Red Dragon - Thomas Harris [51]
“That’s it,” Sarah said.
Crawford picked up the phone. “Okay, Chester, how did it go down with the ad manager? . . . No, you did right . . . A complete clam, right. Stand by at that phone, I’ll get back to you.”
“Code,” Graham said.
“Has to be. We’ve got twentytwo minutes to get a message in if we can break it. Shop foreman needs ten minutes’ notice and three hundred dollars to shoehorn one in this edition. Bowman’s in his office, he got a recess. If you’ll get him cracking, I’ll talk to Cryptography at Langley. Sarah, shoot a telex of the ad to CIA cryp?tography section. I’ll tell ‘em it’s coming.”
Bowman put the message on his desk and aligned it precisely with the corners of his blotter. He polished his rimless spectacles for what seemed to Graham a very long time.
Bowman had a reputation for being quick. Even the explosives sec?tion forgave him for not being an exMarine and granted him that.
“We have twenty minutes,” Graham said.
“I understand. You called Langley?”
“Crawford did.”
Bowman read the message many times, looked at it upside down and sideways, ran down the margins with his finger. He took a Bible from his shelves. For five minutes the only sounds were the two men breathing and the crackle of onionskin pages.
“No,” he said. “We won’t make it in time. Better use what’s left for whatever else you can do.”
Graham showed him an empty hand.
Bowman swiveled around to face Graham and took off his glasses. He had a pink spot on each side of his nose. “Do you feel fairly confident the note to Lecter is the only communication he’s had ftom your Tooth Fairy?”
“Right.”
“The code is something simple then. They only needed cover against casual readers. Measuring by the perforations in the note to Lecter only about three inches is missing. That’s not much room for instructions. The numbers aren’t right for a jailhouse alphabet grid – the tap code. I’m guessing it’s a book code.”
Crawford joined them. “Book code?”
“Looks like it. The first numeral, that ‘100 prayers,’ could be the page number. The paired numbers in the scriptural references could be line and letter. But what book?”
“Not the Bible?” Crawford said.
“No, not the Bible. I thought it might be at first. Galatians 6:11 threw me off. ‘Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.’ That’s appropriate, but it’s coincidence because next he has Galatians 15:2. Galatians has only six chapters. Same with Jonah 6:8 – Jonah has four chapters. He wasn’t using a Bible.”
“Maybe the book title could be concealed in the clear part of Lecter’s message,” Crawford said.
Bowman shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Then the Tooth Fairy named the book to use. He specified it in his note to Lecter,” Graham said.
“It would appear so,” Bowman said. “What about sweating Lecter? In a mental hospital I would think drugs-“
“They tried sodium amytal on him three years ago trying to find out where he buried a Princeton student,” Graham said. “He gave them a recipe for dip. Besides, if we sweat him we lose the connec?tion. If the Tooth Fairy picked the book, it’s something he knew Lecter would have in his cell.”
“I know for sure he didn’t order one or borrow one from Chilton,” Crawford said.
“What have the papers carried about that, Jack? About Lecter’s books.”
“That he has medical books, psychology books, cookbooks.”
“Then it could be one of the standards in those areas, something so basic the Tooth Fairy knew Lecter would definitely have it,” Bow?man said. “We need a list of Lecter’s books. Do you have one?”
“No.” Graham stared at his shoes. “I could get Chilton . . . Wait. Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.”
“Would you ask them to meet me with the pictures of the books?” Bowman said, packing his briefcase.
“Where?”
“The Library of Congress.”
Crawford checked with the CIA cryptography section one last time. The computer at Langley was trying consistent and progressive numberletter