Chapter 23: A Pimp Learns

Resha’s house, 49 Territory
Monday June 9, 2008
4:00 PM

Resha called my cell phone a week after she moved in. She said that a pimp, who the Scorpions drove off bleeding, had tracked her to her new home and was now snooping around. I cut her off and told her she had to talk to the block captain, that 49 had special rules for dealing with pimps in the area. She sounded dubious, because the block captain was a woman, but did as I asked.

I heard the story later.

In late summer of last year, while Resha was “independent,” she started moving outside her local market and into some higher-priced markets selling her services. She really needed the money. She tried to pick locations without pimps, but the lowest of vermin come out of the corners everywhere. This one, Reggie, was especially persistent. He claimed to have three girls all making top dollar, and now he wanted to add Resha to his stable. Since “she was black, he got the first crack,” at joining. He tried to temp her with drugs, and tried to get her to drink beverages he just happened to have, but Resha always turned him down. They did this dance every week or two, when he ran into her.

In early November she was accepted by my law firm for a position stating January 2 of 2008. She had to pass a medical exam but that was it.

Resha had not seen Reggie for over 6 weeks when they met in early December; Resha had just finished with one of her regulars and was closing out her book of clients. This time Reggie was not so nice, when she said she was leaving the street business he got mad, slapped her a few times, and then hit her with his “pimp stick,” leaving some bruises, all while cursing a blue streak at the top of his voice. This occurred in a shopping district during Christmas shopping, so plenty of other people objected loudly and store security folks appeared. Reggie jumped into his car and escaped, but he knew the security people had his plates and video tape of the beating, so he had to make some changes.

Resha went to the hospital, the store insisted. Fortunately no bones were broken plus she got her physical for free. She only spent 2 days in the hospital, the store’s insurance paid for it all but she missed her baby. She moved into the Scorpions neighborhood based mainly on the bus-line. As planned she started working for the law firm on January 2 of this year.

Reggie eventually found her, probably one of the girls in her old neighborhood told him to get him off her back. At the law firm he was chased off the grounds by our “security chief” Kurt. He went through LAPD training and was a rookie, but was bounced out on a disability when a minor injury led to a hospital visit where a heart issue was discovered, costing him his job.

Resha’s strange and ever-changing hours kept Reggie confused, but finally he followed her to her house. He was trying to force his way in, making noise, which drew the Scorpions. With 4 to 1 odds they showed up looking for a good time beat down. Reggie volunteered by being on their block. He tried to talk his way out and was shown the AK-47, up close and personal in his teeth. That shut him up. The Scorpions said they did not need any competition around. He tried to talk his way out of it again but the audience was not buying it, they were waiting for reinforcements. Four more showed up. Reggie was a guy they could beat up for fun and the cops would not be called. They broke his “pimp stick” over his head - it wasn’t the first blow. Then they gave him a serious beating, and even introduced his busted pimp stick to his place where the sun does not shine.

In all it was a perfectly painful beating, Reggie had all kinds of painful bruises but nothing was broken and he only qualified for aspirin as a pain-killer. He spent two weeks in the hospital, got in a fight with some nurses before he could walk, was discharged before he was well, then spent another month at home with an infection, confined by pain to a bed. When he finally got healthy all his girls were gone. So he went looking for Resha. He had forgotten which house she lived in, as they looked alike and maybe his memory was damaged. When he finally figured it out the house was ashes. She had moved. He went back to her job and followed to her new block.