(QUANTICO. AUGUST 11)

"Her name is Alyssa James, twenty three. Taken from Ohio." Crawford spoke, looking over the photographs of the last mangled body found scattered around on his desk, the dark circles around his eyes had grown darker and deeper, like the confirmation of a collapse.

"The Zeon club's in Ohio." said Clarice.

"Yeah, she worked there."

Clarice's eyes widened ans she almost shouted at him. "She worked there?"

"Yeah, bar staff. She was reported missing ten days ago."

"It's the club. It has to be. All three victims have been there."

"What do you want to do, Starling?"

"I don't know what we can do, we can't just go in there and arrest everyone." she said.

Clarice looked down at her hands, her nails bitten down. The first lead and she had no idea where to go with it, though she knew who would and no longer cringed at the thought of going to see him.

"What about Lecter?" she asked, trying hard not to seem too enthusiastic.

He sighed and rubbed his nose. "It's worth a try. You want me to get on to Chilton?"

"Please." she said, taking the photographs and stacking them neatly, along with the case files and her recording device and packing it all in her bag before making her way to the Baltimore asylum for the criminally insane.

Clarice hurried, her heels clicking frantically against the shiny floor, eager to get an idea on the new lead and excited for forbidden reasons too. She walked as fast as her legs would carry her without running. She did not try to hide her loud sigh when she heard the hurried footsteps of Dr Chilton behind her, echoing in the halls like the tedious drone of a clock. Just the idea of being in the same building as Chilton made her want to heave.

"Miss Starling!" he shouted, purposely avoiding calling her Agent Starling.

She stopped walking and didn't turn, waiting for him to catch up to her and star his pathetic argument, bracing herself for a wave of cheap cologne to drown her.

"Miss Starling." he panted when he finally stopped at her. "I heard about your little rendezvous with Lecter the other night."

"I wouldn't call it a rendezvous."

"You stayed the night, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes I did."

"A little inappropriate, don't you think?"

"Usually I would agree with you, but the circumstances that night meant that I had no choice but to stay, so I did." she said, trying to walk past him but being blocked.

"This is my hospital and he is my patient, it won't happen again. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand. But do you understand that if you don't let me do my job, I'll charge you with wasting FBI time? If so, then I suggest that you remain silent and get out of my way."

Chilton's face dropped and Clarice walked around him. She hurried down the steps, through the orderly office and to the last cell, where Dr Lecter was sitting at his desk, waiting for her as he always did, his curious poise ever apparent as he leaned back and positioned his fingers under his chin, one leg bent over the other. He closed his eyes and tracked her footsteps, counting them. He opened his eyes a second before she arrived.

"Good afternoon, Clarice."

"Hi, Doctor." she sighed, so thankful to hear that raspy voice again.

"Are you feeling all right? You look a little stressed."

She shook her head. "Chilton."

"Ah yes, Dr Chilton. Please ignore him."

Clarice sat in front of the glass, ignoring Barney's neglect at putting a chair out for her, probably at Chilton's orders, and observed his cell, her heart jumping when she spotted a few drawings that he had completed when she was sleeping. His skill was astonishing.

"Now tell me, what have you found?"

"The third girl is Alyssa James, twenty-three, she was taken from Ohio and found in the rolling Fork River in Kentucky, where Bill's third victim was found. There was a Mimicry lodged into her throat and she had been cut like the others, fed glass too."

"What else?"

"She worked at the Zeon nightclub in Ohio. I went there and there were hundreds of pictures up on the walls of the customers, two of which were Madison Grant and Brianna Dylan."

"You finally have a lead."

She shook her head. "Yes, but I don't know what to do with it."

"And you want my help?" he asked.

"Of course."

He moved in his seat and linked his fingers, suddenly looking at her from beneath his brow. "Old Jackie Boy must be getting desperate now, sending you here to squeeze information from me every day."

Clarice nodded and stared blankly, and Dr Lecter cut through the air with his words again. "He really should be taking it easy, he's not getting any younger, you know."

