The Door to December

a Sony AM-FM with a clock, and when it snapped on all by itself, it was tuned to KRLA, where she had set the dial the last time that she'd used it. Bonnie Tyler was singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart.'
     Earl had put down his paper. He was standing again.
     Laura stared at the radio in disbelief.
     Of its own accord, the volume knob began to rotate to the right. She could see it moving.
     Bonnie Tyler's throaty voice grew louder, louder.
     Earl said, 'What the hell?'
     Melanie drifted unaware in her private darkness.
     The voice of Bonnie Tyler and the music enfolding her words now bounced back and forth off the kitchen walls and made the windows rattle in a way that the 'earthquake' hadn't done.
     Aware that a chill had settled over the room once more, Laura took a step toward the radio.
     In another part of the house, Pepper was screeching again.
    * * *
    As Dan was turning away from Michael Seames, the FBI agent said, 'By the way, what happened to your forehead?'
     'I was trying on hats,' Dan said.
     'Hats?'
     'Tried on one that was too small for me. Had a hell of a time getting it off. Pulled skin right along with it.'
     Before Seames could respond, Ross Mondale stepped through a door at the back of the store, behind the sales counter. He spotted Dan, and he said, 'Haldane, come here.'
     'What is it, Chief?'
     'I want to talk to you.'
     'What about, Chief?'
     'Alone,' Mondale said fiercely.
     'Be right there, Chief.'
     He left Seames blinking and puzzled. He picked his way through the wreckage, past the corpse, around the counter. Mondale motioned him through the door back there, then followed him.
     The rear room was as wide as the store but only ten feet deep, with concrete-block walls. It doubled as an office and storage area. On the left were piles of boxes, apparently filled with merchandise. On the right were a desk, an IBM PC, a few file cabinets, a small refrigerator, and a worktable on which stood a Mr. Coffee machine. No violence had been done there; everything was neat and orderly.
     Mondale had been going through the desk drawers. Several items, including a slim little address book, were piled on the blotter.
     As the captain closed the door, Dan went around behind the desk and sat down.
     'What do you think you're doing?' Mondale asked.
     'Taking a load off my feet. It's been a long day.'
     'You know that's not what I mean.'
     'Oh?'
     As usual, Mondale was wearing a brown suit, light-beige shirt, brown tie, brown socks and shoes. His brown eyes seemed to flicker with a murderous light similar to that refracted within his ruby ring. 'I wanted to see you in my office by two-thirty.'
     'I never got your message.'
     'I know you damn well did.'
     'No. Really. I'd have come running.'
     'Don't screw with me.'
     Dan just stared at him.
     The captain stood several steps from the desk, his neck stiff, his shoulders tense, arms straight down at his sides, hands flexing and twitching as if he had to struggle to keep from forming them into fists and coming for Haldane. 'What have you been doing all day?'
     'Contemplating the meaning of life.'
     'You were at Rink's place.'
     'You don't need to be in a church. It's possible to contemplate the meaning of life almost anywhere.'
     'I didn't send you to Rink's place.'
     'I'm a full-fledged detective-lieutenant. I usually follow my own instincts in an investigation.'
     'Not in this one. This one's big. In this one, you're just part of the team. You do what I tell you, go where I tell you. You don't even shit unless I tell you it's okay.'
     'Careful, Ross. You're beginning to sound power crazy.'
     'What happened to your head?'
     'I've been taking karate lessons.'
     'What?'
     'Tried to break a board with my head.'
     'Like hell.'
     'Okay, then what happened was George Padrakis told me you wanted to see me here, and at the mention of your name, I dropped to my knees and bowed down so fast I scraped my head on the sidewalk.'
     For a moment Ross couldn't speak. His brown face had flushed. He was breathing hard.
     Dan more closely examined the items that Mondale had taken from the drawers and piled