The Price of Infamy

Author: Holly Graham

Author's Note: This story holds true to the storylines and endings of all three movies, "Red Dragon", "The Silence of the Lambs", and "Hannibal". It does not necessarily hold true to the storylines of the books. Also, the characters mentioned herein that belong to Thomas Harris are being used solely for entertainment. I am making no money from this story so please don't sue me! The rest of the characters are mine.

Chapter 1: Clarice's Dilemma

Clarice Starling, special agent in the FBI's Behavioral Science division, paced the interior of her office, deep in thought. Plastered to one wall was an enormous world map littered with red foil stars. Those stars represented confirmed sightings of fugitive and one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted men, Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter. The other three walls were cluttered with pages of police reports, Lecter's victim's pictures and short bios, and copies of notes sent to her from the doctor himself.

It had been five years since the 'dinner party' at Paul Krendler's summer home. Clarice grimaced at the fleeting memory of fried brain. Yes, five years since she had handcuffed herself to Dr. Lecter, thinking at long last that she had captured him and her nightmares were over. And it had been five years since he had chopped off his hand with a kitchen cleaver to escape re-confinement.

Clarice sighed heavily and ran a hand through her shoulder length chestnut hair. She stood over her desk, hands on her hips, and stared unseeing at the latest sighting report that had been placed there. Subconsciously, she smoothed wrinkles from her knee-length pale blue skirt as her mind worked. She sighed again then smashed her fist onto the desk, picked up the papers underneath her hand, and flung them across the room.

'Dammit,' she thought. 'This goddamn trivial "sighting" bullshit is getting us nowhere.' She sat down heavily at her desk and put her head in her hands. 'He has completely disappeared again. Even if the sighting turns out to be legit, he's gone weeks before we get there. This is a fucking waste of time.'

In addition to her regular case load of unsolved crimes that needed her attention, because of her former contact with Hannibal Lecter, Clarice was regarded by the higher-ups in the Bureau as the reigning expert when it came to all Lecter matters and therefore, the assignment of his capture fell directly to her and only her. She had just returned from a meeting with the new Behavioral Science section chief and it had not gone well. Kendra Mitchell was the third section chief in the last five years. She was a ball-busting up-and-comer at the Bureau who had no qualms about shoveling shit onto her subordinates. Neither did she give second thought to stepping on people or destroying their careers as she climbed the success ladder. And she was determined to add to her list of accomplishments the capture of Hannibal Lecter.

Clarice heard a knock on her door and looked up. Seth Williams opened the door slightly and peeked inside. Clarice smiled wryly at her contemporary and gestured for him to come in.

"I wasn't sure it would be safe to enter," he smiled broadly. "You know, wasn't sure if you'd be throwing things around your office after your meeting with the Devil incarnate this afternoon." He glanced at the papers littering the floor. "Oh," he replied. "Guess you've already done that. Am I just in time for you to start throwing the heavy stuff?"

Clarice grinned. Seth was exactly what she needed right now. He always knew how to put a smile on her face. Seth Williams was a special agent in the Behavioral Science division as well. Being African-American he understood how Clarice felt having to deal with many of the stereotypes from the other agents on a daily basis because he was subjected to many stereotypes himself. The two of them, Clarice and Seth, had become fast friends. She often considered him to be her mental life saver.

"Sure," she replied. "At this point, I wouldn't mind picking up this desk and tossing it out the window." Clarice stood up and moved to the edge of the desk. "Here, I'll take this end, you take that. We'll shout out 'bomb's away' before we let go, okay? I can only hope Kendra is under it as it falls."

Seth chuckled. "Your meeting went well then, did it?" he replied sarcastically.

Clarice rolled her eyes. "Devil incarnate was in top form this afternoon, Seth." She sat back down in her chair. "She's demanding an answer as to why I haven't been able to capture Lecter in the last five years."

Seth bent down to pick up the papers scattered on the floor.

"Oh, no," Clarice beseeched him, "Seth, you don't need to do that. I'll get those later."

"I'll get them now," Seth smiled. He placed them on her desk and sat down in a chair opposite the desk. "She asked why YOU haven't caught him? What about the rest of her damned department? If she's that concerned with actually finding Lecter, why doesn't she assign more of us to the case?"

"That's exactly what I asked her," Clarice replied. "But she refuses to use more manpower on a case that as she said, 'should have been closed years ago'." Clarice sighed again. "I don't know, Seth, I'm thinking that maybe I've had enough of the Bureau's bullshit."

"I can understand your desire to quit. I just hope you don't, Clarice. Give it some more time."

She stretched her arms up high above her head, twisted her neck to relieve some of the pressure she felt there, and lowered her arms back to her desk. "I just can't do it, Seth. I cannot catch him," Clarice muttered and turned to look out her window. "He's too intelligent to be caught I think."

"But he was caught once before," Seth said.

Clarice looked back to Seth and pondered his statement for a moment. Then she nodded slowly. "True, but his capture was a fluke from everything I've read and heard around the Bureau. Lecter was working as a consultant with an agent to figure out who was committing the very crimes that Lecter in fact was when the agent finally figured out it was him. So it wasn't as if that agent tracked Lecter down out of thin air. It was all coincidence."

"Maybe," Seth mused.

Both agents sat quietly listening to the birds chirp outside. Suddenly, Seth's face brightened.

"You know, Clarice," he said. "You could go talk with the agent that caught him in the first place. You know, just to get any information that he could offer." He shrugged. "Maybe it'll help."

Clarice looked at him and furrowed her brow. "You're kidding, right?" she asked. "I really don't think that's a good idea. I heard that agent went crazy after he captured Lecter, even spent time in Belleview." She shook her head. "I don't think it'd be a good idea."

"Oh, come on, Clarice," Seth pressed. "I heard that he's fine. He even tracked down another serial killer after capturing Lecter." At that comment, Clarice looked at Seth with disbelief written all over her face. "At least so I've heard," Seth continued. "Come on, what would it hurt to at least go and speak with him? Hey, it would get you out of the office and away from Devil incarnate for a couple of days at least."

Clarice chuckled and shook her head. She looked around her office at all of the relatively useless information tacked to the walls and sighed inwardly. She was no closer to capturing Lecter today than she had been five years ago.

"Maybe a different perspective would help," she said at last.

Seth smiled. "That's my girl."

Startled at the phrase, Clarice looked up at Seth. That phrase always took her back to the night Lecter had pinned her to the refrigerator. At one point, he had said those exact same words to her. He had said them softly, almost lovingly. He had said them as only either a lover or a father could have. She shook her head briefly to clear the memories away and focus on the task at hand. "But I need to find out everything I can about this agent before I attempt to meet with him," she said.

Seth shrugged. "I don't even know his name."

"It's Graham," Clarice said quietly. "Will Graham."