Beauty Queen

Disciple got some money together and bought the whole library. They're fixing up a room for the books. Soon as they've got them catalogued, people can go up there and start using them again."
    As usual, Sam escorted her to the stripped Cadillac to show her how Miss Beautiful's kittens were coming along.
    At Murphy's Coffee House, Jewel was bitter, and hardly able to talk about the vote. She hadn't been sent to the walk-by. But she hadn't dared to join it as a protester either.
    "The rumor is," she said, "that the Police Department did its usual lobbying number, and leaned on the council to vote against the bill. And of course that Colter bitch didn't help us much."
    Jewel bit savagely into a Danish.
    "And another rumor is," she said, "that five hundred cops are gonna be laid off pretty soon."
    Mary Ellen felt a giddy rush of nervousness. She tried to tell herself that they wouldn't dare lay her off.
    "Seems somebody made a few mistakes in the city budget," Jewel said. "The money to pay the salaries of these five hundred police officers is just not there. My boss is so upset about it," she added, "that he's hardly said a word about the gay bill."
    At home that night, Danny dropped by and visited with her and Liv for a while.
    Danny was deeply depressed, but full of news.
    "Armando says the latest talk is a city-wide gay boycott. The walk-by was so successful, I guess it went to their heads."
    "Do you think it will work?"
    "Dunno." Danny shrugged. "It worked for the blacks in Alabama. Mainly because they organized a lot of car pools and stuck to it for ten months or something. Here ... I don't know. Armando says one guy came up with a brilliant idea. To organize co-ops that would buy things for gay people out of town—cigarettes, booze, groceries, everything. That way gay people wouldn't pay the city sales tax."
    "Then New York would go broke."
    "Probably," said Danny. "But sooner or later the city is going to go broke in any case."
    It was just two days later that Mary Ellen received the curtly worded notice that she was being laid off the New York City police force.
    Chapter 9
    Mary Ellen and Liv were stunned. They sat at their kitchen table, and Liv read and reread the notice while Mary Ellen sat with her arms folded and stared at the wall.
    "But, Mary Ellen, what will you do?" Liv finally asked.
    Mary Ellen could hardly talk.
    "Well," she said in a stifled voice, "there are probably two alternatives. Sometimes they offer you a substitute job as a corrections officer, or you can move to another city and get a job on another police force." After a moment she added, "And I don't want to be a corrections officer."
    Liv sat silent. She reached across the table and held Mary Ellen's hand, which lay inert in hers, unable to respond.
    "I can't believe it," said Mary Ellen. "I'm the only woman patrol sergeant in Manhattan. I've done good work. This is gonna make them look very bad in court when the women's lawsuit gets there. They have to have me around. So... why? Why let me go?"
    "Maybe," said Liv, "that nasty Colter lady knows what kind of person you live with?"
    Mary Ellen shook her head. "There were rumors of layoffs before Colter started making her noises."
    Once Liv had voiced the idea, however, it was hard to shake off.
    When she knew Danny was off duty, Mary Ellen called him. He wasn't home. She called the Steel Spike.
    "Yeah, he's here," said Lenny. "He's drunk and mad as a bull. He got laid off his truck job."
    "Is Armando there?"
    "Yeah."
    "Have Armando bring him to my place, and we'll calm him down."
    Mary Ellen's head was reeling. The monstrous suspicion was becoming a possible certainty. She called Jewel.
    Jewel's flat, half-choked voice coming over the telephone wires told the story.
    "Guess what?" she said bitterly. "I'll be going to work in Murphy's as a waitress."
    Inside Mary Ellen's head, the stunned state of shock was rapidly giving way to pain and anger.
    "Listen, Jewel, there's two others who bought it. Me and Danny Blackburn. I have this creepy feeling about the whole thing. Danny and his lover are at the Steel Spike. Why don't you come over to our place?"
    Jewel said she'd come.
    Now Mary Ellen's thoughts turned to Sam Rauch. What about his job status now? Sam had probably never done anything more gay than visit the Mattachine library. But she decided to check Sam out. Before Jewel, Danny and Armando came, she'd have time to race over to Pier 36. If Sam was still working, he'd be on duty by