“How’d they even know I was coming to see you? What do they have, some way to read my e-mail?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “More likely just Jorge Ramos watching your building.”
“Why? Why would they follow me?”
“I don’t know, Julie. It’s got to be tied up with what happened to Dorrie. Do you have any idea why they might have gone after her? She didn’t take any customers from them, did she?”
“How could she?” Julie said. “She never worked for them. Before I hired her she was working at Spellbound—it’s a place on 51st and Second started by this woman from Brazil, and I know Dorrie didn’t take any clients from her, because she didn’t have any when she started with me.”
“What about when Dorrie left you?” I asked. “What did she do then?”
“You don’t know?” Julie said. “She didn’t tell you?”
I shook my head. She hadn’t told me about any of this. Not about the attack on Julie, nor about quitting her job out of fear of a long-fingered gunman with a sadistic streak. I couldn’t guess why, except maybe a desire not to worry me. Or maybe fear that I’d have insisted on doing something about it—which I would have.
“She went independent,” Julie said. “Complete solo act.”
“What does that mean?” I said.
“Outcall only. No apartment, no spa, no fixed location. No rent to pay, no agency booking you, no phone girl. Not even a phone number. You run an ad with just an anonymous e-mail address, you answer the e-mail yourself, and if the client sounds okay you meet at his place. Or at a hotel room if that’s what he prefers. I suppose most of them do.”
I had a vision of Dorrie walking alone down a poorly lit hallway in some seedy building toward an assignation with a stranger. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Can be. But not if you do it right. You never have to meet anyone you haven’t vetted first over e-mail, and you can usually tell which ones are the creeps. And you don’t have to accept too many new clients if you start with a base of regulars you already know well.”
“But Dorrie didn’t,” I said.
She didn’t say anything.
“How could she?” I said. “Didn’t she have to start over from scratch?”
Julie suddenly looked tired. “She got me in a weak moment, John. I was in the hospital, all doped up on Percocet, I was thinking I was probably going to have to shut down Sunset anyway. And she was so desperate to get away. And it was my fault that she had to. And anyway it made me feel good, you know, to show I’m not like that fucker Ardo. So I told her go ahead, any regulars you’ve got, take ‘em. She didn’t have many, maybe three or four, but that’s a start, right? I told her, if you ask them and they want to go with you, they’re yours. Not that big a deal for me, and it meant a lot to her. What? Why are you looking at me that way?”
“The regulars she took,” I said, “were any of them customers you originally took with you from Vivacia?”
“I don’t think so.” She considered the question. I waited. “No. I don’t think so.”
“No or you don’t think so?”
“Jesus, John, I just came from having my hand cut open and put back together like a fucking jigsaw puzzle—‘I don’t think so’ is the best I can do.”
“Will you think about it some more?”
“Sure,” she said. “Sure. I’ll think about it. But not tonight.”
There was more I wanted to ask her. Like: What’s a Hungarian doing running the best spa in Little Korea? But her eyelids were drooping; the medicine they’d given her after surgery was kicking in.
“One last thing, Julie. Julie?” She forced her eyes open. “If I wanted to find the ads Dorrie ran after she left Sunset—the ones from when she went independent—what name would I search for?”
“The same name,” Julie said. Her voice was muzzy. “Cassandra.”
“I already looked up all the Cassandras on Craigslist,” I said. “They all had phone numbers—none were just e-mail.”
She smiled. “You look under ‘Casual Encounters’?”
“No,” I said. “Why would I? That’s not pros, that’s just ordinary people looking to hook up.”
She closed her eyes again, sank back against the understuffed hospital pillow. “You’re so goddamn innocent,” she said.
Back on Carmine Street, I fired up my computer, navigated to Craigslist again. “Casual Encounters” was a whole different universe from “Erotic Services.” It didn’t look like these were pros—there were few photos, no requests for money, no explicit lists of the things the advertiser would do if money were offered. But there were signs, if you looked hard enough, that there were some ringers mixed in with the amateurs.
College co-ed, lonely, cute, seeks well-situated, established businessman for special relationship...
W4M, 31, sensuous, open-minded, w/expensive tastes looking for luxury-loving man to satisfy all her needs...
It’s Monday evening and I’m looking for a date to help take my mind off all the bills I’ve got piling up...
I wondered whether everyone who used the service understood the coded language, or whether there were awkward moments when one civilian looking to score with another accidentally responded to the ad of a pro. Probably. But that was presumably the sort of thing pros were good at catching at the e-mail stage. Certainly I had to think that before a pro headed over to someone’s apartment or hotel room she made sure that the subject of payment had been raised and resolved.
I typed “Cassandra” into the search box and got six results. They turned out to be six copies of the same ad, posted at the start of each of the previous six weeks: Tall, model-beautiful, well-educated tantric masseuse seeks kind, giving gentleman for passionate evenings in. Not seeking long-term relationship, just mutually satisfying encounters of an hour or two at a time. Donations toward continuing massage training appreciated. It was as close to an explicit request for money as any I’d seen in the Casual Encounters section; but then Dorrie hadn’t been an old hand at the game when she’d written it.
I clicked on the word “Reply” and typed “This is a test” into the blank message that popped up, then clicked the Send button to shoot it off into the ether. Dorrie was gone—but automated systems like this had a way of continuing in operation until you did something to turn them off. A little like Dorrie’s answering machine, which had continued recording my messages long after it was too late to do her any good.
Sure enough, after about fifteen seconds a chime sounded and an incoming e-mail appeared on my desktop. The sender was “Cassie19934@yahoo.com.”
Thanks for responding to my ad! I offer an outstanding massage with a sensual finish that will leave you trembling. This is not full service so please don’t ask, but I promise you won’t be disappointed. My rates are $150 for the hour, $200 for a luxurious 90-minute session. Outcall only, anywhere within Manhattan. I’ve attached a photo so you can see what I look like. Before you book an appointment, I’ll need the same from you, along with your name and telephone number. (No blocked numbers, please.) I require this for my security—I only see a very small, select group of clients and need to feel comfortable with you before we meet. I’ll keep everything you send me strictly confidential, of course.
I hope to hear from you soon—and I look forward to giving you a sensual massage you’ll never forget!
Much love,
Cassandra
The photo was the one of her in the pink g-string and the hat. I wondered how many pictures of men she’d gotten in return. How many men would send a photo of themselves to a complete stranger over the Internet—and not just any complete stranger, but a “tantric masseuse”?