Red Dragon - Thomas Harris [64]
“Aw, Jack.”
“'Jack' what?” Crawford said.
“You kill me, you really do.”
“I don't follow you.”
“Yes you do. What you've done, you've decided to use me for bait because you don't have anything else. So before you pop the question, you pump me up about how bad next time will be. Not bad psychology. To use on a fucking idiot. What did you think I'd say? You worried I don't have the onions for it since that with Lecter?”
“No.”
“I wouldn't blame you for wondering. We both know people it happened to. I don't like walking around in a Kevlar vest with my butt puckered up. But hell, I'm in it now. We can't go home as long as he's loose.”
“I never doubted you'd do it.”
Graham saw that this was true. “It's something more then, isn't it?”
Crawford said nothing.
“No Molly. No way.”
“Jesus, Will, even I wouldn't ask you that.”
Graham stared at him for a moment. “Oh, for Christ's sake, Jack. You've decided to play ball with Freddy Lounds, haven't you? You and little Freddy have cut a deal.”
Crawford frowned at a spot on his tie. He looked up at Graham. “You know yourself it's the best way to bait him. The Tooth Fairy's gonna watch the Tattler. What else have we got?”
“It has to be Lounds doing it?”
“He's got the corner on the Tattler.”
“So I really badmouth the Tooth Fairy in the Tattler and then we give him a shot. You think it's better than the mail drop? Don't answer that, I know it is. Have you talked to Bloom about it?”
“Just in passing. We'll both get together with him. And Lounds. We'll run the mail drop on him at the same time.”
“What about the setup? I think we'll have to give him a pretty good shot at it. Something open. Someplace where he can get close. I don't think he'd snipe. He might fool me, but I can't see him with a rifle.”
“We'll have stillwatches on the high places.”
They were both thinking the same thing. Kevlar body armor would stop the Tooth Fairy's ninemillimeter and his knife unless Graham got hit in the face. There was no way to protect him against a head shot if a hidden rifleman got the chance to fire.
“You talk to Lounds. I don't have to do that.”
“He needs to interview you, Will,” Crawford said gently. “He has to take your picture.”
Bloom had warned Crawford he'd have trouble on that point.
? HYPERLINK “” \l “CONTENTS” ??
Red Dragon
CHAPTER 18
When the time came, Graham surprised both Crawford and Bloom. He seemed willing to meet Lounds halfway and his expression was affable beneath the cold blue eyes.
Being inside FBI headquarters had a salutary effect on Lounds's manners. He was polite when he remembered to be, and he was quick and quiet with his equipment.
Graham balked only once: he flatly refused to let Lounds see Mrs. Leeds's diary or any of the families' private correspondence.
When the interview began, he answered Lounds's questions in a civil tone. Both men consulted notes taken in conference with Dr. Bloom. The questions and answers were often rephrased.
# # #
Alan Bloom had found it difficult to scheme toward hurt. In the end, he simply laid out his theories about the Tooth Fairy. The others listened like karate students at an anatomy lecture.
Dr. Bloom said the Tooth Fairy's acts and his letter indicated a projective delusional scheme which compensated for intolerable feelings of inadequacy. Smashing the mirrors tied these feelings to his appearance.
The killer's objection to the name “Tooth Fairy” was grounded in the homosexual implications of the word “fairy.” Bloom believed he had an unconscious homosexual conflict, a terrible fear of being gay. Dr. Bloom's opinion was reinforced by one curious observation at the Leeds house: fold marks and covered bloodstains indicated the Tooth Fairy put a pair of shorts on Charles Leeds after he was dead.
Dr. Bloom believed he did this to emphasize his lack of interest in Leeds.
The psychiatrist talked about the strong bonding of aggressive and sexual drives that occurs in sadists at a very early age.
The savage attacks aimed primarily