FICTION

EXPOSURE

PART II

Continued From TVia #89

Dee Raymond

Eddie was returning to the dressing room, three sherries within him, his groin aching from the Allison massage, when a middle-aged woman came raging toward him, tears in her eyes. She rushed on through the club, cutting a wide swan through the tables. In the dressing room, Deirdre, a scratch down his cheek, his dress torn, his masculinity revealed, and a small scratched breast hanging out of his torn bra, was weeping in Diane's arms. "I didn't know," she sobbed, "how could I know? It wasn't my fault, really it wasnt."

"What's the matter?" Eddie asked of Karen, who was standing there in a white bridal gown complete with long train.

"Oh," Karen's voice was shaken. "Some woman who's been shacking up with Deirdre. Her husband was being blackmailed because of it and he kicked himself off. She said Deirdre was just using her." She broke off suddenly. "Hey," she said quietly. "Please don't tell anyone I told you. We're not supposed to discuss anything to do with sex partners outside the club with new girls."

Deirdre was being hustled away by Diane and Annie. As she left the room, Eddie saw Allison go hurrying after them down the hallway, her face a mask of fury. With care and thought Eddie stripped off his female clothing and left as quietly as he could. There were any number of leads to follow up and Roscoe Ward should be highly pleased with his night's work.

Cissy proved to be very difficult to corner but Eddie finally did it two nights later in the "Girls" bathroom. Cissy was fliffling her hair, before she left for the night. "Kiki tells me I should talk to you," he said, standing beside her, checking his false eyelashes, even though his act was over.

"Wh-why?" Cissy was the most nervous and anxious of the queens. Her song-and-dance was so lackluster that Karen had sneered when she was performing. "Cissy'll soon be off to Betty's with the way she's performing," producing a nervous laugh from Diane, whose own per- formance had suffered with Deirdre incapacitated.