Clarice laughed. "Neither are you." she said, then tilting her face up to him with an unusual mischievous grin. "But then again, some things just get better with age. Like a fine wine."

He was half pleased and half amused, his smile proving it. Clarice was happy to see him smile, it was something that didn't appear often, something you were lucky to catch a glimpse of, like a solar eclipse. She hoped that she could make it a regular event.

She sighed. "So, will you help me with my lead?"

"First, tell me about your dream."

"My dream?"

"Yes, the one you neglected to tell me about the other day Clarice. The one that I appeared in."

She remembered it and looked down, taking a moment of enjoyment from the imaginary events that occurred in it and then looked back up at Dr Lecter, waiting with the red sparks in his eyes shining bight.

"I told you that it wasn't important."

"Clarice, I suggest that if you want to save any more lives, you put your judgment aside and tell me."

She felt heat rise beneath her cheeks and forehead and felt a rush of temptation to tell him and watch his reaction, watch if he began excited or embarrassed. "Well, you were there, and I was here."

"And where were we?"

"In your cell."

"What were we doing?"

"We were talking, communicating." she said, trying to tame the smile that was trying to curl her lips.

"Is that all?"

Her eyes travelled down to the cell of the floor and she felt his glare on her, eager for more information. "No."

"What else were we doing, Clarice?"

"Well, uh… we just…"

"Go on, Clarice." he whispered.

"I suppose we may have… maybe just at little…"

Dr Lecter sat forward and looked at her beneath his brows. "Yes?"

"We kissed." she said quickly with a shrug of her shoulder.

Dr Lecter's mouth seemed to drop a little and a quivered breath escaped, just the thought of being able to touch those lips could make him melt. He blinked slowly and was stuck there. His teeth came together and his red tongue moved over them before he spoke with eager eyes.

"And how was it?"

"It was… good, I suppose." she said, smiling at his face for a brief moment and then silencing it. "Now, Doctor, please help me."

Dr Lecter sat back again, positioning his fingers beneath his chin once more, basking in what Clarice had just revealed to him but putting it aside for a moment.

"Well, Clarice, it seems that Mimi may choose her victims at this Zeon club in Ohio, it would also explain her choice of moth, Mimicry, a night predator. Now, to select her victims, she probably has to have a good view."

"You mean someone who works there?"

"Could be, or it could be a customer. If so, she would be a regular customer. Also, Mimi placed a body where Bills' sixth victim was found, then fourth, then third. If she was going in opposite order, as we suspected, then I suggest that you search where the fifth victim was found. Where was that?"

She thought for a second. "It was the Kittridge girl, in Georgia. But we already searched that river."

"Search it again, if there's no body then we can be sure that she isn't going in any order."

"What do I do about Zeon?"

"Clarice, I am assuming that, from your qualifications in psychology, you are familiar with the psychologist Sigmund Freud."

"Yes..." she said, questioning his train of thought.

"He suggested that underlying wishes which sometimes exist in the unconscious are revealed in dreams. It is the theory behind his psychoanalytic dream interpretation."

"And?"

"And do you think that it was exercised in your dream, Clarice? Was it your underlying wish that crept up into your sleeping mind?"

She sat forward and looked at him sternly. "No."

"Interesting."

She tilted her head. "Dr Lecter, I need your help on this case now, we don't have much time."

"Go to Zeon, have a look around. You are looking for a Caucasian female, large, strong and possibly some disfigurement. She'll be looking around at the women, choosing her next victim. You can't do much more."

"Thank you, Dr Lecter." she said, standing. She considered something and took a long breath. "I love the earrings."

"I'm glad. I am particularly proud of my choice, they compliment you very well. Not that you need it."

She felt heat flash beneath her clothing and her eyes darted for a second. "They look expensive."

"Price isn't important."

She shrugged. "Were they… just an apology?"

He blinked lazily, his head tilted to one side and gaze humming a deep tune. "I think that you know the answer to that."

