“And who would that be?”
“Don Rosolini. Maybe you’ve heard of him?”
“I’m not interested. Thank you.”
She started to close the door –
Until I flashed one of my wads of cash.
“Please,signorina– just five minutes of your time. It could be worth a lot of money to you.”
Her eyes flicked from the cash to my face, and she sighed. “Alright… five minutes.”
She shut the door. There was the sound of the chain being unhooked, and then the door opened all the way.
The woman who stood there was dressed in a slinky red dressing gown that ended mid-thigh. She wasn’t wearing stockings or shoes, so I could see her immaculate pedicure and red-painted toenails.
She’d probably been a beauty in her youth, but turning tricks is a hard life. My guess was that she was in her late 20s but looked ten years older.
She was still attractive, with a short bob with bangs framing a pretty face. But her makeup was a bit too thick, her frown lines were deeply set, and there was a world-weary look to her – like she’d experienced the worst that life had to offer and didn’t expect anything to ever improve.
After she closed the door and re-hooked the chain, I followed her into the apartment. Everything was clean and tidy, but there was a shabbiness to the place. Stained carpets, worn linoleum inthe tiny kitchen. The air smelled like stale cigarette smoke and cheap perfume.
“Want anything to drink?” she asked in a tone that suggested she didn’t want me to take her up on her offer.
“No, thank you.”
She gestured at a cloth-upholstered couch. I checked for suspicious stains before I sat down.
She walked across the small room, lowered herself into an overstuffed chair, and crossed her bare legs demurely. The small table next to her held an overflowing ashtray, a packet of cigarettes, a lighter, a half-empty bottle of cheap white wine, and a long-stemmed glass with lipstick stains on it.
She lit a cigarette and took a drag. “I’ve heard about you.”
“About me, or – ”
“Your boss and his offer. One of you guys talked to my friend last week, and she told me about it. Five thousand euros, right?”
“That’s right. Did your friend mention what you would have to do to get it?”
Luna gave a sardonic smirk and gestured around the room. “Give upall thisand start a new life.”
I smiled gently. “Yes. But I have to caution you, my employer doesn’t want to be taken advantage of. If you were to take the money and continue in your… current profession, my boss would be very angry. He would take it as a personal affront and a betrayal.”
“My friend told me that part, too,” she said, taking another puff. “I have a question.”
I gestured like,Go ahead.
“Why is he doing this? Your employer?”
It was a common question. I’d heard it fairly often.
“He only recently took control of his family’s business, and now that he’s in charge, he wants to change how things are done.He’s concerned that women in your… profession… were forced into lives that they never wanted.”
“He’s concerned, is he,” she said in a tone that indicated she didn’t think he was concerned at all.
“Yes.”
“How’d you find me?”
