Hannibal - Thomas Harris [33]
“Did you ever think when he escaped that he might come after you?”
Barney shook his huge head. “He told me once that, whenever it was `feasible,' he preferred to eat the rude. `Freerange rude,' he called them.”
Barney laughed, a rare sight. He had little baby teeth and his amusement seems a touch maniacal, like a baby's glee when he blows his pablum in a googoo uncle's face.
Starling wondered if he had stayed underground with the loonies too long.
“What about you, did you ever feel . . . creepy after he got away? Did you think he might come after you?”
Barney asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“He said he wouldn't.”
This answer seemed oddly satisfactory to them both.
The eggs arrived. Barney and Starling were hungry and they ate steadily for a few minutes. Then . . .
“Barney, when Dr Lecter was transferred to Memphis, I asked you for his drawings out of his cell and you brought them to me. What happened to the rest of the stuffbooks, papers? The hospital doesn't even have his medical records.”
“There was this big upheaval.”
Barney paused, tapping the salt shaker against his palm. “There was a big upheaval, you know at the hospital. I got laid off, a lot of people got laid off, and stuff just got scattered. There's no telling-”
“Excuse me?” Starling said, “I couldn't hear what you said for the racket in here. I found out last night that Dr Lecter's annotated and signed copy of Alexandre Dumas' Dictionary of Cuisine came up at a private auction in New York two years ago. It went to a private collector for sixteen thousand.dollars. The seller's affidavit of ownership was signed `Cart' Phlox.' You know 'Cart' Phlox,' Barney? I hope you do because he did the handwriting on your employment application at the hospital where you're working but he signed it `Barney.' Made out your tax return too. Sorry I missed what you were saying before. Want to start over? What did you get for the book, Barney?”
“Around ten,” Barney said, looking straight at her.
Starling nodded. “The receipt says tenfive. What did you get for that interview with the Tattler after Dr Lecter escaped?”
“Fifteen G's.”
“Cool. Good for you. You made up all that bull you told those people.”
“I knew Dr Lecter wouldn't mind. He'd be disappointed if I didn't jerk them around.”
“He attacked the nurse before you got to Baltimore State?”
“Yes.”
“His shoulder was dislocated.”
“That's what I understand.”
“Was there an X ray taken?”
“Most likely.”
“I want the X ray.”
“Ummmm.”
“I found out Lecter autographs are divided into two groups, the ones written in ink, or preincarceration, and crayon or felttip writing from the asylum. Crayon's worth more, but I expect you know that. Barney, I think you have all that stuff and you figure on parceling it out over the years to the autograph trade.”
Barney shrugged and said nothing.
“I think you're waiting for him to be a hot topic again. What do you want, Barney?”
“I want to see every Vermeer in the world before I die.”
“Do I need to ask who got you started on Vermeer?”
“We talked about a lot of things in the middle of the night.”
“Did you talk about what he'd like to do if he was free?”
“No. Dr Lecter has no interest in hypothesis. He doesn't believe in syllogism, or synthesis, or any absolute.”
“What does he believe in?”
“Chaos. And you don't even have to believe in it. It's selfevident.”.Starling wanted to indulge Barney for the moment. “You say that like you believe it,” she said, “but your whole job at Baltimore State was maintaining order. You were the chief orderly. You and I are both in the order business. Dr Lecter never got away from you.”
“I explained that to you.”
“Because you never let your guard down. Even though in a sense you fraternized-” “I did not fraternize,” Barney said. “He's nobody's brother. We discussed matters of mutual interest. At least the stuff was interesting to me when I found out about it.”
“Did Dr Lecter ever make fun of you for not knowing something?”
“No. Did he make fun of you?”
“No,” she said to save Barney's feelings, as she recognized for the first