(( All Charaters, Character History, and Original Character Personalities belong to Thomas Harris. Some places also belong to Rhomas Harris.))
It hadn't been long since Barney saw Dr. Lecter and Starling at the opera that detectives, and police officers, started showing up on his door step. It couldn't have been more then a fortnight; the image of the startling couple still lingered in the back of his mind, and the thought of how close he had come to endangering himself by being there. He had been lucky that they didn't see him.
When he opened his door to the first arriving officers, he knew without a moment's thought what their interest in him concerned. It was, no doubt, the disappearance of Ex-Special Agent Clarice Starling. Everyone knew she had been back on the case, about how she saw Mason Verger's paid kidnappers take the escaped cannibal, and about how, even though she had been told not too, she went to Verger's mansion to stop the death and torture of Hannibal Lecter. Everyone also knew that she never returned from the mansion.
They searched all corners of the building in search of her, having found more then one mutilated bodies there, but then found hide of hair of her. When they searched for Paul Krendler they found him dead in his lake house, along with some of Starling's personal property, suggesting that Dr. Lecter had still been holding her captive at that time. Aside form what they could find there though, they knew nothing of her whereabouts.
Ultimately, they believed he either still had her captive, or she was lying dead somewhere, corpse likely missing portions of flesh or showing signs of rape or necrophilia. They had no psychological profile to point in the direction of sexual foul for Dr. Lecter, but they knew she had always intrigued him, and that being insane enough to the air of cannibalism, there was no way of ruling it out.
Barney wasn't sure he wanted to tell the detectives about his near encounter with Dr. Lecter and the unmistakably happy Clarice Starling. From what he saw, there had been no need for him to get involved with their new lives together, both had been radiant with pleasure for each others company. Why destroy that?
The answer was simple once it was brought up; money.
"We are offering a reward of 50 thou for any information regarding sightings, speaking, or contact with Lector," one of the detectives said when Barney shook his head and said he knew nothing. The detective had had a 'are you sure look on his face?'. "We know you've spent six years with Lecter in the Asylum, and there must have been common ground somewhere in there, but we need to find the woman, for the closure of those closest to her if nothing else.
Barney sighed, he was pretty sure there weren't many who considered Starling close to them; Adrelia Mapp seemed uninterested with the subject of Clarice anymore, and Jack Crawford had died. All the same though, money had become a great deal of an issue after his break up with his girlfriend, and Barney tried to consider his options.
'Dr. Lecter did kill a lot of people,' Barney thought to himself quickly, 'and Starling could get hurt I guess.' Barney knew those odds were slim, Hannibal didn't feel the need to hunt down or hurt those who were civil to him, Barney was living proof. Besides Starling had far better reason to remain happy and healthy in the company of Dr. Lecter, she was his sole companion; only she had really looked the other way when it came to Dr. Lecter's crimes, at least, she seemed to have done so now.
In the end, the need for money to survive himself came first, and he had his doubts about the police by now; it had been three years since Clarice Starling's disappearance.
"Actually, now that you mention it, I was in Buenos Aires two weeks ago, and I saw Dr. Lecter there at an opera," Barney stated flatly. He left out the part about Starling only because he didn't feel right outing her, he had no idea if or if not she had become part of Dr. Lecter's criminal lifestyle.
"I see," the detective smiled. He had hook-line-and-sunk Barney, just as he had hoped he would. Money would do that for them. Flipping the page over on his not pad, the detective smiled greedily and moved closer to Barney. "You wouldn't mind telling me about that would you?"
Barney swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling parched as he nodded. Outing Dr. Lecter was starting to look like a bad idea, but he already stared hadn't he? Why not continue? He could use the money to distract him from the guilt if nothing else. So without much more hesitation, Barney began to tell the detective about his near encounter with the cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter.