the district attorney but she couldn"t understand anything. Sure
in the last week or so she had picked up one or two words of
Spanish but barely enough to say hi to someone. The discussion
stopped and Nicandro told her they got an early trial set for
November. That was 8 months from now, she thought in horror. He
would keep in touch with her as time got closer. Then he gave
her his card and she was led back to the cells. On the way back
she was chained to another inmate again and this one also didn"t
speak English. Frustrated by not being able to understand
anything about the proceedings that were going to determine her
future and not being able to speak to someone that she was
chained to she remembered the pamphlet and vowed to learn the
language as soon as possible.
It was time for dinner when she got back and the seats at
Rose"s table were all taken so she sat at a different table. A
woman next to her tried to speak to her but they couldn"t get
any dialogue going, it had almost seemed like she had been
trying to hit on her. She decided to go to her cell early again.
Rose didn"t arrive until lockdown and was in a good mood.
She and Maria had managed to get some private time if she knew what she meant. Kim nodded. They talked about what happened in
court and Rose tried to comfort her but Kim now knew how dire
her situation was. If she could get Jake to clear everything up
that would work but that was her only chance. She asked Rose how
to get a job and Rose said she would speak to the kitchen
manager and see what she could do.
The next day she returned all her English books to the
library and checked out a beginners course in Spanish, a
Spanish-English dictionary and a couple of Spanish children"s
books. The inmate that worked the library gave her a strange
look but check them out anyway. The rest of the day she sat in
the courtyard and read and practiced her Spanish. When a small
group of women did not look too intimidating she would sit close
enough to be able to hear what they were saying so she could
figure out pronunciations. She did this all week and noticed how
as time went on she was able to pick up more and more out of
conversations. The people still spoke too fast for her to
understand it all but she often was able to get what a
conversation was about. She was also getting to be able to read
the children"s books and needed the dictionary less and less as
she read them.
A week later Rose told her that next month an inmate was
getting released and a place would be opening up in the kitchen. The job would pay thirty pesos for an eight hour shift and she
quickly figured out that came to a little over two dollars. The
money would be good as she could use it for calling her lawyer
and some extras. It wasn"t much, the work was hard and she would
have to start with the worst jobs being the new one but it was
better than being bored and penniless. She happily accepted. For
the rest of the month she studied her Spanish books and by the
end of the month she was reading books for young adults at a
decent pace. The dictionary was still by her side when she read
but it wasn"t getting much use anymore. Learning the language
kept her mind busy so she didn"t keep wondering why she hadn"t
heard from Jake yet, had the consulate been able to reach him?
She could follow conversations pretty well but speaking
usually resulted in people laughing at her and telling her she
was cute. She didn"t mind as she was only concerned with
learning the language and appreciated any chance she had to
speak it. Rose was still her only friend but she was mostly
hanging out with her lover and Kim didn"t want to intrude.
Two days before her first shift in the kitchen she sat in
the courtyard reading a Spanish translation of Moby Dick. She
had read it in school so she knew the story, which it made it
easier to focus on the Spanish rather than the story. The
weather had been nice and she was wearing a white tank top. Then from behind she heard an unfamiliar voice and she couldn"t place
any of the words.
“Kom jij uit Amsterdam?” it said.
It wasn"t Spanish. She didn"t know everything yet but she
would pick out one or two words and it sounded totally different
from Spanish. She turned to look and behind her stood a tall
slender woman with brown hair. She looked older but something
told her she was only thirty or so. She didn"t look Mexican as
she was too tall and paler.
“I"m sorry, what did you say?” she responded surprised
forgetting to ask in Spanish.
To her even bigger surprise the woman responded in perfect
English with an accent similar to what Jake"s had been but it
was the clearest English she had heard from a non American since
she had arrived in Mexico.
“I"m sorry” the woman said, “I thought you were Dutch.”
“Why would you think that?” Kim asked surprised.
The woman pointed to her shoulder that had the butterfly
tattoo.
“I"ve seen that tattoo a lot in Amsterdam” the woman
responded. Kim looked over her shoulder at her tattoo which she could
barely see unless she had a mirror.
The woman sat down next to Kim “Do you mind?” she asked a
little after the fact.
Kim didn"t mind. She was happy to have someone to talk to
and she was intrigued. Kim shook her head and extended a hand to
shake as she put her book down beside herself.
