Prostitution

When private eyes are blind

lain Scarlet

"There are times when it's part of my job to be seen about and recognised for what I am," said the house detective to whom last week I had remarked that he looked "so ob

iviously a house detective that one 4' felt sorry for him." I was about to apologise for the remark, but once he got going there " was no stopping him. House detectives, apparently, don't meet many pi` people prepared to listen to their side of the hotel-versus-whore . story. I bought him another drink

instead. , "My presence may not actually deter them from soliciting but at least it keeps them a bit discreet. In my profession the one thing we can't afford is trouble in public scenes do the hotel no good at all.

"But it's true that we do have to tolerate having a few of the girls about. I mean when this bar was named in one of those Sunday. paper 'exposures' the management clamped down hard and insisted on expelling the lot. The result was that the till takings slumped to an all-time low and the number of unsolicited approaches to chambermaids went up. We even had quite a few actual assaults.

-Anyway, it's impractical to keepthe girls out all the time. You'd have to police the joint and check everyone in at the door. And that way you're bound to make some mistakes and offend some perfectly respectable women who've just come in to meet"their husbands or boyfriends or what-have-you. Or even to have a quiet drink by themselves. There's no law against that. And if you made a rule that unescorted women wouldn't be served well, within minutes you'd have Women's Lib picketing the joint. And probably Gay Lib not far behind. No, we can do without that sort of thing, thank you very much."

Then how .does he strike a balance between discretion and (male) customer-service?

"Admission is very much in the gift of the head barman." He winked. "For the regulars the recognisable ones that's certainly true. After all, he's responsible for the day-to-day running of the bar and if a girl isn't too obvious he'll probably let her stay. Doubtless they have their own private arrangements but I don't know about those. It's his and her business. 1 only come into it when either he or one of the managers thinks things are getting a bit out of hand. Then I might go round and quietly ask one or two of the offenders to leave. Or suggest that they cool it a bit.

"But more often they've only got to see me coming and they start behaving themselves. We seldom get any real trouble from the girls. Much more likely, in fact, is that one of the male guests will cut up stroppy.

"'This young lady's with me,' he'll say, all drink and dignity. So what can you do? You don't want a scene so you retire apologetically and do the disappearing act. That's when you've got to stop being obvious. But you still watch them like a hawk. And if he tries to get her up to his room well, that's when you step in and put a halt to the proceedings.

"No, it's not a question of making moral judgements. Or even stopping a chap having his fun just for the hell of it. I don't care and the hotel doesn't care what goes on in the bedrooms — provided both parties are registered guests.

"But when a chap's booked in a single room, then starts using it as a double well, for a start he's cheating the hotel of the extra five or six pounds that a double would have cost him. And the fact that the girl's not registered makes the whole thing against the law anyway. Strictly speaking i the hotel could get copped for taking part in the management of a brothel or running a disorderly house.

"Of course there are lots of ifs and buts two or more rooms would have to be involved and it would have to be proved that we knew the girls were on the game but there's a real case to be made out.

."Not, mark you, that I. think it would ever come to that."

Being an ex-cop himself and only a comparatively recent recruit to the hotel trade, he probably thinks right. The law is extraordinarily obscure on such points.

But perhaps because of his remaining loyalties to.the constabulary whence he came, it is apparent that he relishes the theory. And would thoroughly enjoy a test case in which his hotel wasn't in volved, of course.. • ' "But that's not the only trouble you have with letting the girls in. Most of the regulars are pretty decent, just looking for their price and a bit extra thrown in for good measure. But you get others girls that just come on the scene every now and again. I don't know perhaps they use other hotels as well. Or just come out when they need the loot. Regardless, these are the ones which end up causing me trouble.

"The thing is, they're not satisfied to play it straight. They want their bread buttered on both sides and round the crusts as well. So what they do is pocket their fee, promise to stay for a few hours, then when the punter is fast asleep roll him for the rest of his wallet. Then they do a bunk down the backstairs.

"The result is that next morning I get the call from the guest and he always starts off by saying his room was burgled during the night. Well, you've got to be tactful about this. You can't just say to him outright, 'Did you have a bit of crumpet up here last night, sir?' I mean, he might not have and whether he has or not he'll take offence and threaten to report you for even thinking such a thing of him a perfectly respectable married man with a wife and five kids in Scunthorpe, or Tokyo, or Berlin ..

"No, you've got to wheedle him on a bit, get his confidence with asking all sorts of the usual questions. Is he sure about the amount stolen? Did he spend much last night. Was he in the bar at all? Did he meet any friends in the hotel? Did anyone come to his room to collect something? Anything like that. And having done your bit of probing that way and still got nothing to show, just close your notebook and tell him it's obviously a case for the police and,you'll go phone them right now. Would he mind waiting in until the Chief Detective Superintendent gets here?

"It's generally about the time you get to the door to go out that he comes clean just like he's suddenly remembered' something. So you do your bit of tut-tutting then, but promise to keep his confidence and not say another dickey-bird to a living soul.

"But you go on watching him for as long as he stays. The trouble with punters like him is they just won't learn from experience.

"And even if you've collected some kind of description of the girl involved you can be pretty sure that she won't be in for another few weeks as though you'd recognise her if she were!

"No, this job is not so much a 'detective job as a diplomatic one. You've got to keep both the man

agement and the guests happy, the tills clicking and the girls under control.

"But as I said before, it's nigh on impossible to keep them out altogether. And when you do, you lose trade and get trouble with your , chambermaids.

"So ideally what we'd really like though of course I shouldn't admit this is for the girls to use the bar during the evenings for a bit of discreet picking up, then at closing time take their ruddy punters' somewhere off the premises for a bit of fun and games."

He winked again.

"That way everyone would be : happy. And I could go back to obviously turning a blind eye."

Which remark seems to indicate that some hotels, like some girls, j also want their bread buttered on both sides and round the crusts , as well.

lain Scarlet is author of The Professionals: Prostitutes and Their Clients.