The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris [62]
“Jame found the little beach house Klaus and I were using, and when I came home from rehearsal, there he was. But I didn't see Klaus. Klaus wasn't there. I said where's Klaus and he said swimming. I knew that was a lie, Klaus never swam, the Pacific's much too crashybangy. And when I opened the refrigerator, well, you know what I found. Klaus's head looking out from behind the orange juice. Jame had made himself an apron too, you know, from Klaus, and he put it on and asked me how I liked him now. l know you must be appalled that I'd ever have anything else to do with Jame--- he was even more unstable when you met him, I think he was just astounded that you weren't afraid of him.”
And then, the last words Raspail ever said: “I wonder why my parents didn't kill me before I was old enough to fool them.”
The slender handle of the stiletto wiggled as Raspail's spiked heart tried to keep beating, and Dr. Lecter said, “Looks like a straw down a doodlebug hole, doesn't it?” but it was too late for Raspail to answer.
Dr. Lecter could remember every word, and much more too. Pleasant thoughts to pass the time while they cleaned his cell.
Clarice Starling was astute, the doctor mused. She might get Jame Gumb with what he had told her, but it was a long shot. To get him in time, she would need more specifics. Dr. Lecter felt sure that when he read the details of the crimes, hints would suggest them?selves--- possibly having to do with Gumb's job training in the juvenile correction facility after he killed his grandparents. He'd give her Jame Gumb tomorrow, and make it clear enough, so that even Jack Crawford couldn't miss it. Tomorrow should see it done.
Behind him, Dr. Lecter heard footsteps and the tele?vision was turned off. He felt the hand truck tilt back. Now would begin the long, tedious process of freeing him within the cell. It was always done the same way. First Barney and his helpers laid him gently on his cot, facedown. Then Barney tied his ankles to the bar at the foot of the cot with towels, removed the leg restraints, and, covered by his two helpers armed with Mace and riot batons, undid the buckles on the back of the strait?jacket and backed out of the cell, locking the net and the barred door in place, and leaving Dr. Lecter to work his way out of his bonds. Then the doctor traded the equipment for his breakfast. The procedure had been in effect ever since Dr. Lecter savaged the nurse, and it worked out nicely for everyone.
Today the process was interrupted.
The Silence of the Lambsr
CHAPTER 27
A slight bump as the hand truck carrying Dr. Lecter rolled over the threshold of the cage. And here was Dr. Chilton, sitting on the cot, looking through Dr. Lecter's private correspondence. Chilton had his tie and coat off. Dr. Lecter could see some kind of medal hanging from his neck.
“Stand him up beside the toilet, Barney,” Dr. Chilton said without looking up. “You and the others wait at your station.”
Dr. Chilton finished reading Dr. Lecter's most recent exchange with the General Archives of Psychiatry. He tossed the letters on the cot and went outside the cell. A glint from behind the hockey mask as Dr. Lecter's eyes tracked him, but Lecter's head didn't move.
Chilton went to the school desk in the hall and, bending stiffly, removed a small listening device from beneath the seat.
He waggled it in front of the eye holes in Dr. Lecter's mask and resumed his seat on the cot.
“I thought she might be looking for a civil rights violation in Miggs' death, so I listened,” Chilton said. “I hadn't heard your voice in years--- I suppose