Heaven and scores of other prostitutes who linger in this seaside town of glittery casinos and seedy motels know they’re playing a game far more risky than anything inside the casinos.
Death has stared them in the face since four decayed bodies were found in a drainage ditch three weeks ago. All the victims were women. Three were known to Atlantic City police as prostitutes.
A task force of local cops, state police and the FBI has descended on the slimiest sections of the city to trace the steps of a possible serial killer.
“Sometimes I think to myself, ‘I am going to die tonight,’ ” Heaven, alone on her rooming-house bed, said in a recent interview. “Sometimes I am scared. Sometimes I don’t give a f—. It is just a risk that I take.”
In this city of extremes, the class system is apparent even in vice. Some expensive, upper-class prostitutes work the casinos.
On the next rung down are women like Heaven. She’s a street hustler, but she sticks close to the casinos and charges $250 to $500 a trick. She is careful about whom she takes as a client.
At the bottom are the “crack hos,” drug-addicted women who sell themselves on the street for $10 or $20 a trick, just enough for their next high. Pure survival.
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