Annika swallowed and felt her heartbeat. She was regretting this so badly her whole body was screaming.
The darkness inside the door had a red shimmer to it. A spiral staircase led down toward the red light.
'Be careful on these stairs,' Patricia said. 'We've had customers nearly break their necks here.'
Annika desperately hung on to the banister while she slowly glided into the underworld.
The underworld of porn, she thought. This is what it looks like. She felt shame and anticipation, curiosity and revulsion.
Straight ahead in the foyer was the roulette table, the sight of which filled her with some sense of calm and self-confidence. There were a couple of black leather armchairs and a round table; to the right, a small, high reception desk with a phone and a cash register.
'This is the entrance,' Patricia said. 'That's Sanna's responsibility.'
Annika looked at the grubby white plaster walls. The parquet floor was covered with cheap IKEA copies of Oriental carpets. A lowwattage lamp was in the ceiling, the dim light barely penetrating the lampshade.
Behind the reception desk were two doors.
'These are the locker room and the office,' Patricia said, nodding at the doors. 'We'll start by getting changed. I've washed Jossie's bikini for you.'
Annika took a deep breath and forced down the feeling of morbid excitement. Patricia stepped inside the locker room, turned a switch, and the cold, bluish light from strip lights in the ceiling filled the room.
'This is my locker. You can have number fourteen.'
Annika put her bag in the metal locker she'd been allotted. 'There's no lock.' She thanked God she had emptied her bag of anything that could point to her identity.
'Joachim says we don't need them. Here, I think they'll fit you.' Patricia held out a bra with sky-blue sequins and a minimal G-string. Annika took them, the material burning her hands, turned around, and undressed.
'We've got exotic dancing, a bar, and private shows.' Patricia took out a plastic bag with makeup from her locker. 'I do the bar and hardly ever do any shows. Jossie mostly danced, Joachim wouldn't let her work the booths. It made him too jealous.'
Patricia did up her bra at the back. Annika saw that she rolled up her socks and put them in the cups.
'Joachim thinks they're too small,' Patricia explained, and closed her locker. 'Here, take these shoes.'
Annika put on her bra. 'Does everybody wear these?'
'No.' Patricia started to put on makeup. 'Most of the girls are completely naked, except when they dance. Then they have to wear a G-string. Dancing naked is illegal in Sweden.'
Annika swallowed, then bent forward and did up the ridiculously high stilettos. 'What kinds of men come here?'
Patricia brushed her eyelashes upward. 'All kinds. But they all have money. I check out the credit cards, for fun mostly. They're lawyers, car dealers, company directors, politicians, police officers, guys that work in the laundry business, real estate, advertising, the media…'
Annika stiffened. Jesus, what if someone she knew turned up? She licked her lips. 'A lot of celebrities?'
Patricia handed her the bag with makeup. 'Here. Put lots on. Yes, some celebrities. We've got one TV guy who's a regular. He's always dressed in women's clothes and pays for two girls to come into a private room. Joachim checked last week- so far the guy had spent two hundred sixty thousand kronor over twenty or so visits this year.'
Annika raised her eyebrows, recalling Creepy Calls. 'How can he afford it?'
'Do you think he's paying for it himself?'
Patricia picked up a bunch of keys from the vanity table. 'Joachim will come in later. Hurry up and I'll show you around and explain the prices before the other girls arrive. You'll have to talk to Joachim about the roulette.'
Patricia waited for Annika in the doorway, a commanding air about her. Annika quickly put on a thick layer of dark green eye shadow, blush, and eyeliner. On her way out of the locker room, she caught sight of herself in a full- length mirror. She looked like a Las Vegas hooker.
'Admission is six hundred kronor.' Patricia patted the reception desk. 'The customer can pay for a private room straightaway; that costs twelve thousand kronor and then we waive the admission. He can choose any girl he wants in the bar.'
'Do you mean this is a brothel?'
Patricia gave a laugh. 'Course not! The girls can touch the customer, massage him and stuff, but they must never touch his dick. The guys can satisfy themselves while the girl has to stay at least six feet away.'
'Why the hell would somebody shell out twelve thousand to jerk off?' Annika said in disbelief.
Patricia shrugged. 'Don't ask me. I don't care. I've got my hands full at the bar. Here's the office.'
Patricia unlocked the door with one of the keys on the bunch. The room was the same size as the locker room, furnished with plain office furniture, a photocopier, and a safe.
'I'll leave the door unlocked,' Patricia said. 'I've got to enter the bar takings for August. Joachim will only keep the books here until Saturday.'
They came into the main room, and in spite of herself Annika held her breath. The walls and the ceiling were black, and the floor had dark red, wall-to-wall carpeting. The furniture was black and chrome and smacked of cheap eighties styling. All along the left wall was a long bar; on the right were black-painted doors leading to the private rooms. Straight ahead was a small stage with a chrome pole from floor to ceiling. The room had no windows, and the low ceiling was supported by black concrete pillars, which intensified the sensation that you were in a bunker.
'What was this place originally? A parking garage?'
'I think so.' Patricia walked behind the bar. 'Plus a car wash and repair shop. Joachim put a Jacuzzi in the inspection pit.' She put some bottles on the bar. 'Check this out. Nonalcoholic champagne at sixteen hundred a bottle. The girls get to keep twenty-five percent on the first two bottles they sell; the third one they get fifty.'
Annika blinked with her stiff eyelashes. 'Unbelievable.'
Patricia looked at the stage. 'Jossie was great at selling. She was the most beautiful of all the girls. She would drink with the johns all night but she never went into a private room. The guys would keep paying, she was so pretty.' Patricia's eyes were moist with emotion. She quickly removed the bottles.
'Josefin must have made a lot of money.'
'Not really. Joachim took her money to pay for the breast job. That's why she worked here. And she was only here on the weekends, she did her schoolwork during the week.'
'Does Joachim take the other girls' money as well?'
'No. Everyone's here for the money. They make a packet, around ten thousand a night, tax free.'
Annika's eyes narrowed. 'What do the authorities think of that?'
Patricia let out a sigh. 'No idea. Joachim and Sanna handle the accounts.'
'But if you're entering the bar takings in the accounts, you'll have to pay tax on it.'
Patricia got annoyed. 'They keep two sets of books. Come on, let's go out to the roulette table.'
Annika hesitated. 'What about me? How much will I get?'
Patricia frowned and walked off into the foyer. 'I don't know what Joachim has in mind.'
Annika turned her back on the horrible, dark room. She wobbled on her high heels, which sank dangerously into the carpet.
The roulette table was worn, and the green baize was marked with cigarette burns and covered in ash. The table layout with its familiar figures and squares dispelled slightly her feelings of insecurity.
'It needs a good brush,' Annika said.
While Patricia was finding the equipment, Annika let her hand slide along the edge of the table. She'd be all right, it wasn't so bad. She wouldn't be in a booth, and this foyer wasn't so different from the hotel lobby in Katrineholm.
Patricia showed Annika where the equipment was kept. Then Annika brushed the table and took out the chips.
'Why are there different colors?' Patricia asked.
'To separate the players.' Annika put the chips in stacks around the wheel, twenty in each pile. 'Where's the ball?'
'There are two, a small one and a big one.' Patricia took out a box. 'I don't know which one's the right one.'
