"Block, Lawrence - Scudder 1982 - Eight Million Ways To Die" - читать интересную книгу автора (Block Lawrence)

'I have this pimp.'

'And he won't let you leave?'

'I haven't said anything to him. I think maybe he knows, but I haven't said anything and he hasn't said anything and - ' Her whole upper body trembled for a moment, and small beads of perspiration glistened on her upper lip.

'You're afraid of him.'

'How'd you guess?'

'Has he threatened you?'

'Not really.'

'What does that mean?'

'He never threatened me. But I feel threatened.'

'Have other girls tried to leave?'

'I don't know. I don't know much about his other girls. He's very different from other pimps. At least from the ones I know about.'

They're all different. Just ask their girls. 'How?' I asked her.

'He's more refined. Subdued.'

Sure. 'What's his name?'

'Chance.'

'First name or last name?'

'It's all anybody ever calls him. I don't know if it's a first name or a last name. Maybe it's neither, maybe it's a nickname. People in the life, they'll have different names for different occasions.'

'Is Kim your real name?'

She nodded. 'But I had a street name. I had a pimp before Chance, his name was Duffy. Duffy Green, he called himself, but he was also Eugene Duffy and he had another name he used sometimes that I forget.' She smiled at a memory. 'I was so green when he turned me out. He didn't pick me up right off the bus but he might as well.'

'He a black man?'

'Duffy? Sure. So is Chance. Duffy put me on the street. The Lexington Avenue stroll, and sometimes when it was hot there we'd go across the river to Long Island City.' She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she said, 'I just got this rush of memory, what it was like on the street. My street name was Bambi. In Long Island City we did the johns in their cars. They would drive in from all over Long Island. On Lexington we had a hotel we could use. I can't believe I used to do that, I used to live like that. God, I was green! I wasn't innocent. I knew what I came to New York for, but I was green all right.'

'How long were you on the street?'

'It must have been five, six months. I wasn't very good. I had the looks and I could, you know, perform, but I didn't have street smarts. And a couple of times I had anxiety attacks and I couldn't function. Duffy gave me stuff but all it ever did was make me sick.'

'Stuff?'

'You know. Drugs.'