He made it clear that Hanlon had absolutely no say in Whiteside’s fate. He made it more than clear; he positively revelled in telling her. He reiterated that Hanlon had no claim on Whiteside; she wasn’t family or in a relationship with him. Unlike his parents, who were the ones who had decided that enough was enough, that it was time to let their son go. He even brought up the cost of keeping Whiteside alive. Besides, he said, maybe Whiteside would prefer to be dispatched cleanly, food and drink withheld until Nature had run her course, than languish in this hospitalized limbo. Lansdale strongly disliked Hanlon. He also was entirely happy to let his feelings show. For more or less the first time in his unionized police life, he wished that management would sack someone. Her. He didn’t like women in the police force in general and he disliked her in particular. He rationalized his thinking to read that she was a bad example to the police force and that if individual police made a habit of recklessly endangering their own lives, it would create a dangerous precedent.