“Kim Brown” she introduced herself.
The woman shook her hand “Laura Vermeer” she responded.
“I"m sure many women have a butterfly tattoo and I"ve never
been to Amsterdam” Kim said.
“Not that particular butterfly” Laura said.
Kim gave her a puzzled look. Laura paused a second as if
she wanted to say something but she was hesitant. Kim raised her
eyebrow as if to say “out with it”.
Laura opened her mouth and a second later finally asked
“Are you a prostitute?”
Kim looked at her in shock and was almost offended when she
realized that she had been one. “I was” she admitted, “How did you know?”
Chapter 22:
Laura looked at her and then turned her own shoulder
towards Kim showing a princess cut diamond tattoo. The tattoo
was different from Kim"s but similar in an eerie way. The size
and color were identical and so was the style. It looked like
they were two of a set.
“It is the mark of your loverboy or his group” she said,
“It shows other loverboys that you are already owned by someone
and they will leave you alone.”
Kim looked at her in shock. What was this woman talking
about? She wasn"t owned by anyone and what was a loverboy? Laura
immediately reacted to Kim"s surprise.
“Don"t you have a boyfriend back home?” Laura asked.
Kim nodded.
“And he"s your pimp, right?” Laura continued.
Kim looked at Laura in shock then got up. “Jake is not my pimp and I am not a prostitu
te anymore” she
said offended.
“Have you heard from him yet since you have been in here?”
Laura asked.
“No but I am waiting for the consulate and he will
straighten things out when they find him” Kim protested.
“Don"t hold your breath” Laura said.
“Whatever” Kim responded and grabbed her books and walked
away.
Jake wasn"t a pimp and she was sure he was out looking for
her. Bureaucratic procedures and stuff must just be making it
hard to get a hold of her. She went back to her cell and just
lay on the top bunk. She couldn"t sleep and didn"t feel like
reading and just laid there. Dinner time came and she didn"t go.
She lay there all evening and when Rose got back to the cell she
barely spoke to her too. She finally managed to fall asleep much
later.
The next day she vowed to stay in her cell other than
leaving for meals. After breakfast she received word that she
had a visitor. “Jake” she hoped secretly. She was led to the
visitor room and to her disappointment it was not Jake. But at least it was the man from the consulate and he surely had news
from Jake.
“Please sit down Miss Brown” the man said.
She sat and he continued “We have spoken to Jake Juliano
but he claims not to know you. When we pressed he remembered a
woman of your description sitting next to him on a plane to
Mexico a month ago but he claims no other knowledge of you”.
Kim"s jaw hit the floor.
“He said what?” she stammered, “He"s lying.”
“We generally don"t interfere in the judicial process but
we checked into it and it appears he did sit next to you but his
ticket and yours were separate purchases and he returned much
earlier then you” the man continued.
“He had to start his job early” she objected, “He changed
his flight to leave earlier.”
“Sorry” the man said, “There is no record of him changing
his flight. His return trip was always scheduled for a week
before you.”
She couldn"t believe what she heard. This could not be
true, she had been there when he received the call and heard him
change his ticket. “What about the hotel?” she asked, “We had the same room.”
“There were two rooms book. One for him and one for you
both under different names and paid for with different credit
cards. One in your name and one in his” he said.
“I don"t have a credit card” she said.
“Our records show you do have a VISA” he added, “Jake is
denying having anything to do with you. Are you sure you don"t
want us to contact your mother?” he asked.
She shook still in shock.
“No, she has enough on her mind. She doesn"t need this” Kim
said softly in a defeated voice.
Jake had used her, he had set her up. The man left his card
and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Please let me know if you change your mind” he said and
left.
Kim picked up the card and headed back to her cell. She lay
down on her bed and sobbed. She couldn"t believe what she had
just heard. She lay in bed past lunch and finally she remembered
Laura. Laura seemed to know about this. She dried her tears and
cleaned herself up. It was better not to appear weak here.
Prisoners generally avoided conflict out of fear of being transferred to a worse prison but it was still better not to
appear weak. She went outside and scanned the courtyard. There
in the far corner she spotted her.
Laura was sitting in a small group of other inmates
enjoying the sun. She stepped towards them and interrupted the
discussions going on.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked.
The group looked surprised and offended about the
interruption but Laura waved them off.
“Sure, let"s walk” Laura said.
