THE COMPANION
Lorelei Bardot arrived in New York in her twenty-first year, hoping to be an actress. A year later she had shifted her focus to making money. She had a perfect body and jet-black hair that shined in the light. At 5'6" and a busty 120 pounds she had been turning heads since she was fourteen. Lorelei Bardot is not her real name, of course, but Mary Jane Thomas from Muncie, Indiana just wouldn't do. She fell under a pimp's control after several months of free-lancing as a "lady of the evening" and it became the standard story for many young women who come to New York with stars in their eyes. Her life changed when she was sent to meet with a customer that turned out to be Assistant Police Chief Byron McGinley. She spent the evening with him at a nice hotel away from the city. She never wondered why, just went where she was told. When he called for her again, they began to talk about his problems, her problems and a kind of friendship developed. By the third "visit" he knew about her problem with her "handler". He still didn't do anything until she was beaten up by said "handler" for something or other. He put her in the hospital. She was badly hurt, as a message to the other girls.
McGinley called for her as usual but was told she had "retired". He used his contacts in the force to find her. She was still in therapy recovering. He sent his assistant to see her without mentioning his name. She filled him in. She knew who he represented. McGinley was the only policeman she knew.
Two days later McGinley walked up to the "handler" and his two goons. He shot all three, laid the unmarked gun down on them and walked away. He had been in a mask, wore gloves, and a New York Giants coat he had stolen at a restaurant that day. He dumped the coat in a dumpster down the road and went home.
The news about a pimp and his thugs getting killed on the street didn't even make the TV news.
McGinley then sent word out on the street through one of his informants that the hit was because they had put the woman in the hospital. He let it be known she would be protected.
Because the pimp took so much of her money, Medicaid paid for her hospital and therapy bills. When she went back to the apartment provided by AA for three girls, she found out about their "boss". When the new boss showed up, she decided to make a stand. Lorelei began calling everyone in her book to tell them she would continue to see them and would charge less. She figured she would get what she could before the gangs stopped her, one way or another. When they didn't, she started asking around and found out about her protection. She was pretty sure she knew who it was. McGinley was the only client she had with enough clout in this town to make them leave her alone. She never talked to him about it but stopped charging him. She saw him once a month for until he had to stop seeing her.
McGinley had provided her with an organizer. Mother took care of everything for her. More about her later.
Two years later she had a good clientele. Many influential and powerful men in the city. She began making real money. Now two years later, she could afford a condo in Manhattan, not Park Avenue Manhattan, but a quiet area. It had what she wanted. She wanted a parking garage underneath where she could get to her home without walking into a lobby. It had a view of some greenery and was in a quiet neighborhood. She never entertained at her home, anyway, but she still wanted it away from anyone who might know about her lifestyle. She had no famous or rich tenets in her building that would attract any photographers or nosey people. She was comfortable there.
When she had a little money, she went to Jersey and opened a safe deposit box in her real name. By now, she had found a forger that would give her a driver's license and a passport under her new name. Her real ones were now in the safe deposit box, along with the beginnings of a cash contingency plan. She didn't want to carry the key, so she paid the manager of the small bank a little extra so she would hold her key until she came to use it.
Another thing in the box was her diary about her clients. She knew this was a stupid thing to do, but she needed to remember details about them. That became writing down their foibles and fetishes. The names were in code, and she kept the key to the code in a second box in a different bank in a different city in Jersy. Again, she paid the manager a little something extra to hold the key to that one.
She had never used her real name in the city and had always used Lorelei Bardot. She picked that name because "Lorelei" in German meant "murmuring rock" where a siren was believed to live, and Bardot was, come on, Brigit Bardot. Why else?
THE DIARY
I am starting this diary to try and hold onto my sanity. Everything I was told about this "business" turned out to be true. I will use initials for all the individuals I meet. My "pimp" will be AA. When TA first introduced me to him, he was suave and polite. He took a twenty-one-year-old kid and turned me into a sex machine that he would wind up and give me to any man that would pay him. He allowed a couple of his boys to "practice" on me until I understood what I was supposed to do and not do.
My first few assignments were in a sleazy hotel in a middling neighborhood. I would collect a couple of hundred bucks and turn it over to AA when I got back to his hangout. He would then send me out for another. I would do four or five a night for the first few months. As time passed and my skills improved, I would start getting a higher class of clients until I went to better hotels in the city. He put me up in a cheap apartment with a couple of other girls and gave us money. By the time I was twenty-two, I was one of his most profitable ladies and was being sent to his best customers. Just because they paid more didn't make them any better people. I would get hit several times, even sent to the hospital once. AA would always blame me and be very angry if any customer complained.
This is how I met BA.
Byron McGinley (Alias BA in her diary)
She didn't know who he was when she was sent to that hotel room. She was only twenty-two and didn't care who was fucking her.
He let her into the room and invited her to sit down. He offered her a drink. She took it to calm her nerves.
He started. "My dear, you look awfully young. How old are you?"
"I'm twenty-two."
"How long have you been in New York?"
