Red Dragon - Thomas Harris [27]
Graham walked away.
“Let me have the file, then. I'll tell you what I think.”
Graham had to pack the abridged file tightly into the sliding tray. Lecter pulled it through.
“There's a summary on top. You can read that now,” Graham said.
“Do you mind if I do it privately? Give me an hour.” Graham waited on a tired plastic couch in a grim lounge. Or?derlies came in for coffee. He did not speak to them. He stared at small objects in the room and was glad they held still in his vision. He had to go to the rest room twice. He was numb.
The turnkey admitted him to the maximumsecurity section again.
Lecter sat at his table, his eyes filmed with thought. Graham knew he had spent most of the hour with the pictures.
“This is a very shy boy, Will. I'd love to meet him . . . Have you considered the possibility that he's disfigured? Or that he may be?lieve he's disfigured?”
“The mirrors.”
“Yes. You notice he smashed all the mirrors in the houses, not just enough to get the pieces he wanted. He doesn't just put the shards in place for the damage they cause. They're set so he can see himself. In their eyes - Mrs. Jacobi and . . . What was the other name?”
“Mrs. Leeds.”
“Yes.”
“That's interesting,” Graham said.
“It's not 'interesting.' You'd thought of that before.”
“I had considered it.”
“You just came here to look at me. Just to get the old scent again, didn't you? Why don't you just smell yourself?”
“I want your opinion.”
“I don't have one right now.”
“When you do have one, I'd like to bear it.”
“May I keep the file?”
“I haven't decided yet,” Graham said.
“Why are there no descriptions of the grounds? Here we have frontal views of the houses, floor plans, diagrams of the rooms where the deaths occurred, and little mention of the grounds. What were the yards like?”
“Big backyards, fenced, with some hedges. Why?”
“Because, my dear Will, if this pilgrim feels a special relationship with the moon, he might like to go outside and look at it. Before he tidies himself up, you understand. Have you seen blood in the moonlight, Will? It appears quite black. Of course, it keeps the distinctive sheen. If one were nude, say, it would be better to have outdoor pri?vacy for that sort of thing. One must show some consideration for the neighbors, hmmmm?”
“You think the yard might be a factor when he selects victims?”
“Oh yes. And there will be more victims, of course. Let me keep the file, Will. I'll study it. When you get more files, I'd like to see them, too. You can call me. On the rare occasions when my lawyer calls, they bring me a telephone. They used to patch him through on the intercom, but everyone listened of course. Would you like to give me your home number?”
“No.”
“Do you know how you caught me, Will?”
“Goodbye, Dr. Lecter. You can leave messages for me at the num?ber on the file.” Graham walked away.
“Do you know how you caught me?”
Graham was out of Lecter's sight now, and he walked faster toward the far steel door.
“The reason you caught me is that we're just alike” was the last thing Graham heard as the steel door closed behind him.
He was numb except for dreading the loss of numbness. Walking with his head down, speaking to no one, he could hear his blood like a hollow drumming of wings. It seemed a very short distance to the outside. This was only a building; there were only five doors between Lecter and the outside. He had the absurd feeling that Leeter had walked out with him. He stopped outside the entrance and looked around him, assuring himself that he was alone.
From a car across the street, his long lens propped on the window sill, Freddy Lounds got a nice profile shot of Graham in the doorway and the words in stone above him: “Chesapeake State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.”
As it turned out, The National Tattler cropped the picture to just Graham's face and the last two words in the stone.
? HYPERLINK “” \l “CONTENTS” ??
Red Dragon
CHAPTER 8
Dr. Hannibal Lecter lay on his cot with the cell lights down after Graham left him. Several hours passed.
For a while he had textures;