They walked along the wall and Kim told Laura about the
visit from the consulate.
“Yep, classic loverboy move” Laura said.
Kim looked at her with pain in her eyes “What is a
loverboy?” she asked dreading that it was more than just a term
to tease a girl about her boyfriend.
Laura looked at her sympathetically.
“Look, this isn"t how you should find out but I think you
know already and if you don"t you need to” she said in a soft
voice. Kim nodded “I need to know.”
They sat down on a low wall and Laura started.
“A loverboy is a young man who preys on younger girls. He
will look for them at schools and malls or other places where
many young girls can be found without their parents. Then he
will pick out the vulnerable ones. The ones that clearly have
low self esteem.”
Kim thought about protesting that that wasn"t her but she
realized that it had been.
Laura continued “They are good at this and can clearly pick
out the weak ones. Then they hone in on them and shower them
with attention and gifts. Usually these girls are from broken
homes with divorced parents and the one parent that raises them
is too busy keeping the ends tied together.”
Kim felt weird as this stranger totally described her life.
“They pretty much make the girls fall in love with them and
pretend to be in love with those girls. The next step is that
they cause situations to arise that drive a wedge between the
girls and any support system they might have. Like they get the
girl home late and make sure she gets in trouble so it causes
fights at home and the girls start feeling the loverboy is the
only one that understands them. Next they set something up to go wrong. Sometimes it"s something small and sometimes it is
something major; rape is a popular method.”
Kim gave Laura a pained shocked look.
“Ah” Laura said, “That"s what they did to you. I can
already guess what happened after. Everybody wanted you to go to
the police and relive everything, suffer through it over and
over again but not him. He just wanted to make you feel better.
Probably gave you some drugs to make you feel better. Then after
a while he claimed he was in financial trouble of some kind and
had some bad dudes after him trying to collect but if you would
sleep with someone your boyfriend would be safe.”
Kim kept staring at Laura in amazement and shock.
“But it had been my idea” she protested.
Laura gave her a sympathetic smile and said “Of course it
was. He made you feel guilty and afraid then when you feel like
there is no other way out you offer up this only way out and
bam, now it was your idea. The rape and sex with the friend are
all methods to bring you closer to prostitution. Going from a
high school student to being a prostitute is too big of a step
so they slowly work you into it. From there on things keep going
wrong and before long you are a full time prostitute and he
collects all the money for you which he says he will save so you guys can build a future together, maybe even buy a house. After
that he keeps
giving you drugs which you gladly take to forget
about the horrible work you do and not much longer you are
hooked and totally dependent on him with nobody else to turn
too. That is where they want you to get and then they can do
everything they want with you. They don"t have to sneak around
with the other girls anymore and groom them right in front of
you. They might even include you in the grooming process.”
“Is this what happened to you?” Kim asked.
“More or less” Laura nodded sadly.
“But that didn"t happen” Kim said, “I was done and quit
walking the streets. This was a vacation and when we got back we
were going to move into this house we were buying.”
“What about the drugs?” Laura asked.
“I quit after he got into financial problems over the drugs
he gave me after the rape. I wasn"t going to let it cause more
problems” Kim said.
“And that"s why you are here” Laura said, “He didn"t buy
the house and couldn"t keep up the charade. You are stronger
than most. Most girls get sucked in and are trapped. You set an
ultimatum and he couldn"t get you off that. So finally he took you on this trip and sold you to a cartel. I heard you had two
pounds on you, that"s a lot they must have paid a lot for you.”
“But doesn"t it cost them money if I get caught” Kim
reasoned.
“Sure” Laura shrugged, “But it"s a present for the corrupt
officers. Look, they give them a little bust, although two
pounds isn"t little, the officers are heroes and look the other
way when the real shipment comes through. The cartel gets their
big shipment through without risk, the officers get paid and
make a bust that sets them up for promotions and the loverboy
gets paid a nice amount of money for setting it up. Everybody
wins, everybody but you that is. See he milked you for
everything he could. You didn"t get in his trap all the way so
he set this up for you and made a final nice amount of money off
you while he got you out of the way and knew he wouldn"t have to
worry about you for the next twenty years or so.”
Kim started to cry as she realized what Laura had told her
was true. Laura hugged her and stroked her hair.
After a while Kim pulled herself together and asked “How
about you? Why are you here?” Laura shrugged and showed Kim her
The Loverboy Page 17