This is it, in a nutshell: I used to work for a drug-dealing pimp. (And I'm not counting this among my official jobs.)
It all started one night after 11pm. I was already in bed asleep so I could go to work the next day. Kelz came into the bedroom and told me I needed to drive Jaid somewhere. Jaid didn't have a car at the time. She told me he would pay me $15. I put on my clothes and went to the car. He got in and had a paper bag with him.
He gave the address where I needed to take him. It was just a few miles away. We drove over and I parked across the street. He said he would give me $15. I told him that the gas didn't cost that much and I'd settle for $5. "You sure?" "Yeah, this isn't a problem." He gave me the money and told me to go ahead and leave. He'd be able to find a way home. I left and didn't think much about it.
When I got home, Kelz asked me if he paid me. I told her about the $5. "It was supposed to be $15!" "I didn't have to drive him that far." "Jaid's got plenty of money! He could have afforded it!" Then she said, "You know he was dropping off drugs, right?" I didn't know that. I knew he was a pimp, but I didn't know about the drugs at this point. I just went back to bed.
A couple of days later, Jaid asked me to drive him and one of his women (the younger one) so she could meet up with a client. I knew what was going on. We went to an address. She got out and we just waited for her in the car. It was during this time that he started talking about his business. I didn't ask a lot of questions. I just let him talk.
He told me about the specific rates he had the women charge for various services. He said most of the clients would only ever pay for a BJ because it was a quarter of the cost for full intercourse. "Most guys just settle for the BJ because that's all they can afford." He said that when one of his women made $1000 for him, she would get to have sex with him. (I guess you'd call that an incentive. I'm certain if I was a pimp, women would earn that money so they could avoid having sex with me.) He talked about how everything was business.
But he didn't talk about the drugs. He made no mention of that, even though he had me drive and drop him off at another address late at night.
One Saturday, I drove him and the younger woman to an address in Vista. She was going to be spending an hour with this client. We went out to a fast food restaurant and got something to eat. When we returned, she came out and got in the car. She had flowers. She said the client had proposed to her, but she had to turn him down.
The next day, another woman who worked for Jaid (but didn't live with him) needed a ride to her parents' house. He had me drive her over. On the way, she asked me if I could tell she'd been tweaking. I told her I couldn't tell, but didn't let on that I didn't spend enough time around drug addicts to know. We got to the house and got out of the car. We went to the gate to the backyard. I saw a sign that said, "Beware of Doberman!" I asked her if there were really dobermans back there. "Yes, there are!" I stayed outside the gate. She came back out after awhile. I don't know what it was that she had to get, but I didn't see it. I drove her back to the apartment.
I drove him and both the women who lived with him a couple more times. The younger one was rather sweet, but "Courtney Love" never spoke to me. Jaid told me not to take it personally, she was all business.
One night, I was driving Jaid and the younger one back from a client's house. We were going north on I-805. I usually took the El Cajon Blvd. exit to get home. However, the offramp was closed. I got mad because there weren't any signs indicating it was closed ahead of time (meaning I could have exited University Ave. if I'd known). We had to go the long way around, take I-8 West and exit on Texas St. Jaid decided he was hungry and wanted to stop at Taco Bell since we were in the area. There was a long line at the drive-thru. While waiting in line, we saw a couple of men hitting up the cars for change. It turned out to be Wod and Twod. Steam was coming out of Jaid's nostrils, but we remained in line. They came up to my car, saw who was inside and started laughing.
Every time I drove, Jaid would pay me. I knew it was all going to come to an end soon because he kept talking about buying a car. I was rather relieved when that day came and he told me he would no longer need my services.
During the two weeks that this was going on, Jaid never gave me any kind of talk about what to do in the event we got caught up in some kind of sting operation. I guess he felt pretty confident that no one was going to suspect that a pimp and his women would be driving around in a Chevy Citation. It did make a perfect cover. (So I don't know why he felt compelled to buy a Cadillac.)
The thought had crossed my mind that I might get in trouble. I figured that if I did, I could provide the appearance of plausible deniability. I would state that I had no idea that they were engaging in prostitution. I could just say they never talked about it and that I never saw money exchange hands. (Both of which were not true.) With my lack of a police record, I probably wouldn't have anything really stick.
On the other hand, drug charges would have been different. I didn't know this at the time, but there would have been MAJOR consequences because that would have been a Federal offense. About a year after the whole Kelz thing ended, I was watching a TV newsmagazine program. It focused on the harsh penalties associated with drug charges. A young woman had driven her friend's mother, who got caught dropping off drugs. The mother got a relatively light sentence because she was able to give the Feds some information regarding her suppliers. However, the young woman didn't have anything to give up, and she had admitted to knowing that she knew what the mother was doing. She wound up getting sentenced to 11 years in prison.
My jaw dropped when I saw that. I had practically dodged a bullet. I don't think Jaid would have told the Feds I knew what was up, but they likely would have lied to me and told me that he did in order to get a confession out of me. I could have been sentenced to prison, ALL BECAUSE OF KELZ!
Looking back, Jaid appeared to take precautions. I never saw him go into either of the residences when I dropped him off. He probably waited for me to leave and checked to see if anyone followed me before knocking on the door. If he saw another vehicle, he likely would have run off as quickly as possible. Nothing was worth getting arrested for. So, maybe I wasn't in that much danger, after all.
But up to this point, the only people I've told about this are my brother Loyd, Abed and Thoz. And now, you know.
But I never did anything ever again that would have gotten me into so much trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment