The Silence of the Lambs

by Thomas Harris

  “Jame found the little beach house Klaus and I were using, and when I came home from rehearsal, there he was. But I didn’t see Klaus. Klaus wasn’t there. I said where’s Klaus and he said swimming. I knew that was a lie, Klaus never swam, the Pacific’s much too crashy-bangy. And when I opened the refrigerator, well, you know what I found. Klaus’s head looking out from behind the orange juice. Jame had made himself an apron too, you know, from Klaus, and he put it on and asked me how I liked him now. I know you must be appalled that I’d ever have anything else to do with Jame—he was even more unstable when you met him, I think he was just astounded that you weren’t afraid of him.”

  And then, the last words Raspail ever said: “I wonder why my parents didn’t kill me before I was old enough to fool them.”

  The slender handle of the stiletto wiggled as Raspail’s spiked heart tried to keep beating, and Dr. Lecter said, “Looks like a straw down a doodlebug hole, doesn’t it?” but it was too late for Raspail to answer.

  * * *

  Dr. Lecter could remember every word, and much more too. Pleasant thoughts to pass the time while they cleaned his cell.

  Clarice Starling was astute, the doctor mused. She might get Jame Gumb with what he had told her, but it was a long shot. To get him in time, she would need more specifics. Dr. Lecter felt sure that when he read the details of the crimes, hints would suggest themselves—possibly having to do with Gumb’s job training in the juvenile correction facility after he killed his grandparents. He’d give her Jame Gumb tomorrow, and make it clear enough so that even Jack Crawford couldn’t miss it. Tomorrow should see it done.

  Behind him, Dr. Lecter heard footsteps and the television was turned off. He felt the hand truck tilt back. Now would begin the long, tedious process of freeing him within the cell. It was always done the same way. First Barney and his helpers laid him gently on his cot, facedown. Then Barney tied his ankles to the bar at the foot of the cot with towels, removed the leg restraints, and, covered by his two helpers armed with Mace and riot batons, undid the buckles on the back of the straitjacket and backed out of the cell, locking the net and the barred door in place, and leaving Dr. Lecter to work his way out of his bonds. Then the doctor traded the equipment for his breakfast. The procedure had been in effect ever since Dr. Lecter savaged the nurse, and it worked out nicely for everyone.

  Today the process was interrupted.

  CHAPTER 27

  A slight bump as the hand truck carrying Dr. Lecter rolled over the threshold of the cage. And here was Dr. Chilton, sitting on the cot, looking through Dr. Lecter’s private correspondence. Chilton had his tie and coat off. Dr. Lecter could see some kind of medal hanging from his neck.

  “Stand him up beside the toilet, Barney,” Dr. Chilton said without looking up. “You and the others wait at your station.”

  Dr. Chilton finished reading Dr. Lecter’s most recent exchange with the General Archives of Psychiatry. He tossed the letters on the cot and went outside the cell. A glint from behind the hockey mask as Dr. Lecter’s eyes tracked him, but Lecter’s head didn’t move.

  Chilton went to the school desk in the hall and, bending stiffly, removed a small listening device from beneath the seat.

  He waggled it in front of the eye holes in Dr. Lecter’s mask and resumed his seat on the cot.

  “I thought she might be looking for a civil rights violation in Miggs’ death, so I listened,” Chilton said. “I hadn’t heard your voice in years—I suppose the last time was when you gave me all the misleading answers in my interviews and then ridiculed me in your Journal articles. It’s hard to believe an inmate’s opinions could count for anything in the professional community, isn’t it? But I’m still here. And so are you.”

  Dr. Lecter said nothing.

  “Years of silence, and then Jack Crawford sends down his girl and you just went to jelly, didn’t you? What was it that got you, Hannibal? Was it those good, hard ankles? The way her hair shines? She’s glorious, isn’t she? Remote and glorious. A winter sunset of a girl, that’s the way I think of her. I know it’s been some time since you’ve seen a winter sunset, but take my word for it.

  “You only get one more day with her. Then Baltimore Homicide takes over the interrogation. They’re screwing a chair to the floor for you in the electroshock therapy room. The chair has a commode seat for your convenience, and for their convenience when they attach the wires. I won’t know a thing.

  “Do you get it yet? They know, Hannibal. They know that you know exactly who Buffalo Bill is. They think you probably treated him. When I heard Miss Starling ask about Buffalo Bill, I was puzzled. I called a friend at Baltimore Homicide. They found an insect in Klaus’s throat, Hannibal. They know Buffalo Bill killed him. Crawford’s letting you think you’re smart. I don’t think you know how much Crawford hates you for cutting up his protégé. He’s got you now. Do you feel smart now?

  Dr. Lecter watched Chilton’s eyes moving over the straps that held on the mask. Clearly Chilton wanted to remove it so he could watch Lecter’s face. Lecter wondered if Chilton would do it the safe way, from behind. If he did it from the front, he’d have to reach around Dr. Lecter’s head, with the blue-veined insides of his forearms close to Lecter’s face. Come, doctor. Come close. No, he’s decided against it.

  “Do you still think you’re going someplace with a window? Do you think you’ll walk on the beach and see the birds? I don’t think so. I called Senator Ruth Martin and she never heard of any deal with you. I had to remind her who you were. She never heard of Clarice Starling, either. It’s a scam. We have to expect small dishonesties in a woman, but that’s a shocker, wouldn’t you say?

  “When they get through milking you, Hannibal, Crawford’s charging you with misprision of a felony. You’ll duck it on M’Naghten, of course, but the judge won’t like it. You sat through six deaths. The judge won’t take such interest in your welfare anymore.

  “No window, Hannibal. You’ll spend the rest of your life sitting on the floor in a state institution watching the diaper cart go by. Your teeth will go and your strength and nobody will be afraid of you anymore and you’ll be out in the ward at someplace like Flendauer. The young ones will just push you around and use you for sex when they feel like it. All you’ll get to read is what you write on the wall. You think the court will care? You’ve seen the old ones. They cry when they don’t like the stewed apricots.

  “Jack Crawford and his fluff. They’ll get together openly after his wife dies. He’ll dress younger and take up some sport they can enjoy together. They’ve been intimate ever since Bella Crawford got sick, they’re certainly not fooling anybody about that. They’ll get their promotions and they won’t think about you once a year. Crawford probably wants to come personally at the end to tell you what you’re getting. Up the booty. I’m sure he has a speech all prepared.

  “Hannibal, he doesn’t know you as well as I do. He thought if he asked you for the information, you’d just torment the mother with it.”

  Quite right, too, Dr. Lecter reflected. How wise of Jack—that obtuse Scotch-Irish mien is misleading. His face is all scars if you know how to look. Well, possibly there’s room for a few more.

  “I know what you’re afraid of. It’s not pain, or solitude. It’s indignity you can’t stand, Hannibal, you’re like a cat that way. I’m on my honor to look after you, Hannibal, and I do it. No personal considerations have ever entered into our relationship, from my end. And I’m looking after you now.

  “There never was a deal for you with Senator Martin, but there is now. Or there could be. I’ve been on the phone for hours on your behalf and for the sake of that girl. I’m going to tell you the first condition: you speak only through me. I alone publish a professional account of this, my successful interview with you. You publish nothing. I have exclusive access to any material from Catherine Martin, if she should be saved.

  “That condition is nonnegotiable. You’ll answer me now. Do you accept that condition?

&
nbsp; Dr. Lecter smiled to himself.

  “You’d better answer me now or you can answer Baltimore Homicide. This is what you get: If you identify Buffalo Bill and the girl is found in time, Senator Martin—and she’ll confirm this by telephone—Senator Martin will have you installed in Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee, out of the reach of the Maryland authorities. You’ll be in her bailiwick, away from Jack Crawford. You’ll be in a maximum-security cell with a view of the woods. You get books. Any outdoor exercise, the details will have to be worked out, but she’s amenable. Name him and you can go at once. The Tennessee State Police will take custody of you at the airport, the governor has agreed.”