She breathed in and her heart dipped in her chesy, she stared at him with a painfully sad look on her face, her frown sad for some reason. "Thanks, Doc."

Dr Lecter suddenly felt warmer. "You're welcome."

"See you."

"Goodbye, Clarice." he said as she walked away. "You will let me know if I visit you tonight, won't you?"

Clarice left the asylum with his words ringing in her head, creating something which she denied as pleasure and pushing them back, trying to concentrate on driving. Her handsome home comforted her and she wanted to relax, but she had a job to do.

"Dee?" Clarice asked, sitting on the arm of the sofa.

"Yeah?" Ardelia asked, flicking through that day's paper.

"I have to go to this Zeon nightclub tonight, will you come with me?"

"Sure. What you wearing?"

"It's not really important, it's Mimi." Clarice said a little hesitantly.

"Mimi?"

"Yeah, we think that's where she's choosing the victims."

"So we're walking into right the hands of a serial killer?"

"We'll be careful." she said, sliding down to sit directly next to her. "Please, Dee. I don't want to go alone."

"Only if I can use it as an excuse to get wasted."

"Fine, but I can't drink."

"Poor you." she said, smiling at Clarice.

"Get ready." Clarice said, standing. "It's in Ohio."

Clarice fumbled with her purse as she walked beside Dee towards the Zeon nightclub. They both looked the part, with dresses which ended way above their knees and their makeup heavy, though Ardelia was the only one there for a good time. It wasn't busy when they got there so there weren't any lines to wait in and they went straight to the bar, sitting on the tall metal chairs.

It was a huge club and the lights were shining green, blue and pink on everything, though it was still dark in there. It was one huge room with the bar on the lowest level and a dancing space in front of it, and then two small sets of stairs on either side, leading up to a higher dancing space. There must be hundreds of people in there at one time and Clarice knew that it wasn't going to be easy to spot Mimi.

After about an hour sitting at the bar, the club started to fill up. As Clarice expected, there were hundreds of students there and she couldn't help but identify young women who could easily be Mimi's next victim. She pictured them cold and still lying in front of her, their skin marked blue and red and she had to look away from them.

Clarice realised that she was alone and swiveled on her chair to look at Ardelia, who was dancing much too close to a young, tanned man, or rather, boy. She was clutching an empty bottle and intoxicated already. Clarice was reminded of the days when she used to go out partying every week, mostly with Ardelia, but for some reason, the idea of getting smashed and waking up next to a complete stranger didn't appeal to her. She didn't want the wild life that Ardelia craved so much.

Clarice left her coke on the bar and struggled along it, past the groups of people, getting eyed by everyone and avoiding eye contact. She walked to the photo hall and stood leaning against the wall, peering for a possible Mimi. It was ridiculous, she thought, to even attempt to find a potential serial killer in a place so crowded but she didn't want to waste the opportunity and tried anyway.

Above the little photo hall there was another little room, no dancing in there but just people sitting and looking down on the dancing, it instantly struck her as somewhere where Mimi would lurk. She looked up to the people who peered down on the dancers, all with drinks in hand and smiles on their faces. None of them seemed drunk. There was no one there who stood out, they were all different shapes and sizes, men and women, white, black, asian.

"This is hopeless…" she whispered to herself.

(OHIO, ZEON CLUB. 23:13)

It's busy tonight. Really busy. Good, good. Better chance of a good crop. Oh, look at her… It's possible. She's a little brave. Look at her dancing up so close to that guy. I don't know, she could be too brave. She's new too. Let's see… Oh, who's this? Another new one? Well, well… Hmm… Very cute, petite, just perfect. But what's this little spot on her cheekbone, a beauty spot? I wouldn't be surprised. Ooo, she looks strong, she runs, look at her calves, yes, she runs. Why does her face look familiar? I've seen that face somewhere before. Why am I thinking the newspapers? Wait a minute. Well ,well ,well, how interesting, how delicious. It's so dangerously tempting. She's perfect, small, cute, pretty, strong. I wonder…