Copenhagen Noir

Bonnie smiled at her own wittiness and went on: “I take care of the phones and the cheap net sex, where they can jerk off to the sound and video files I send them, along with some live talk, moans and groans. Ten kroner a minute! Doesn’t sound like much but it actually brings in quite a bit. Then we have a webcam so they can buy direct live shows. Most of them want girl sex, that’s a lot more expensive of course, if it’s direct and interactive, but all this about the money, you just let me take care-”

“How much?”

Claire received a warm smile in return: “You-you can hit the jackpot! You’re exclusive, high-class-and you’re Danish!”

Claire kept quiet, Bonnie became eager: “As a guesstimate, a good day, taking eight or ten customers, you’ll go home with five thousand kroner. Times twenty…”

“But the clinic here takes their cut?”

“The clinic takes 60 percent of your overall earnings. That’s the way it is. The money goes to rent, ads, equipment, supplies, transportation, security. Nothing under the table here. I guarantee you won’t get cheated, and there’ll be plenty of work. We’re counting on a lot of Christmas business, and Copenhagen is the only place left in Scandinavia where it’s still legal to buy sex. The Bangkok of the North, ha ha!”

Bonnie showed her the rooms. Three had double beds, a large bathroom with Jacuzzi and whirlpool bath-also for servicing customers-and a dressing room and wardrobe, complete with everything necessary to the trade.

Bonnie measured her by sight and concluded: “C-cup, 38. We have everything you need, but it’s all right if you bring something along.”

A back stairway led from a kitchenette down to a soundproof S &M room in the basement.

The room was dimly lit, and Claire shivered inside as her eyes adjusted to the gloom. Rack, gallows, iron-bar cage, tongs, whips, chains, masks, rubber and leather clothes, and various instruments to stick into body orifices.

“Down here you’ll be a queen and dominatrix, I think. You should know that many of our masochists are very important men with exclusive tastes. Have you done it before?”

“No,” Claire said. “But there’s nothing wrong with my imagination.”

“You’ll get some recordings and film to take home with you. We have videos of most of our regular customers. They all have different desires. The most bizarre, right now anyway, is someone who wants needles stuck through his foreskin-can you handle something like that?”

Claire nodded. “If it’s part of the job…”

“Also, you’re an obvious choice for doing high-class escort. Lasse is our driver and bodyguard. When you’re out with a new customer we have a security system. It’s a special cell phone that stays on so Lasse can hear everything. He’s also Teddy Bear’s man.”

“Teddy Bear’s man?”

“Teddy Bear is our owner, he owns the whole building. We pay rent to him, Lasse takes care of that. Teddy Bear’s okay. He comes around once in a while for a session down here in the torture chamber. You’ll meet him. He’s going to be wild about you.”

“I don’t want to be whipped or tortured myself,” Claire said firmly.

“No, of course not. That’s no problem. One of the Thai girls, Cindy, is pretty tough. She takes all the sadists… and Theresa is good with all the seniors, the gross-looking ones, and the handicapped…”

The problem came up back at reception.

“I’m going to get our photographer to take some gorgeous shots of you now, for the website. I’ll show it to you,” Bonnie said, and sat down at the computer.

“I won’t appear on any website. If that’s a condition we’ll have to forget the whole thing,” Claire said.

Bonnie looked serious, thought for a moment, and then said: “They need to, like, know what they’re buying. Couldn’t we show your body without your head?”

“No,” Claire answered.

“Okay, we’ll make an exception and put a different body out. You’re so beautiful, nobody will be disappointed if they even notice they’ve been tricked.”

The website popped up.

Bonnie pointed: “Here’s our Thais, Cindy and Lara. That’s what we call all of them. We bring new ones in about every three months. They don’t show their heads here, either. It’s more because of the authorities. They’re only here on a tourist visa… And here’s Alette. We haven’t taken her off the site yet. Isn’t she sweet?” A tear ran down Bonnie’s cheek and was slowly absorbed by her open pores.

Claire stared at the picture of a skinny young girl with empty eyes, a half-open mouth, and disproportionately large silicone breasts, “playing with herself,” as the text claimed. She was in the process of inserting a black dildo.

“Apparently she didn’t have any family. We were the only ones at her funeral, anyway,” Bonnie sighed. “What would you like to be called?” she then asked.

“I’m Michelle,” Claire answered.

“But do you want to use your real name?”

“Just call me Michelle,” Claire said. “And I’ll give you my cell number, but not my ID number or my address.”