  At last Dr. Chilton has said something interesting, and he doesn’t even know what it is. Dr. Lecter pursed his red lips behind the mask. The custody of police. Police are not as wise as Barney. Police are accustomed to handling criminals. They’re inclined to use leg irons and handcuffs. Handcuffs and leg irons open with a handcuff key. Like mine.

  “His first name is Billy,” Dr. Lecter said. “I’ll tell the rest to the Senator. In Tennessee.”

  CHAPTER 28

  Jack Crawford declined Dr. Danielson’s coffee, but took the cup to mix himself an Alka-Seltzer at the stainless-steel sink behind the nursing station. Everything was stainless steel, the cup dispenser, the counter, the waste bin, the rims of Dr. Danielson’s spectacles. The bright metal suggested the wink of instruments and gave Crawford a distinct twinge in the area of his inguinal ring.

  He and the doctor were alone in the little galley.

  “Not without a court order, you don’t,” Dr. Danielson said again. He was brusque this time, to counter the hospitality he’d shown with the coffee.

  Danielson was head of the Gender Identity Clinic at Johns Hopkins and he had agreed to meet Crawford at first light, long before morning rounds. “You’ll have to show me a separate court order for each specific case and we’ll fight every one. What did Columbus and Minnesota tell you—same thing, am I right?”

  “The Justice Department’s asking them right now. We have to do this fast, Doctor. If the girl’s not dead already, he’ll kill her soon—tonight or tomorrow. Then he’ll pick the next one,” Crawford said.

  “To even mention Buffalo Bill in the same breath with the problems we treat here is ignorant and unfair and dangerous, Mr. Crawford. It makes my hair stand on end. It’s taken years—we’re not through yet—showing the public that transsexuals aren’t crazy, they aren’t perverts, they aren’t queers, whatever that is—”

  “I agree with you—”

  “Hold on. The incidence of violence among transsexuals is a lot lower than in the general population. These are decent people with a real problem—a famously intransigent problem. They deserve help and we can give it. I’m not having a witch hunt here. We’ve never violated a patient’s confidence, and we never will. Better start from there, Mr. Crawford.”

  For months now in his private life, Crawford had been cultivating his wife’s doctors and nurses, trying to weasel every minute advantage for her. He was pretty sick of doctors. But this was not his private life. This was Baltimore and it was business. Be nice now.

  “Then I haven’t made myself clear, Doctor. My fault—it’s early, I’m not a morning person. The whole idea is, the man we want is not your patient. It would be someone you refused because you recognized that he was not a transsexual. We’re not flying blind here—I’ll show you some specific ways he’d deviate from typical transsexual patterns in your personality inventories. Here’s a short list of things your staff could look for among your rejects.”

  Dr. Danielson rubbed the side of his nose with his finger as he read. He handed the paper back. “That’s original, Mr. Crawford. In fact it’s extremely bizarre, and that’s a word I don’t use very often. May I ask who provided you with that piece of … conjecture?”

  I don’t think you’d like to know that, Dr. Danielson. “The Behavioral Science staff,” Crawford said, “in consultation with Dr. Alan Bloom at the University of Chicago.”

  “Alan Bloom endorsed that?”

  “And we don’t just depend on the tests. There’s another way Buffalo Bill’s likely to stand out in your records—he probably tried to conceal a record of criminal violence, or falsified other background material. Show me the ones you turned away, Doctor.”

  Danielson was shaking his head the whole time. “Examination and interview materials are confidential.”

  “Dr. Danielson, how can fraud and misrepresentation be confidential? How does a criminal’s real name and real background fall under the doctor-patient relationship when he never told it to you, you had to find it out for yourself? I know how thorough Johns Hopkins is. You’ve got cases like that, I’m sure of it. Surgical addicts apply every place surgery’s performed. It’s no reflection on the institution or the legitimate patients. You think nuts don’t apply to the FBI? We get ’em all the time. A man in a Moe hairpiece applied in St. Louis last week. He had a bazooka, two rockets, and a bearskin shako in his golf bag.”

  “Did you hire him?”

  “Help me, Dr. Danielson. Time’s eating us up. While we’re standing here, Buffalo Bill may be turning Catherine Martin into one of these.” Crawford put a photograph on the gleaming counter.

  “Don’t even do that,” Dr. Danielson said. “That’s a childish, bullying thing to do. I was a battle surgeon, Mr. Crawford. Put your picture back in your pocket.”

  “Sure, a surgeon can stand to look at a mutilated body,” Crawford said, crumpling his cup and stepping on the pedal of the covered wastebasket. “But I don’t think a doctor can stand to see a life wasted.” He dropped in his cup and the lid of the wastebasket came down with a satisfactory clang. “Here’s my best offer: I won’t ask you for patient information, only application information selected by you, with reference to these guidelines. You and your psychiatric review board can handle your rejected applications a lot faster than I can. If we find Buffalo Bill through your information, I’ll suppress that fact. I’ll find another way we could have done it and we’ll walk through it that way, for the record.”

  “Could Johns Hopkins be a protected witness, Mr. Crawford? Could we have a new identity? Move us to Bob Jones College, say? I doubt very much that the FBI or any other government agency can keep a secret very long.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “I doubt it. Trying to crawl out from under an inept bureaucratic lie would be more damaging than just telling the truth. Please don’t ever protect us that way, thank you very much.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Danielson, for your humorous remarks. They’re very helpful to me—I’ll show you how in a minute. You like the truth—try this. He kidnaps young women and rips their skins off. He puts on these skins and capers around in them. We don’t want him to do that anymore. If you don’t help me as fast as you can, this is what I’ll do to you: this morning the Justice Department will ask publicly for a court order, saying you’ve refused to help. We’ll ask twice a day, in plenty of time for the A.M. and P.M. news cycles. Every news release from Justice about this case will say how we’re coming along with Dr. Danielson at Johns Hopkins, trying to get him to pitch in. Every time there’s news in the Buffalo Bill case—when Catherine Martin floats, when the next one floats, and the next one floats—we’ll issue a news release right away about how we’re doing with Dr. Danielson at Johns Hopkins, complete with your humorous comments about Bob Jones College. One more thing, Doctor. You know, Health and Human Services is right here in Baltimore. My thoughts are running to the Office of Eligibility Policy, and I expect your thoughts got there first, didn’t they? What if Senator Martin, sometime after her daughter’s funeral, asked the fellows over at Eligibility this question: Should the sex-change operations you perform here be considered cosmetic surgery? Maybe they’ll scratch their heads and decide, ‘Why, you know, Senator Martin’s right. Yes. We think it’s cosmetic surgery,’ then this program won’t qualify for federal assistance an
y more than a nose-job clinic.”

  “That’s insulting.”

  “No, it’s just the truth.”

  “You don’t frighten me, you don’t intimidate me—”

  “Good. I don’t want to do either one, Doctor. I just want you to know I’m serious. Help me, Doctor. Please.”

  “You said you’re working with Alan Bloom.”

  “Yes. The University of Chicago—”

  “I know Alan Bloom, and I’d rather discuss this on a professional level. Tell him I’ll be in touch with him this morning. I’ll tell you what I’ve decided before noon. I do care about the young woman, Mr. Crawford. And the others. But there’s a lot at stake here, and I don’t think it’s as important to you as it ought to be.… Mr. Crawford, have you had your blood pressure checked recently?”

  “I do it myself.”

  “And do you prescribe for yourself?”

  “That’s against the law, Dr. Danielson.”

  “But you have a doctor.”

  “Yes.”

  “Share your findings with him, Mr. Crawford. What a loss to us all if you dropped dead. You’ll hear from me later in the morning.”

  “How much later, Doctor? How about an hour?”

  “An hour.”

  Crawford’s beeper sounded as he got off the elevator at the ground floor. His driver, Jeff, was beckoning as Crawford trotted to the van. She’s dead and they found her, Crawford thought as he grabbed the phone. It was the Director calling. The news wasn’t as bad as it could get, but it was bad enough: Chilton had butted into the case and now Senator Martin was stepping in. The attorney general of the state of Maryland, on instructions from the governor, had authorized the extradition to Tennessee of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. It would take all the muscle of the Federal Court, District of Maryland, to prevent or delay the move. The Director wanted a judgment call from Crawford and he wanted it now.