James Patterson - Filthy Rich

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D:Did he ever hurt you?

V:Sometimes he got violent, yeah.

D:Violent as in what? As in-

V:He pulled my hair a lot harder than it should have been pulled. Like, he-okay, I can understand having sex, and you’re all, like, not-not that we were having sex, but I mean, like, if you’re all into it and you pull hair a little bit, like, my ponytails-just like a little bit, whatever. But he would pull it to where it would rip my hair out. It would rip my hair, and then sometimes he would pick me up and, like, throw me whichever way he wanted me, and then he would just like use a toy or, like, his hand or whatever. Never his penis, though, ever. I never had sex with him. But um-I’m little, so he could pick me up. Like, if you pick me up and throw, obviously it’s gonna hurt…

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I mean, there’s been nights that I walked out of there barely able to walk, um, from him being so rough. But nothing really-nothing specific that he really got violent with. Like, I can’t really recall.

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Nothing that I went to the doctor for, no. I mean, I remember getting tore up a few times, but it was nothing that-

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D:This is getting real personal, but were you active before him?

V:What, like, had I had sex? Yeah [laughs].

D:Okay.

V:Um. But honest, I mean, I’m not-I’m not a ho. I’ve had only three steady boyfriends, and those are the only three that I’ve ever done anything with. And they were all with me for over a year. So it’s not like I just go and hook up at parties.

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Like, I’ve gotten thousands of dollars’ worth of shit. Man, the underwear I’m wearing right now he gave me. Like, I’d-I’d go over there and there’d be a bag of Victoria’s Secret underwear, like, waiting for me, like, talking, like, fifteen hundred dollars’ worth of stuff. I got a plane ticket from him once. I got a car, I got Christmas bonuses, I got movie tickets. Like, he’d buy me movie tickets-like, he’d say, “Hey, have you gone to the movies lately?” I’d be like, “I dunno, oh-not really,” [and] he goes, “Do you want to go?” He’d give me, like, eight movie tickets. I got show tickets; I went and saw, like, David Copperfield. I had, like, VIP tickets or something like that.

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I need to show you, like, what I’m talking about, like, the positioning that we were-it was like, okay, here’s the thing: there’s the, like, little flower thing, then here’s the massage table. I was right here, he was right here, [and] she was here. Um. And I was standing up, and he just pushed me over the table, and he did his thing with me.

D:Okay. Were you facing the table? Were you?

V:I was. I was facedown on the table. Like, facedown, hands, like, on my head, holding-I don’t, I don’t mean-I wasn’t fighting, really. So I don’t know if he was holding me down to kinda stop me from fighting or what he was doing. He’s just a really weird-he’s into really weird stuff. Like, I was just bent over, and my face was on the table. I was facedown on the table. And then he did his thing. So. But anyway, [redacted] was right here, and I’m pretty sure she was naked, and the couch is, like, right behind, but, um, that’s how it happened…He was only in me for, like, a minute or two. I don’t even know if you could say that long. He put it in, did a couple of pumps, or whatever the fuck you wanna call it, and I was like, “What are you doing?” [giggles] I go, “What are you doing?” He’s like, “Oh, I just wanted [redacted] to see this.” Then that was that.

Wendy Dobbs: October 3, 2005

Every chance he gets-and he gets lots of chances-Chief Reiter drills the same thing into his investigators’ heads: they need to be careful. Patient. Methodical. Strategic. Or Epstein’s lawyers will eat them for lunch.

Inch by inch, they move their case toward the goalpost. But in October, Detective Recarey and his coworkers catch a break that moves the ball several yards down the field.

On the first Monday of that month, they pick Wendy up at her house and, down at the police station, she starts to sing-like a bird .

The detectives can hardly believe it or get it all down fast enough. Later on, in a probable-cause affidavit, Detective Recarey will write:

Approximately two years ago, just after she turned 17 years of age, [Wendy] was approached by a friend named Molly at the Canopy Beach Resort in Riviera Beach. [Dobbs] was asked if she wanted to make money. She was told she would have to provide a massage and should make $200. [Dobbs] thought about the offer and agreed to meet with Jeffrey.

Molly (Unknown last name) and Tony (Unknown last name) picked [Dobbs] up and she was taken to Epstein’s house. Upon her arrival to the house she was introduced to Epstein in the kitchen of the house. She was also introduced to a white female known to her as Sarah. She was led upstairs to the main bedroom known to her as Jeff Epstein’s bedroom.

Sarah arranged the massage table and covered the table with a sheet. She brought out the massage oils and laid them next to the massage bed. Sarah then left the room and informed [Dobbs] Jeff would be in, in a minute. Jeff entered the bedroom wearing only a towel.

He removed the towel and laid nude on the massage table. He laid on the table onto his stomach and picked a massage oil for [Dobbs] to rub on him.

“He tried to touch me, and I stopped him,” says Dobbs.

I asked how he tried to touch her. [Dobbs] stated that Epstein grabbed her buttocks and she felt uncomfortable.

“I’ll massage you,” Dobbs had told Epstein. “But I don’t want to be touched.”

[Dobbs] stated she performed the massage naked. At the conclusion of the massage, Epstein paid [Dobbs] $200.

After the massage Epstein stated to [Dobbs] that he understood she was not comfortable, but he would pay her if she brought over some girls. He told her the younger the better. [Dobbs] stated she once tried to bring a 23-year-old female and Epstein stated that the female was too old. [Dobbs] stated that in total she only remembers six girls that she brought to see Epstein. Each time she was paid $200. [Dobbs] said at the time she brought these girls to Epstein’s house they were all 14 through 16 [years] of age.

Wendy Dobbs keeps talking. What she says about Mary’s visit lines up neatly with what Mary’s already told the police. Wendy’s own experience with Epstein syncs up, too. But Wendy’s not a victim, as Mary is. After all, she’s been playing on Epstein’s team. Team predator .

A police sergeant enters the room. What he wants to know is, does Wendy realize that she’s implicated herself in Epstein’s crimes?

Beads of sweat form on Wendy’s forehead, and now the police know they’ve really got her. She gives them phone numbers to go with the young girls she’s named. She provides addresses. But no, Wendy doesn’t quite get it. On the way home, in a police car, she brags in the backseat:

“I’m like a Heidi Fleiss,” she tells the escorting officers.

Wendy Dobbs, interview with Detective Recarey and Sergeant Frick, October 3, 2005, transcribed from video (excerpts)

RECAREY: Okay. Your Pepsi’s coming, my Pepsi’s coming. First of all, I know you’re freaking out. Don’t freak out, just relax. Okay? I want to thank you for coming. All right? Though the door’s closed, you’re free to go at any time. You’re not here-you know, it’s only closed for our privacy.

DOBBS: That’s fine.

RECAREY: I understand that you may have information on a case that we’re looking into, okay? That’s the reason why I brought you here today. All right? And again, you’re here voluntarily. You agreed to come back with us and talk to us. But I do want to talk you about Jeff Epstein, and the whole…thing.