The Door to December

conspiracy? But then why would they have killed Dylan and Hoffritz if Dylan was working for them?'
     Earl didn't even hesitate. 'Maybe they didn't do the killing. In fact, it's highly unlikely. But maybe your husband's research was leading toward a major breakthrough with military applications, and maybe because of that, the other side had him wasted.'
     'Other side?'
     He was watching the street once more. 'Foreign agents.'
     'The Soviet Union went kaput. Maybe you heard. It was in all the newspapers.'
     'The Russians are still there, and we're a long way from being best buddies with them. Then there's China. Iran and Iraq and Libya. There's never a shortage of enemies in the world. Power-mad men are always with us.'
     'This is crazy,' she protested.
     'Why?'
     'Secret agents, spy stuff, international intrigue ... Ordinary people don't get mixed up in that stuff except in the movies.'
     'That's just it. Your husband wasn't ordinary people,' Earl said. 'Neither was Hoffritz.'
     She couldn't look away from this man who was undergoing such a profound metamorphosis — aging, hardening — before her eyes. She repeated the question that he had not answered before. 'All this speculation ... you couldn't have thought about any of it unless you knew my husband's field, his personality, the kind of work he might be doing. How do you know all this about Dylan? I didn't tell you any of it.
     'Dan Haldane told me.'
     'The detective? When?'
     'When he called me. Just before noon.'
     'But I didn't even hire your firm until after one o'clock.'
     'Dan said he'd give you our card, make sure you called us. He wanted us to understand all the possible ramifications of the case right from the start.'
     'But he never told me there might be FBI agents and, for God's sake, Russians involved.'
     'He doesn't know they're involved, Doctor McCaffrey. He just realized there was the possibility that these murders had more than local significance. He didn't go into it much with you, because he didn't want to worry you unnecessarily.'
     'Christ.'
     The mad, seductive murmur of paranoia swelled in her mind again. She felt trapped in an elaborate web of conspiracies.
     'Better go look after Melanie,' Earl said.
     Outside, a Chevy sedan drove slowly along the street. The car stopped beside the phone-company van, then pulled forward and parked in front of it. Two men got out.
     'Ours,' Earl said.
     'Paladin agents?'
     'Yeah. I called the office a while ago, after I decided the van was a surveillance operation, asked them to send some guys to check it out 'cause I didn't want to go over there myself and leave you two alone.'
     The two men who got out of the Chevy went to opposite sides of the van.
     'Better go see about Melanie,' Earl repeated.
     'She's okay.'
     'Then at least step back from the window.'
     'Why?'
     'Because I'm paid to take risks, and you aren't. And I warned you at the start you'd have to do what I told you to do.'
     She retreated from the window, but she didn't move completely away from it. She wanted to see what was happening at the phone-company van.
     One of the Paladin agents was still at the driver's door. The other man had gone around to the rear of the van.
     'If they're federal agents, there won't be any shooting,' she said. 'Not even if they want Melanie.'
     'That's right,' Earl agreed. 'We'd have to give her up.'
     'No,' she said, alarmed.
     'Yes, I'm afraid we wouldn't have a choice. They're the law. But then at least we'd know who had her, and we could fight to get her back through the courts. But like I said, these guys might not be feds.'
     'And if they're ... someone else?' she asked, unable to bring herself to say 'Russians.'
     'Then it might get nasty.'
     His large, strong hand curled tightly around the revolver.
     Laura looked past him, out the window, which was streaked and spotted from the previous night's rain.
     The late-afternoon sunlight painted the street in shades of brass and copper.
     Squinting, she saw one of the rear doors swing open on the phone-company van.
    19
    Dan left the pathology department but took only a few steps along the hall before a thought stopped him. He