It's Not Always What it Seems Pt. 02

"And what about you? Why did you do it?"

"It's easy to say the money," she shrugged, and sighed, "but I haven't got anything else but what I've got here. There have been a couple of girls in the past that wouldn't go along, they found themselves fired, for some trumped-up excuse, and then blacklisted. They can't get jobs elsewhere, and they have to leave Washington or, worse, they end up staying and then have to find a way to pay for it all. Some of them ended up becoming high-class escorts, exactly what they'd originally refused to do. There are a couple of madams in town, and we all have to live... And the Senator, he pays us well. The first thing we know we're in the squeeze. We've moved into high-class facilities, get used to eating expensive, living expensive, and there really isn't anything else that we can do that allows us to live so well."

"And it's really not that much. Perhaps once or twice a month we go out with someone, put out, and then never see them again. At least most of the time."

"What's that mean, most of the time?"

"The governor of... well, one midwestern state, comes in about once a month with his wife and his wife really likes me."

"His wife?"

"He just likes to watch his wife and me together, and then have me watch while he fucks his wife. She apparently always had a desire to be with a woman, but can't ever let anyone back home know. When he told Jacobson that they'd make the deal if he could provide a woman for his wife, well -- it was me."

"You like women?"

"I love women. My girlfriend Cassandra and I live together."

"Then you don't like men?"

"Oh no, I love men too. I'm bisexual, but Cassandra isn't. She really hates it when she has to be with a man." She paused. "She works for the Senator too, the same arrangement. She'll put out when she has to, but really would never be with a man again if she could help it."

"And what's this about the Senator? He doesn't like women? He's into men?"

Her head waggled both up and down and left and right. "Yes... and no."

"What's that mean?" I questioned. "Does he, or doesn't he?"

"It means," Stephanie said, just sitting and looking at me for a moment. "It means that I know he's not into women, but I don't think he's really into men either.

"You're not making sense."

She grimaced before saying, "I'm not really proud of this..."

"You're still not making any sense," I said, and when she didn't clarify her statement, repeated, "You're not really proud of what?"

She exhaled, and then took in a larger breath. "Senator Jacobson only has... anal sex... with men. Men who... are virgins... back there."

I just sat and waited. I could tell she wasn't done yet, and momentarily she continued. "About once a month... he has me pick up a guy. I'll question them, find out if they're into anal sex and find out whether they have ever done it or not. If they have had anal, I find an excuse and move on. But, if they haven't, I have them come to his suite and... I have sex with them, and then convince them that a little light bondage is in order. I get them tied down... and he wants me to give them oral sex while he's... raping them."

"Oh my God."

"Yeah."

"And you do this? Willingly?"

Steph shrugged her shoulders. "It's hard to describe."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Probably 5 years for me. I never asked but I think he's been doing it ever since he's been in Washington. I think he's had a couple of other girls that did this for him before."

"Why?" I asked, she just looked at me. "Why would you continue doing this?"

She sighed once again. "I love... Cassandra, but I love sex with men." She lowered her head and leaned forward again. "I love to get fucked. I love variety, and I don't have to worry about taking care of someone else. I get variety and there is no way they're ever going to complain."

"You take somebody to your room, get them tied up, raped by a madman, and they're not going to complain?"

"Not likely. I don't take them to my room, I leave them a keycard, and they come on their own. I get to have sex with them, and then they pay for it with their ass. The Senator is quite powerful on the hill. First, they'd have to convince someone that he did this. That's hard when he's got the police force in his back pocket and the bartender confirming what happened."

"The Bartender?" I queried, not having heard about him before.

"Yeah, took me a while to decipher he's the initial screen. The Senator would tell us who was a likely 'hook' at the bar, and then the bartender kept everything well-oiled and discrete. And then, even if they complained, and someone actually believed it, what is there to believe? That a stranger in a bar got handed a door key by a beautiful woman, went to her room, and that he was the one that got the raw deal?"

I just sat there mulling over what she'd told me. Eventually my thoughts came back to my sister.

"And that's what happened to my sister?" Again, she cocked her head, her lip going between her teeth, and then straightened it again.

"You know, she said I'd like you."

"What?" I asked, at her change of subject.

"She said I'd like you, that you were a really nice guy. One of the really nice guys, and that if I met someone like you, you could help get me out of this rat race."

I picked up on the deflection, that she'd once again ignored my query about my sister.

"What happened to my sister? You said she was murdered. By whom?"

"He didn't actually do it himself, but I know she was killed by Senator Aaron Jacobson."

A blatant accusation, but one, so-far, without any justification as far as I was concerned. But she'd been able to tell me more about my sister and her life than anyone else -- was I to believe her unquestioningly?

"Tell me." She nodded and began to explain.

"There was a party at his place, the one in Virginia. All of us were there, Kathy, me, Cassandra, Maggie, Wendy, and Nellie. It was Kathy's first time; I don't think any of us realized she really hadn't understood what was expected that night. There were six of them, two senators and 4 representative that were on the fence, he needed the deal to be swung that night. It was as you would expect, a nice, expensive meal served by his personal staff. Lots of wine, lots of booze. He directed everything, he always directed everything. Who sat with whom, who we were to pay special attention to, and then we began to, uhm... entertain.

"My 'date' was with one of the representatives, who seemed to be a really nice guy and it almost didn't feel like he knew I was the payment for his vote. Cassandra had the Senator from South Carolina. She told me later that he fucked her in the ass three times but wouldn't do her pussy as he didn't want to cheat on his wife. Go figure, huh? Anyway, the Senator from Ohio had the hots for Kathy, he'd changed places at the table with one of the other guys to be next to her, and then as we began to entertain, I lost track of her, mostly because I took my guy to his bedroom. When we came out in the morning, I could tell that Jacobson was really upset, and Kathy wasn't there. It turned out that she'd left shortly after dinner when the Senator from Ohio got all handsy and tried to feel her up. The rest of us all went home to clean up, and got back to the office about noon. Kathy was there when we got there, and as soon as Jacobson arrived, she went in to see him. I couldn't hear all that was said, but he was really upset. He didn't even want to listen to her, just screaming about how if she'd "fucked this up" he'd have her ass. I heard her say, "you can't hurt me, because I quit!" and a minute or so later she came out of his office in tears and just grabbed her purse and walked out."

"They had the vote in the House that afternoon, and it passed. They had the vote in the Senate the following day, and it failed -- by one vote. The Senator from Ohio, the one that Kathy was supposed to entertain, went against it." She paused, looked over at me. "I talked to Kathy that night. When I told her the vote, she said she'd heard on CSPAN. When I asked her what she was going to do, she said she didn't know, that she'd sleep on it for the night, and then she'd begin to look for something. That was the last I ever heard from her. It was three days later they found her body."

"She wasn't into drugs?"

"Oh hell no. She would cut herself off at two drinks. I don't think I ever even saw her drunk. There was no way she was using heroin."

I hadn't interrupted or asked any questions while she was talking. It was obvious to me that Stephanie was telling me that Jacobson had gotten pissed when Kathy didn't put out, the vote was lost, and now understanding him a little more it was probable that he was most upset about all the money that he'd spent to buy those votes and it had been for naught. I nodded, mulling over what she'd told me for a while, she didn't say anything else.

"So why are you telling me all this?" I queried, some inkling in my mind that she wasn't being totally honest. "You're essentially a high-dollar call girl for Jacobson, pretending to be a Congressional Staffer?"

She shook her head no. "I am a Congressional Staffer." She paused; I could tell it was to contemplate what exactly to tell me. "I was a virgin for most of High School. I gave my virginity to my boyfriend after our Senior prom. The first time wasn't the best, but it got better rapidly, that same night even, and by morning I was hooked on sex. We did it whenever we could, right up until we broke up and I went away to Northwestern. I didn't have a scholarship, mom and dad didn't have that kind of money, so I had to pay for it." She paused again, looked me right in the face and said, "I paid for my college with my ass." I just raised an eyebrow and waited. "By the end of the first semester I was $30,000 in debt, and out of affordable student loans. I was talking about having to drop out, and one of the other girls suggested she knew how I could make what I needed. She said that on weekends she was an escort, but also sometimes during the week as lonely businessmen paid better."

"I initially told her no way, I wasn't interested in being a hooker, but she said I didn't have to put out, just to be a pretty face on an arm. I asked if that was all she did, and she said no, being a pretty face pays, but putting out pays better, and as much as I liked sex, why not get paid for it? She said she had an upcoming gig that weekend for two girls, and if I wanted, I could go along as her second. When I asked if it included sex, she said it was ok if I didn't want to, that it was up to me." She shrugged her shoulders. "What can I say, I grew up a virgin country girl and College turned me into a hooker. But I didn't want to be a hooker, I wanted to be in politics. Just like Kathy, I wanted to make a difference. I reasoned that I was paying my way through college, and that once I got hooked into Congress with a good paying job, I would never do that again. I graduated with honors, immediately got hired as a Congressional aide, making barely enough to pay rent and eat. I thought it was good money, but "good" money in Washington isn't the same as elsewhere. I found I was living at the poverty level, just that now I was wearing really nice, expensive, clothes. When Senator Jacobson offered me a 25% raise to do the same thing, I jumped at the chance, but that just meant that I got to eat a little better. I'd worked for him for about 6 months when he asked if maybe I'd assist in persuading some elected officials to vote a certain way. When I asked what he wanted, he said it would just be that I was a 'pretty face', hang on their arm and make them feel special, and help convince them to vote for his bill. I recognized immediately what he was asking, he wanted me to be an escort again." She reached over and took a drink of her iced tea. "So officially, during the day, I'm a Congressional aide, and a couple of times a month I'm a Congressional hooker. I make 78 thousand a year as an aide... and I made about $250k last year."

"Wow. That's more than I made."

"It comes with a price."

I didn't say anything for a minute or two. "You could quit."

She smiled wryly. "Yeah, and where does a 28-year-old used Congressional whore make $250k a year?"

"Used?" I queried, "why do you say that?"

"You probably haven't been around long enough to see. It's all about youth. Epstein and his pedophile followers? They're all really young; underage young. Me, I'm 28 and the oldest "staffer" on Jacobson's payroll. I can see what's happening. I won't be with him when I'm 30."

"You don't think a pretty, almost 30-year-old, girl like you has a future in something else?"

"One does get used to the income."

I just nodded, my mind switching back to the beginning of the conversation and why I was there.

"So you think Jacobson wanted Kathy to suck some Congressman's cock, she refused, he lost the vote he had promised or counted on, and while pissed off, ordered someone to take care of Kathy?"

"More than just a promise, it was a business deal. Everything in Washington is a business deal. Outwardly, the swap of votes has to do with, "you vote for mine and I'll vote for yours," but behind the scenes, everything is bought and sold. The pushers are the sellers, the takers are the Johns. Remember Duke Cunningham? He started out thinking he was going to be honest and make a difference, and then he got caught. One little favor required another bigger favor, and pretty soon he was, knowingly or not, on a payroll. Jacobson is a seller, and he probably lost a couple of million dollars in buy offs or political contributions when the vote wasn't produced."

"You know that for sure?"

"You don't get to be worth several hundred million dollars by fucking poor virgins in the ass." She took a sip of her iced tea. "Everything in Washington is for sale, mostly for money or pussy."

"And you can't tell the police, you're in bed with him, so you'd go down too?"

"Well, not in bed with him, but in the beds of whomever he wants us to be in bed with."

Again, I sat quietly thinking about what I'd absorbed. Could I tell the police? I had no evidence, nothing except the word of an apparently disgruntled professional escort who happened to be working for the Senator, but even that probably couldn't be proven, even if I'd wanted to. Could I do what I really wanted and kill the bastard? Even if he actually dictated the "hit", if that's what it was, that was sure to bring the police and FBI down on me, and except for her saying that's what happened, I had no evidence, no proof. I had no preconceptions that I had the nefarious skills to be able to kill someone and not get caught, although if what Stephanie had said, Jacobson or others on his payroll, did.

"Steph?"

"Yeah?"

"I hear what you've said. I understand that you think your boss had... your friend killed?" It was too close to home for me, I couldn't say that he'd had "my sister" killed, and had to say, "your friend." She nodded her head in confirmation. "And I thank you for telling me that the cesspool of Washington that we all think is there, is just as bad as what we think it is, but what can I do with this?"

"Actually, it's not."

"What's not?" I asked, befuddled, and having lost her line of thought.

'The 'cesspool' that you speak of, mostly, it's not. There are a few Jeffrey Epstein's, Aaron Jacobson's, and the like. As they say in Poly Sci -- power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts absolutely. Most of the Congressmen and Senators are truly dedicated and honest officials, but the system itself is corrupt and allows people like Jacobson to get away with what they do. The give and take, the having to give up something you really want to get someone to give up something they really want leads to ultimate corruption of the process. Congressmen have to vote against something they really want because someone else tacked on a rider that is unacceptable. All of it adds up after a while. It's not the people that start corrupted, it's the system that corrupts them. Jacobson just pushes it, gets a skeleton on someone, and then they must do what he wants. Blackmail if you will."

"Ok, but still what can I do about this? I can't see there is anyone I can tell, or anything I can do."

"There is."

"What's that?"

"I want you to help me take Senator Jacobson down. I can't do anything for Kathy, she was a wonderful, loving, caring, person. But I think I can make sure he'll never do this to anyone else again."

I sat and looked at Stephanie for a moment, for some reason, for the first time really appraising her. If Stephanie truly was the high-class call girl that she said she was, I could see why she would be quite successful. Gorgeous black hair framed her eyes. Her breasts were large but not as large as I knew Kathy's had been. The blouse she wore was professional sexy, obviously working in the senators office she had to present herself as a professional businesswoman, but the dip in her blouse that showed her chest, her décolletage, without overly exposing breast flesh, just came across as exceedingly sexy. Previously she'd said the Senator liked her to go braless when she was entertaining, but now she obviously was wearing one but, although she didn't have any cleavage showing, her nipples pleasantly protruded through the blouse. That she had on a thin bra was unmistakable and I had no doubt that she knew it was designed to allow her nipples to show. I nodded thoughtfully, trying to decipher what her game was, what she was trying to tell me. Did she really have revenge, if we could call it that, for Kathy in mind? Just how much of her accusation of the Senator could I believe? Regardless of her thoughts, there was no proof. My silence finally elicited her expounding on the statement.

"I never thought I was going to be turning tricks again when I came to Washington. I never thought that's what I was doing at college either, but that's what I was doing, prostituting myself for my education. I told myself it was escorting, not prostituting, but seldom did I go on a date that didn't include sex. Sometimes, but not often, guys were just lonely and liked to have some candy on their arm, but most of the time, I took them to bed. Sometimes we actually went out, I did escort them to business meetings, social events, sometimes even a real date to the opera or theatre. Sometimes I was introduced as a wife, or girlfriend, but a lot of the time the only escorting I did was from the front door to the bed.

"My mom and dad would die if they ever found out what I did, but I knew, whether I admitted it myself at the time or not, that when I went out on a 'date', it was really all about the sex. That perhaps I was a bit prettier and less decorated than a street walker, and that my money was going to my education instead of my drug habit made it seem different, but really it wasn't.

"The first time the Senator told me to "make a... client... happy," I had this image in my mind that he didn't really mean sex, but it did. Whether I fooled myself or not, it did." She shook her head. "That first time was with a Saudi Sheik. I'd heard him talking to the Senator and his other 'elected officials' all day long, without him ever saying a word to me even though I was there. And then at the end of the day, the Sheik told Jacobson that he wanted to take me to dinner... and Jacobson said publicly that was up to me, but then privately said I needed to take care of him, to "make this happen." I went with the Sheik, but he made no bones about it, the first thing he said was "take your shirt off, I want to see those tits that have been hiding from me all day." I acted shocked and told him that I wasn't that easy, that he'd have to take me to dinner if anything was going to happen, but inwardly I knew." She shrugged her shoulders, "he took me to dinner, and then to his room, and I was officially the Senators call girl. The Sheik had almost seemed like a nice guy during the day, but that night I was just a piece of meat. It was no different than in college with some high-paying businessman, except that the Senator thanked me for taking care of 'his guy' the next day and slipped me an envelope with $5,000 cash in it."