The Door to December

Cooper.'
     'They don't tell me their last names. I knew an Ernie somebody, but I don't know if it was Cooper.'
     He described the dead millionaire.
     'Yeah,' she said, her gaze shifting between his fist and his eyes. 'That was him.'
     'You met him through Willy?'
     'Yes.'
     'And Joseph Scaldone?'
     'Willy ... introduced me to this guy named Joe, but I never knew his last name, either.'
     Dan described Joseph Scaldone.
     She nodded. 'That was him.'
     'And Ned Rink?'
     'I don't think I ever met him.'
     'A short, stocky, rather ugly man.'
     As he fleshed out that description, she began to shake her head. 'No. I never met that one.'
     'You've seen the gray room?'
     'Yes. I dream of it sometimes. Of sitting in that chair, and they do it to me, the shocks, the electricity.'
     'When did you see it? The room, the chair?'
     'Oh, a few years ago, when they were first painting the room, putting in the equipment, getting it ready ...'
     'What were they doing with Melanie McCaffrey?'
     'I don't know.'
     'Don't lie to me, damn it. You are what you're expected to be, and you do what's wanted of you, always what's wanted of you, so cut the shit and answer me.'
     'No, really. I don't know,' she said meekly. 'Willy never told me. It was secret. An important secret. It'd change the world, he said. That's all I know. He didn't include me in those things very much. His life with me was separate from his work with those other men.'
     Dan continued to stand over her, and she continued to cower in a corner of the sofa, and although the threat he posed to her was entirely theatrical, he nevertheless felt uncomfortably like a bully. 'What did the occult have to do with their experiments?'
     'I haven't any idea.'
     'Did Willy believe in the supernatural?'
     'No.'
     'Why do you say that?'
     'Well ... because Dylan McCaffrey believed indiscriminately in it — all of it, ghosts and seances and even goblins for all I know — and Willy used to make fun of him, said he was gullible.'
     'Then why was he working with McCaffrey?'
     'Willy thought Dylan was a genius.'
     'In spite of his superstitions?'
     'Yeah.'
     'Who was funding them, Regine?'
     'I don't know.'
     She moved in such a way that her robe parted further, revealing more cleavage, most of one full breast.
     'Come on,' he said impatiently. 'Who's been paying their bills? Who, Regine?'
     'I swear, I don't know.'
     He sat on the couch beside her. He took her by the chin, held her face, not gently, not with erotic intention, but as an extension of the threat first embodied by his raised fist.
     Meaningless as the threat was, she nevertheless responded to it. This was what she wanted: to be intimidated, to be commanded, and to obey.
     'Who?' he repeated.
     She said, 'I don't know. I really, really don't. I'd tell you if I did. I swear. Anything you want, I'd tell you.'
     This time he believed her. But he didn't let go of her face. 'I know Melanie McCaffrey endured a lot of mental and physical abuse in that gray room. But I want to know ... Christ, I don't want to know, but I've got to know ... was there sexual abuse too?'
     Regine's mouth was somewhat compressed by his grip on her chin and jaws, so her voice was slightly distorted. 'How would I know?'
     'You would have known,' he insisted. 'One way or the other, you would have sensed a thing like that, even if Hoffritz didn't talk to you much about what went on in Studio City. He might not have talked about what he was trying to achieve with the girl, but he would have bragged about his control of her. I'm sure of that. I never met him, but I know him well enough to be sure of that.'
     'I don't believe there was anything sexual about it,' Regine said.
     He squeezed her face, and she winced, but he saw (with dismay) that she liked it nonetheless, so he relaxed his hand, though he didn't let go of her. 'Are you sure?'
     'Almost certain. He might have liked ... to have her. But I think you're right: He would have told me that, if he'd done it, if he'd been with her like that...'
     'Did he even hint at it?'
     'No.'
     Dan was profoundly relieved. He even smiled. At