The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris [65]
Dr. Danielson rubbed the side of his nose with his finger as he read. He handed the paper back. “That's original, Mr. Crawford. In fact it's extremely bizarre, and that's a word I don't use very often. May I ask who provided you with that piece of... conjecture?”
I don't think you'd like to know that, Dr. Danielson. “The Behavioral Science staff,” Crawford said, “in consulta?tion with Dr. Alan Bloom at the University of Chi?cago.”
“Alan Bloom endorsed that?”
“And we don't just depend on the tests. There's an?other way Buffalo Bill's likely to stand out in your records--- he probably tried to conceal a record of crimi?nal violence, or falsified other background material. Show me the ones you turned away, Doctor.”
Danielson was shaking his head the whole time. “Examination and interview materials are confidential.”
“Dr. Danielson, how can fraud and misrepresenta?tion be confidential? How does a criminal's real name and real background fall under the doctorpatient rela?tionship when he never told it to you, you had to find it out for yourself? I know how thorough Johns Hop?kins is. You've got cases like that, I'm sure of it. Surgical addicts apply every place surgery's performed. It's no reflection on the institution or the legitimate patients. You think nuts don't apply to the FBI? We get 'em all the time. A man in a Moe hairpiece applied in St. Louis last week. He had a bazooka, two rockets, and a bear?skin shako in his golf bag.”
“Did you hire him?”
“Help me, Dr. Danielson. Time's eating us up. While we're standing here, Buffalo Bill may be turning Cath?erine Martin into one of these.” Crawford put a photo?graph on the gleaming counter.
“Don't even do that,” Dr. Danielson said. “That's a childish, bullying thing to do. I was a battle surgeon, Mr. Crawford. Put your picture back in your pocket.”
“Sure, a surgeon can stand to look at a mutilated body,” Crawford said, crumpling his cup and stepping on the pedal of the covered wastebasket. “But I don't think a doctor can stand to see a life wasted.” He dropped in his cup and the lid of the wastebasket came down with a satisfactory clang. “Here's my best offer: I won't ask you for patient information, only application information selected by you, with reference to these guidelines. You and your psychiatric review board can handle your rejected applications a lot faster than I can. If we find Buffalo Bill through your infor?mation, I'll suppress that fact. I'll find another way we could have done it and we'll walk through it that way, for the record.”
“Could Johns Hopkins be a protected witness, Mr. Crawford? Could we have a new identity? Move us to Bob Jones College, say? I doubt very much that the FBI or any other government agency can keep a secret very long.”
“You'd be surprised.”
“I doubt it. Trying to crawl out from under an inept bureaucratic lie would be more damaging than just tell?ing the truth. Please don't ever protect us that way, thank you very much.”
"Thank you, Dr. Danielson, for your humorous re?marks. They're very helpful to me--- I'll show you how in a minute. You like the truth--- try this. He kidnaps young women and rips their skins off. He puts on these skins and capers around in them. We don't want him to do that anymore. If you don't help me as fast as you can, this is what I'll do to you: this morning the Justice Department will ask publicly for a court order, saying you've refused to help. We'll ask twice a day, in plenty of time for the A.M. and P.M. news cycles. Every news release from Justice about this case will say how we're coming along with Dr. Danielson at Johns Hopkins, trying to get him to pitch in. Every time there's news in the Buffalo Bill case--- when Catherine Martin floats, when the next one floats, and the next one floats--- we'll issue a news release right away about how we're doing with Dr. Danielson at Johns Hopkins,