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tonight.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    I stood before the double wide, copper entrance to Club Jaded Edge , a converted Seattle warehouse close to the waterfront, grappling with my nerves. The damp night air was doing nothing good to my Dolly Parton makeup. If I put off entering much longer —
    "'Bout time you showed up, girl." Apollo appeared at my side like a bouncy, flashy apparition.
    I almost wet my pants. I swore and glared bug-eyed at him. "What the hell are you doing here? You promised you'd go home and stay there."
    Nervous energy sparked off of Apollo. "I went home, but it felt wrong. I couldn't miss your special night. Your debut. First time undercover. First time in a gay bar. Oh, stop frowning, you'll end up more wrinkled than a limp dick."
    I sighed, resigned. Containing Apollo was like trying to bottle a genie without a cork. "You better stick to me."
    "Like Velcro." He laughed, and my stomach clenched.
    The beat of the live band playing inside, the boom of the bass bouncing off the aged brick and reclaimed pilings, had my foot tapping happily, in complete disregard to my anxiety.
    Apollo said, "You're about to lose your gay-bar virginity."
    "Seems like there should be a ceremony to commemorate this moment," I said.
    "You mean, like a bar mitzvah or a Confirmation?"
    Or a fairy dust sprinkling dance . "Yeah, something like that."
    "Get over yourself." His nervous hands gave me one last swipe. "There. Rock star. Now, show us some Crest Whites."
    My mouth muscles wobbled. "I can't shake the feeling something awful is going to happen if we cross that threshold."
    "Only thing you're dreading is straddling a urinal."
    Yeah, there was that, but it was only part of my nerves. My goal for tonight's investigation: Find out how Stone was using Lars' life partner Bruce to help catch the BBK.
    An awful thought struck me. "What if Stone is here?"
    "Stone? Why would he be here?"
    Oops . "No reason. He wouldn't."
    "You have Stone on the brain."
    Too true.
    "You need to get over that man — or under him."
    Again, too true.
    "It's opening night jitters."
    "You're right. This is my first real undercover investigation. I should be nervous." Especially since there was a real possibility I might rub shoulders — or something — with a serial killer.
    And Stone. Though Stone didn't really bother me. I could handle him. Probably. Maybe.
    Besides, chances he'd be here tonight were fifty/fifty. Thirty/seventy, even.
    Why not zero/zero?
    Apollo grabbed my purse. "You did remember the tools of your trade, yes?"
    "Why don't you check?" As though he weren't already doing that.
    "Digital camera, cell phone, recorder. All here."
    "Too bad you didn't find Valium or chocolate." Or tequila. I reclaimed my clutch. "How am I going to carry this off? With my wits? My experience? My non-existent brass balls?"
    "You'll think of something."
    That was the problem, I would.
    He pulled me inside to a foyer that might have been lifted from a forties movie palace, every detail art deco — in shades of gold and turquoise with marble flooring.
    Lively music and jubilant customers beckoned from the lounge beyond, but Apollo insisted on introducing me to the current performers — via their life-sized publicity posters. Bruce was the only one I recognized because he looked enough like Britney Spears to be her clone.
    "And this is the late Jade Edger." Reverence reverberated in his voice. A whole wall bore framed images encased in glass of the late Jade Edger decked out as Liza, Barbra, Bette, Cher, Madonna, and Tina.
    Apollo said, "Some memorial, huh?"
    I couldn't answer due to a sudden surge of hatred for HIV and AIDS and the damage it inflicts on the lives of so many in the gay community and the world beyond. With a knot in my throat the size of a microphone, I dropped a ten spot in the AIDS research jar beneath the last Jade photo, one taken without makeup and in the late days of his battle to survive the combination of diseases that ravaged his body.
    "Come on,