The Door to December

reluctance to make a plain denial of that implication.'
     'No. I haven't sold out to anyone, anywhere, at any time. No, nyet , negative, definitely not. Is that plain enough for you?'
     Seames didn't answer. Instead, he said, 'Anyway, when the surveillance team lost Benton, they drove right back here to wait, to see if the woman and girl would return, or whether maybe somebody else would show up. As an afterthought, they came to have a look around the house, found the door the way you found it — and this weird mess.'
     Dan said, 'What about the mess? What do you make of it?'
     'The flowers are from the garden in the back.'
     But what're they doing here? Who brought them inside?'
     'We can't figure it.'
     'And why's the security chain been torn out of the door?'
     'Looks like somebody forced their way inside,' Seames said.
     'Really? Gee, you Bureau guys don't miss a trick.'
     'I'm at a loss to understand your attitude.'
     'So is everyone else.'
     'Your lack of cooperation.'
     'I'm just a very bad boy.' Dan went to the telephone, and Seames wanted to know what he was doing, and Dan said, 'Calling Paladin. If Earl felt Laura and Melanie were in danger here, he might've moved them in a hurry, the way you say he did, but when he got wherever he was going, he'd call his office and tell them where he was.'
     The night operator at California Paladin, Lonnie Beamer, knew Dan well enough to recognize his voice. 'Yeah, Lieutenant, Earl took them to the safe house.'
     Lonnie seemed to think Dan knew the address of that place, which he didn't. Earl had spoken of it a few times, when he'd been telling tales about various cases on which he'd worked, but if he had ever said exactly where the safe house was, Dan had forgotten. He could not ask Lonnie Beamer for the address without alerting Seames, who was watching intently. He'd have to call the night operator again from another phone, once he had slipped away from the FBI agent.
     On the phone, Lonnie said, 'But they probably won't be there much longer.'
     'Why not?'
     'Haven't you heard? Mrs. McCaffrey and the kid won't be needing our protection anymore — though she hasn't decided to let us go just yet. She may want us to hang around too, but for the most part, you people are taking over for us. You're giving them police protection.'
     'Are you serious?'
     'Yeah,' Lonnie said. 'Around-the-clock police protection. Right now, Earl's over there in Westwood, at the safe house, waiting for a couple of your people to show up and take the McCaffreys off his hands. They'll probably be there any minute.'
     'Who?'
     'Uh ... let's see ... Captain Mondale ordered the protection, and Earl's been told to relinquish our clients to Detectives Wexlersh and Manuello.'
     Something was wrong. Very wrong. The department was too shorthanded to provide around-the-clock protection even in a case like this. And Ross wouldn't have called Paladin himself; that was always delegated to assistants. Besides, if protection were to be offered, it would be in the form of uniformed officers, not vitally needed plainclothes detectives who were in even shorter supply than patrolmen.
     And why Wexlersh and Manuello, in particular?
     'So you might as well stay there in Sherman Oaks,' Lonnie said, 'because I imagine your people will bring the McCaffreys straight back there.'
     Dan wanted to know more, but he couldn't talk freely with Seames breathing down his neck. He said, 'Well, thanks anyway, Lonnie. But I think it's inexcusable that you don't know where your operative is or what's happening to your clients.'
     'Huh? But I just said he was—'
     'I've always thought Paladin was the best, but if you can't keep track of your agents and your clients, especially clients whose lives might be in jeopardy—'
     Lonnie said, 'What's wrong with you, Haldane?'
     'Sure, sure,' Dan said for Seames's benefit, 'they're probably safe. I know Earl's a good man, and I'm sure he won't let anything happen to them, but you better start running a tighter ship there or, sooner or later, something will happen to a client, and then there goes the whole agency's license.'
     Lonnie started to say something more, but Dan hung up. He was desperate to get away from there, to find another phone and