The Door to December

emergency-room physician suggested that Earl stay overnight for observation, but in spite of the drubbing that he had taken, Earl resisted. He wanted to return to the safe house and make a statement to the police, thereby pounding a few nails into a tandem coffin for Wexlersh and Manuello.
     They had all come to the hospital in Dan's car, but now Dan didn't want to go back to the safe house. He didn't want Laura and Melanie to be near any other cops, so they called a taxi for Earl.
     'Don't wait with me,' Earl said. 'You guys get out of here.'
     'We might as well wait,' Dan said, 'because we've got a few things to talk over anyway.'
     Without discussing it, they grouped around Melanie, shielding her. They stood just inside the front entrance of the medical center, where they could see the rain-lashed night and the place where the taxi would pull up. Half the fluorescent lights in the lobby were switched off, for it was well after visiting hours, and the other half cast fuzzy bars of cold, unpleasant light across the large room. The air smelled vaguely of rose-scented disinfectant. Except for the four of them, the place was deserted.
     'You want Paladin to send someone out here to take over from me?' Earl asked.
     'No,' Dan said.
     'Didn't think you would.'
     'Paladin's damned good,' Dan said, 'and I've never had reason to doubt their integrity, and I still don't have reason—'
     'But, in this particular case, you don't trust anyone at Paladin any more than you trust anyone on the police force,' Earl said.
     'Except you,' Laura said. 'We know we can trust you, Earl. Without you, Melanie and I would be dead.'
     'Don't credit me with anything heroic,' Earl said. 'I was plain stupid. I opened the door to Manuello.'
     'But you had no way of knowing—'
     'But I opened the door,' Earl said, and the expression of self-disgust on his face was unmistakable in spite of the way his injuries distorted his features.
     Laura could see why Dan and Earl were friends. They shared a devotion to their work, a strong sense of duty, and a tendency to be excessively self-critical. Those were qualities seldom found in a world that seemed daily to put more stock in cynicism, selfishness, and self-indulgence.
     To Earl, Dan said, 'I'll find a motel, get a room, and hole up there with Laura and Melanie the rest of the night. I thought of taking them back to my place, but someone might be expecting me to do just that.'
     'And tomorrow?' Earl asked.
     'There're several people I want to see—'
     'Can I help?'
     'If you feel up to it when you get out of bed in the morning.'
     'I'll feel up to it,' Earl assured him.
     Dan said, 'There's a woman named Mary Katherine O'Hara, in Burbank. She's secretary of an organization called Freedom Now.' He gave Earl the address and outlined the information he wanted from O'Hara. 'I also need to find out about a company called John Wilkes Enterprises. Who are its officers, majority stockholders?'
     'Is it a California corporation?' Earl asked.
     'Most likely,' Dan said. 'I need to know when the incorporation papers were filed, by whom, what business they're supposed to be in.'
     'How's this John Wilkes outfit come into it?' Earl asked, which was something Laura wondered about too.
     'It'll take a while to explain,' Dan said. 'I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Let's get together for a late lunch, say one o'clock, and try to make something out of the information we've gathered.'
     'Yeah, I should have dug up what you want by then,' Earl said. He suggested a coffee shop in Van Nuys because, he said, it was a place in which he had never seen anyone from Paladin.
     'It's not a cop hangout, either,' Dan said. 'Sounds good.'
     'Here's your cab,' Laura said as headlights swept across the glass doors and briefly sparkled in the raindrops that quivered on those panes.
     Earl looked down at Melanie and said, 'Well, princess, can you give me a smile before I go?'
     The girl peered up at him, but Laura saw that her eyes were still strange, distant.
     'I'm warning you,' Earl said, 'I'm going to hang around and bother you until you finally give me a smile.'
     Melanie just stared.
     To Laura, Earl said, 'Keep your chin up. Okay? It's going to work