Red Dragon - Thomas Harris [36]
He climbed higher on his side of the tree, dicey work on small branches, and moved around until he could look down on the big limb.
A patch of outer bark on the upper side of the limb was shaved away, leaving a field of green inner bark the size of a playing card. Centered in the green rectangle, carved through to the white wood, Graham saw this:
It was done carefully and cleanly with a very sharp knife. It was not the work of a child.
Graham photographed the mark, carefully bracketing his expo?sures.
The view from the big limb was good, and it had been improved: the stub of a small branch jutted down from the limb above. It had been clipped off to clear the view. The fibers were compressed and the end slightly flattened in the cutting.
Graham looked for the severed branch. If it had been on the ground, he would have seen it. There, tangled in the limbs below, brown withered leaves amid the green foliage.
The laboratory would need both sides of the cut in order to meas?ure the pitch of the cutting edges. That meant coming back here with a saw. He made several photographs of the stub. All the while he mumbled to himself.
I think that after you killed the cat and threw it into the yard, my man, you climbed up here and waited. I think you watched the chil?dren and passed the time whittling and dreaming. When night came, you saw them passing their bright windows and you watched the shades go down, and you saw the lights go out one by one. And after a while you climbed down and went in to them. Didn't you? It wouldn't be too hard a climb straight down ftom the big limb with a flashlight and the bright moon rising.
It was a hard enough climb for Graham. He stuck a twig into the opening of the softdrink can, gently lifted it from the crotch of the tree, and descended, holding the twig in his teeth when he had to use both hands.
Back at the housing project, Graham found that someone had written “Levon is a doodoo head” in the dust on the side of his car. The height of the writing indicated that even the youngest residents were well along in literacy.
He wondered if they had written on the Tooth Fairy's car.
Graham sat for a few minutes looking up at the rows of windows. There appeared to be about a hundred units. It was possible that someone might remember a white stranger in the parking lot late at night. Even though a month had passed, it was well worth trying. To ask every resident, and get it done quickly, he would need the help of the Birmingham police.
He fought the temptation to send the drink can straight to Jimmy Price in Washington. He had to ask the Birmingham police for man?power. It would be better to give them what he had. Dusting the can would be a straightforward job. Trying for fingerprints etched by acid sweat was another matter. Price could still do it after Bir?mingham dusted, as long as the can wasn't handled with bare fingers. Better give it to the police. He knew the FBI document section would fall on the carving like a rabid mongoose. Pictures of that for everybody, nothing lost there.
He called Birmingham Homicide from the Jacobi house. The de?tectives arrived just as the realtor, Geehan, was ushering in his prospective buyers.
? HYPERLINK “” \l “CONTENTS” ??
Red Dragon
CHAPTER 11
Eileen was reading a National Tattler article called “Filth in Your Bread!” when Dolarhyde came into the cafeteria. She had eaten only the filling in her tunasalad sandwich.
Behind the red goggles Dolarhyde's eyes zigged down the ftont page of the Tattler. Cover lines in addition to “Filth in Your Bread!” included “Elvis at Secret Love Retreat -Exclusive Pix!!” “Stunning Breakthrough for Cancer Victims!” and the big banner line “Hannibal the Cannibal Helps Lawmen - Cops Consult Fiend in 'Tooth Fairy' Murders.”
He stood at the window absently stirring his coffee until he heard Eileen get up. She dumped her tray in the trash container and was about to throw in the Tattler when Dolarhyde touched her shoulder.
“May I have that paper, Eileen?”
“Sure, Mr. D. I just get it for the horoscopes.