The phones come to life after midnight. Weeknights can be quiet, but not this one. Inside an anonymous office suite toward the ocean end of Virginia Beach Boulevard, smoke curls from ashtrays as three bookers juggle the calls. Their eyes flicker between their paperwork and a wall-size dry-erase board. Its grid holds the latest working hours of Beauty, Honey, Star, Siren and nearly 50 other women who go by exotic-sounding names.
What city are you in? Do you want one girl or two? OK, baby. The year-old ex-Navy man owns what he says is the largest escort agency on the East Coast. His ads are sandwiched between dozens of others from similar companies. In the past few months, some escort services have been linked to prostitution.
Closer to home, a Virginia Beach couple face up to two years behind bars for running a prostitution ring in Richmond under the name of Aphrodite Escort Services. Crocker says she was an escort in Hampton Roads 12 years ago. She has written a book aimed at discouraging other women from doing the same. He estimates that the local industry includes about escorts working for eight or so companies.
One of them, Penthouse V. No one suggests that every escort is selling sex. Company owners, however, point fingers at one another. None, except Sabatino, would talk on the record. Are you in a home or a hotel?
And will that be cash or credit? The Christmas holidays always sap business β what with presents to buy and sailors heading home β but this year, the slow economy kept customers away longer than usual. Now, the industry is expecting a good spring. Wedding season spawns bachelor parties. Tourists return to the Oceanfront. Sabatino has spent 15 years building his escort empire. In that time, he estimates, to young women have passed through his doors. I had no idea!
