she didn’t know. I asked her if she had gone to the police and she said if she went to the police then Sacha would kill her, for sure. Sacha had killed people in Russia, that’s what Oliver had told her. He was a gangster who dealt in guns and drugs and prostitutes and he wasn’t scared of anything or anybody.

  I asked her if she thought that Sacha had killed Oliver and Cat said she didn’t think that, but she thought that Oliver was so scared that he had run away. I asked her what she was going to do and she said she was going to bring some Thai girls over from Bangkok and have them work in a flat in Chelsea but that she wouldn’t have an internet escort agency again because it was too dangerous. If you were on the internet then anybody could see how many girls you had and know how much money you were making.

  Then I asked Cat if Sacha was telling the truth about what he could do to our families in Thailand and she said yes, she was sorry but he had friends who were Russian mafia who worked in Pattaya and that was why he wanted our passports and ID cards. He had sent copies to his friends in Pattaya and they already knew everything about where we lived and who our families were. She said that all I could do was to work for Sacha. She said that I had no choice. Then my phone rang and it was Natalie saying that I had an incall job in fifteen minutes. Cat ran away when I was talking to Natalie. She got into a taxi and drove off and I was so angry but there was nothing I could do. I got a taxi and when I got back to my flat the customer was outside waiting for me.

  Yuri came to get my money at three o’clock in the morning. During the day I had earned £1,840 which meant that I had to give him £920. I think Sacha is making a lot of money from us girls, much more than Oliver ever got. There are nine girls working for the agency so if they are all giving him almost £900 a day then every day he is earning about £8,000 every day which means in one year he will earn almost three million pounds. I do not think I will be able to work like this for one year, though. I think I would rather die than do this for a year.

  On Saturday Natalie sent me my first customer at eleven o’clock in the morning which meant that I only slept for six hours. I felt terrible but I had some cocaine so I took that so that I had some energy. Natalie sent me three more customers before five o’clock but then it was quiet for three hours so I got some sleep then. But I had to do laundry first. I have so many customers now that I don’t have time to give them clean towels any more. If the towels are wet then I put them in the dryer for a bit but if they are not wet I just use them again. Before I used to use a clean towel on the bed for every customer but now I keep the same towel on the bed all day. I don’t shower after every customer now. I don’t have the time and even if I did then it wouldn’t be good for my skin to have ten or twelve showers every day.

  You know, before I was an escort girl and I quite liked my job and I was proud that my customers liked me and I gave good service. But now I am a whore and no one cares about me. They just want to use me and that makes me feel bad.

  Natalie called me again at eight o’clock and I was busy all night. Nancy called me three times during the night asking me if I would go around to see her but I couldn’t because I was so busy. I didn’t finish working until three o’clock in the morning and then I went to see her. She was crying and saying that she wished she was dead, and I said that I understood how she felt. Nancy said that she was as busy as me and that one day she had had fifteen customers. She said she hurt inside, too, and sometimes when she went to the toilet there was blood.

  I asked her about Chris and she said that Chris had phoned her and told her to stay away from the hospital because the police kept coming to see him to find out what had happened. Nancy said that Chris was very scared of Sacha and said that Nancy had to do whatever Sacha said because otherwise he would hurt Chris again and maybe kill him.

  Nancy said that she couldn’t sleep she was so worried and that she was going to get some sleeping pills from a doctor. I said that I always fell asleep really quickly because I was so tired but she said she couldn’t sleep because she was thinking too much. We both lay on her bed and held each other and cried and eventually we slept. We woke up when her phone rang at ten o’clock in the morning. It was Natalie, telling her to get ready for a customer so I had to leave her and go home.

  Chapter 81

  Tuesday July 14. I bought more condoms yesterday. Now I use more than a dozen every day, sometimes twenty or more. I had to buy soap powder, too, and shampoo and soap and KY Jelly. I use a lot of KY Jelly now because I do anal three or four times every day. I don’t know why English men like anal sex so much but a lot of them do. I have never heard of a Thai man wanting do that. I think they would think it was dirty. The Indian guy had facemasks and he was selling them for £5 each. I bought ten, and some more hand sanitiser. He asked me if I was okay because I didn’t look good and I said I was fine, I just needed some sleep.

  At two o’clock in the afternoon Natalie phoned me and said I had to go to Dao’s apartment to do ninety minutes incall. I had to wait until Dao was free because she already had a customer and I had only been in her flat for five minutes when the new customer came. Dao said it was her fourth customer already that day. She said she has been really busy since Sacha took over the agency and is making more money than she ever dreamed about. She is right. When Oliver ran the agency I made about £300 a day profit, sometimes £400, but now almost every day I make £800 or £900. We are making more money but we are working too hard. My insides hurt all the time now, though it doesn’t hurt as much when I take cocaine. And I am so tired when I wake up in the morning. It’s like I never get enough sleep. I hardly ever phone Ice any more. I know that he will be able to tell how tired and sad I am and he will ask me when I am going back to Thailand and I don’t know what I can tell him. I don’t think Sacha will ever let me leave.

  I took a bit of cocaine before I went to see Dao and I was glad that I did because the customer wanted lots of sex. He was fairly young, maybe twenty five, and he said that he was a property developer and that he drove a Ferrari and had a
big house in Surrey which is where rich people live. I don’t think he had taken Viagra but he was very strong and made love to us both in lots and lots of positions. He said he loved Asian girls because they would do anything and I wanted to tell him that I only did anything because Sacha had said that he would hurt me if I said no but I didn’t say that.

  We used lots of condoms and at one point we ran out and Dao told me to get some more from the drawer by the bed and I did and that was when I got a shock that made me shake. You know what I saw in the drawer? It was the small bottle of perfume that Bee had - the magic perfume that made men fall in love with her. I am sure it was the same bottle because I recognised the Khmer writing on it. I took out the condoms and closed the drawer and then the customer put on a new condom and made love to me. I was a bit scared when I saw the perfume bottle in Dao’s drawer because I know that Bee and Dao were not friends so I know that Bee would not have given her the bottle. That means either Dao took it from Bee’s flat or someone else took it from her flat, and whoever took it from her flat might have killed Bee.

  After the customer left I had a shower and when I came out of the bathroom I was so shocked because I saw Dao taking heroin. She was doing what we Thais call chasing the dragon where you put heroin on a piece of silver paper and heat it with a cigarette lighter and then breath in the smoke. I have never done it, ever. Heroin is a very dangerous drug. Dao said that it helped her relax and that she smoked heroin two or three times a day. She asked me if I wanted some and I said no.

  The customer left about fifteen minutes early but we didn’t phone Natalie right away, we just relaxed. We don’t get much time to relax since Oliver left.