The Door to December

no' — and with deep, quaverous gasps.
     'Shut up, kid,' Wexlersh said, lightly slapping her face.
     Her whimpering subsided, but she wasn't silenced altogether.
     Laura wanted to go to the girl, hug her, hold her close, but for her own sake, and Melanie's, she had to stay where she was.
     The room was definitely cold and getting colder.
     Laura remembered how the kitchen had grown frigid just before the radio had come to life. And again just before the wind-thing had thrown open the door and surged in from the darkness....
     Wexlersh said, 'Don't they have heat in this damned place?'
     'There!' Manuello said, finally screwing the silencer onto the barrel of the gun.
     Colder ...
     Holstering his own revolver now that his partner was at last ready to do the deed, grabbing Melanie by one arm and pulling her out of the way, Wexlersh edged backward toward the front door of the apartment.
     Colder ...
     Laura was electrified, charged with tension and anticipation. Something was about to happen. Something strange. Manuello stepped closer to Earl, who regarded him with more contempt than terror.
     The temperature of the room plunged precipitously now, and behind Wexlersh and Melanie the apartment door flew open with a crash—
     But nothing supernatural burst into the room. It was Dan Haldane. He came through the door fast, even as he opened it. He took in the situation with remarkable alacrity and jammed his revolver into Wexlersh's back as that detective was starting to swing toward the door.
     Manuello spun around, but Haldane said, 'Drop it! Drop it, you bastard, or I'll blow you away.'
     Manuello hesitated, probably not because he was worried about his partner getting killed, but because it was clear that Wexlersh's body would stop the first bullet meant for Dan, and because it was equally clear that Manuello wouldn't have a chance to fire twice before Dan took his head off. He glanced at Melanie too, as though calculating the chances of leaping toward her, grabbing her. But when Dan shouted at him again — 'Drop it!' — Manuello finally conceded the game and let the silencer-equipped pistol fall to the floor.
     'He's got Earl's gun,' Laura warned Dan.
     'And his own service revolver too,' Earl said.
     Keeping a grip on Wexlersh's coat, the revolver still jammed hard in the man's back, Dan said, 'Okay, Manuello, get rid of the other two pieces, slow and easy. No funny stuff.'
     One at a time, Manuello rid himself of the weapons, then backed across the room and stood against the wall, as Dan directed.
     Laura came forth to gather up the three firearms while Dan relieved Wexlersh of his service revolver.
     'Why the hell is it so cold in here?' Dan asked.
     But even as he voiced the question, the air grew warm again as swiftly as it had turned frigid.
     Something almost happened, Laura thought. Something like what happened in the kitchen at our house earlier. But she didn't think that they had been about to get just another warning. Not this time. No, this would have been worse. She had the unsettling feeling that It had been within seconds of making an appearance.
     Dan was looking at her strangely, as if he knew that she had an answer for him.
     But she couldn't speak. She didn't know how to put it into words that would make any sense at all to him. She knew only that, if It had come, the slaughter here would have been far worse than any that the two corrupt detectives had been planning. If It had come, would they all have wound up like the battered, torn, and mangled bodies in the house in Studio City?
    29
    In the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center, Earl was admitted for immediate treatment of his scalp wound and split lips.
     Laura and Melanie waited in the lounge adjacent to the emergency admitting desk while Dan went to the nearest pay phone. He called the East Valley Division number and got Ross Mondale's extension.
     'Working late, aren't you, Ross?'
     'Haldane?'
     'Didn't know you were so industrious.'
     'What do you want, Haldane?'
     'World peace would be nice.'
     'I'm not in the mood for—'
     'But I guess I'd settle for a solution to this case.'
     'Listen, Haldane, I'm busy here, and I—'
     'You're going to be even busier,