The Door to December

you'll be completely ruined. I'll see to it. I'll personally guarantee it. You're half ruined now, but if you keep coming after them, you won't even remain a captain. I'll bring you down all the way. No matter who put you up to this, no matter how powerful and influential he is, he won't be able to save your ass if you try to touch the McCaffreys again. He won't be able to save you from me. You get the picture?'
     Silence. But it was a silence with an emotional quality now, and the emotion it radiated was hatred.
     Dan said, 'I still have to worry about the FBI, and I have to worry about whoever was financing Dylan McCaffrey and Willy Hoffritz, because somebody out there wants that little girl real bad, but I'll be damned if I'm going to keep worrying about you, Ross. Tonight, you're going to relinquish your place on the special task force and hand the whole case over to someone else until you've cleared up this cloud of suspicion hanging over Wexlersh and Manuello. Understand? I'm not suggesting this, Ross. I'm telling you.'
     'You shithead.'
     'Sticks and stones. Listen good — if you don't say what I want to hear, Ross, I'm going to hang up, and when I hang up, it's too late for you to change your mind.'
     Silence.
     'Well ... good-bye, Ross.'
     'Wait.'
     'Sorry, got to go.'
     All right, all right. I agree.
     'What?'
     'What you said.'
     'Make it plainer.'
     'I'll take myself off the case.'
     'Very wise.'
     'I'll even take a week of sick leave.'
     'Ahhh, not feeling well?'
     Mondale said, 'I'll get out of this, walk away from it, but I want something from you.'
     'What?'
     'I don't want Benton or you or the McCaffreys giving any statements about Wexlersh and Manuello.'
     'Fat chance.'
     'I mean it.'
     'Nonsense. The only way we have a hold on you is if we get those two creeps booked for attempted murder.'
     'Okay. Let Benton give his statement. But in a couple days, when you feel the McCaffreys are safe, then Benton retracts his accusations.'
     'He'd look like a fool.'
     'No, no. He can say someone else beat him up and that he took a bad knock on the head, he was confused and he mistakenly accused Wexlersh and Manuello. In a couple days, he can say his head cleared and then he remembered what really happened. He can say it was some other bum who beat on him and that Wexlersh and Manuello actually saved his ass.'
     'You're in no position to demand anything from me, Ross.'
     'Goddammit, if you don't give me an out, a glimpse of light, then I don't have any reason for playing along with you.'
     'Maybe. But if we're bargaining, then I want something else too. I want the name of the man who got to you, Ross.'
     'No'.
     'Who wants the girl, Ross? Tell me, and we've got a deal.'
     'No.'
     'Who convinced you to use Wexlersh and Manuello this way?'
     'Impossible. I tell you, and I'm really finished. I'm dog meat. I'd rather go down now, fighting, than rat on anybody and maybe wind up like those bodies in Studio City — or worse. I give you the McCaffreys, and after a few days, you give me Wexlersh and Manuello. That's the deal.'
     'You've got to at least tell me if he's the one who financed the work in that gray room.'
     'I think so.'
     'Is he government?'
     'Maybe.'
     'You have to do better.'
     'I just don't know. He's the kind of guy who could be a conduit for the government, or maybe he financed it himself.'
     'Rich?'
     'I'm not giving you his name, and I'm not giving you so many details you could guess his name. Hell, I'd be signing my own death warrant.'
     Dan thought a moment. Then: 'He say anything about what they were trying to prove in that gray room?'
     'No.'
     'This guy, this one who got to you, this one who financed that crazy research ... is he doing the killing, Ross?'
     Silence.
     'Is he, Ross? Come on. Don't be afraid to talk. You've already said too much. I'm not insisting on his name, but I've got to have an answer to this one. Is he responsible for Scaldone and those bodies in Studio City?'
     'No, no. Just the opposite. He's scared that he's going to be the next target.'
     'Well, who's he afraid of?'
     'I don't think