Red Dragon - Thomas Harris [47]
“It was in the middle of a paragraph full of compliments,” Gra?ham said. “He couldn't stand to ruin them. That's why he didn't throw the whole thing away.” He rubbed his temples with his knuckles.
“Bowman thinks Lecter will use the Tattler to answer the Tooth Fairy. He says that's probably the setup. You think he'd answer this thing?”
“Sure. He's a great correspondent. Pen pals all over.”
“If they're using the Tattler, Lecter would barely have time to get his answer in the issue they'll print tonight, even if he sent it special delivery to the paper the same day he got the Tooth Fairy's note. Chester from the Chicago office is down at the Tattler checking the ads. The printers are putting the paper together right now.”
“Please God don't stir the Tattler up,” Graham said.
“The shop foreman thinks Chester's a realtor trying to get a jump on the ads. He's selling him the proof sheets under the table, one by one as they come off. We're getting everything, all the classifieds, just to blow some smoke. All right, say we find out how Lecter war to answer and we can duplicate the method. Then we can fake a message to the Tooth Fairy - but what do we say? How do we use it?”
“The obvious thing is to try to get him to come to a mail drop,” Graham said. “Bait him with something he'd like to see. 'Important evidence' that Lecter knows about from talking to me. Some mistake he made that we're waiting for him to repeat.”
“He'd be an idiot to go for it.”
“I know. Want to hear what the best bait would be?”
“I'm not sure I do.”
“Lecter would be the best bait,” Graham said.
“Set up how?”
"It would be hell to do, I know that. We'd take Lecter into fed?eral custody - Chilton would never sit still for this at Chesapeake - and we stash him in maximum security at a VA psychiatric hospital. We fake an escape.
“Oh, Jesus.”
“We send the Tooth Fairy a message in next week's Tattler, after the big 'escape.' It would be Lecter asking him for a rendezvous.”
“Why in God's name would anybody want to meet Lecter? I mean, even the Tooth Fairy?”
“To kill him, Jack.” Graham got up. There was no window to look out of as he talked. He stood in front of the “Ten Most Wanted,” Crawford's only wall decoration. "See, the Tooth Fairy could absorb him that way, engulf him, become more than he is.
“You sound pretty sure.”
“I'm not sure. Who's sure? What he said in the note was 'I have some things I'd love to show you. Someday, perhaps, if circum?stances permit.' Maybe it was a serious invitation. I don't think he was just being polite.”
“Wonder what he's got to show? The victims were intact. Nothing missing but a little skin and hair, and that was probably . . . How did Bloom put it?”
“Ingested,” Graham said. “God knows what he's got. Tremont, remember Tremont's costumes in Spokane? While he was strapped to a stretcher he was pointing with his chin, still trying to show them to the Spokane PD. I'm not sure Lecter would draw the Tooth Fairy, Jack. I say it's the best shot.”
“We'd have a goddamn stampede if people thought Lecter was out. Papers all over us screaming. Best shot, maybe, but we'll save it for last.”
“He probably wouldn't come near a mail drop, but he might be curious enough to look at a mail drop to see if Lecter had sold him. If he could do it from a distance. We could pick a drop that could be watched from only a few places a long way off and stake out the observation points.” It sounded weak to Graham even as he said it.
"Secret Service has a setup they've never used. They'd let us have it. But if we don't put an ad in today, we'll have to wait until Mon?day before the next issue comes out. Presses roll at five our time. That gives Chicago another hour and fifteen minutes to come up with Lecter's ad, if there is one.
“What about Lecter's ad order, the letter he'd have sent the Tattler ordering the ad -could we get to that quicker?”
“Chicago put out some general feelers