Author's note: Glad you all liked Myers driving. Pure evil, though? Moi? Well, we'll see what people say after this chapter….on with the show…
Erin Lander peeked through the peephole and cringed. There was more pounding on the door.
"Dr. Lander? Open the door! I saw you go in there. Open the door or I'll break it down! You're just making this harder on yourself!"
Hiding under the bed was out. They would look there immediately. Her room was on the seventh floor, and it wasn't like she had enough bedsheets to reach the ground even if the windows opened, which they didn't. She picked up the wooden chair she had shoved under the knob. It was light enough that she could pick it up, and she hoped it would do enough damage to let her get in close with the Haldol.
The door jumped and shuddered in its frame. But it was strong. Maybe she had more time than she thought. No, better to do it now, look cooperative, then bam.
"Wait a minute," Erin said. "I'm coming. Just a minute."
"Open the door!" Bang bang bang bang bang. Erin flinched.
But she had to open the door. There was no other way. Erin sighed, took a deep breath, and unlocked the door.
Clarice Starling charged into the room at a full gallop as soon as it was open. Erin raised the chair and swung. It struck Clarice amidships and she stumbled. Erin raised the chair again, meaning to bring it down on Clarice's back. But Clarice was quicker and more experienced at fighting. She moved in closer, shaking off the first blow, and shoved the chair up so that Erin could not strike.
Erin let the chair go and grabbed her syringe. She pivoted in close and brought it down. She was aiming for Clarice's neck, the big carotid artery which would bring the drug right up to her brain. She could see exactly where she wanted to put it. But something was blocking her hand from going further. Glancing over at it, she saw Clarice Starling's hand wrapped firmly around her wrist.
Clarice was an experienced fighter, and it was no contest. She twisted Erin's wrist, forcing the surgeon to drop the needle. Once she was disarmed, Clarice pulled her arm behind her and neatly turned her towards the bed. Erin struggled and kicked, but Clarice slowly but steadily drove her captive towards the bed. Once she had Erin on it, she got her handcuffs out and fastened them onto the smaller woman's wrists. She stood above her on the bed, one hand on Erin's arm, the other on the back of her neck. She stood with her feet further away than was comfortable, so that she was out of range of Erin's kicks.
When Erin had stopped struggling, Clarice relaxed her grip a bit.
"If you calm down for me, I'll let you get up," she said. "I need to talk with you, Dr. Lander."
Erin twisted her head from where it was being forced into the comforter. She said nothing, but stopped moving.
"There you go," Clarice said calmly. "C'mon. I'll stand you up now."
She helped Erin to her feet and steered her over to a chair. Once Erin was settled in it, Clarice was struck by the poison glare of hatred and helpless fury on the other woman's face.
"Goddam you," Erin Lander said hatefully. "Why can't you leave me alone?"
Clarice sighed. "Erin, look. I need to talk with you. I need your help."
"No," Erin Lander said. "I know what this is. You're sending me back to jail."
Clarice sighed. Erin would have to go back to jail for the time being; she had escaped federal custody, after all.
"Just for a little bit, Erin. Listen. If you help me, I can get you out, just like before."
"I'm not helping you," Erin spat. "You just want his scalp on your belt, then I go back to jail. You lied to me."
Clarice sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "No, I didn't," she said. "Now look. Let's talk like calm people here. I need your help and you need mine."
"You need my help," Erin said spitefully. "Ha. So you can lock up my husband and break the agreement and send me there too."
Clarice shook her head. Gotta be compassionate here, Starling, she thought to herself. God only knows what DeGould filled her head with.
"I never meant to break your plea agreement," Clarice said. "Who told you that? DeGould?"
Erin's stony silence was all the answer she got. It was also all the answer she needed.
"Erin," Clarice said, "look. I've been suspended from duty."
"Good," Erin said, her voice choked with anger.
"They accused me of beating you up and not feeding you and all sorts of things. Now look. You know I never did those things to you, right? All I want is for you to tell the truth. Just say I didn't do it. And I'll be there for you, then. I'll get you out of jail as soon as I can. I'll talk to the US Attorney and get the agreement reinstated. But you…you gotta help me. You gotta say I didn't do it. I can't do squats for you right now."
"And you won't do squats for me once you're back," Erin said archly. "DeGould will."
Hearing that name from Erin's lips told her exactly what she was dealing with. Where had she messed up? How the hell had DeGould managed to worm her way into Erin's mind in just one meeting? How the hell had she become Snidely Whiplash here?
"No, no," Starling said, trying to keep her voice neutral. What if DeGould did let her go? She was smart enough to realize that Erin was small fry. "Dr. Lander, Rebecca DeGould betrayed me. She'll betray you too. I know she acted all friendly to you, but you gotta understand…whatever she's got planned for you, it can't be good. Gimme a little credit here. I was good to you. You know that."
Erin simply glared at her and said nothing.
"I don't know what she told you, but it was a lie. I never meant to break the agreement. I was gonna let you go when we caught Dr. Lecter, or once you'd done everything you could to help us. And I'll still do that, but Erin, I can't do that without your help." She took the other woman's arm and met her eyes firmly. Her eyes burned with intensity and –she hoped to God – honesty.
"If you're suspended, then what right do you have to arrest me?" Erin asked.
"Citizen's arrest. You can sue me if you want. I've got a half a duplex mortgaged to hell and back and a ten-year-old Mustang. Want 'em that bad? I'll warn you now, the Mustang needs a new clutch and the muffler's getting pretty beat up. Erin, look. I do want to help you, but you gotta trust me. I can't help you until you say I didn't do anything to you. Please, Erin, let me help you. I helped you before. I'll do it again."
There were a few moments of silence before Erin answered.
"If I go to jail," Erin Lander said acidly, "I'm not saying anything for you, Starling."
Clarice found herself thinking of Dr. Lecter in Memphis, all those years ago. Offering sage culinary advice in his cell: Dumas tells us that the addition of a crow to bouillon in the fall, when the crow has fattened on juniper berries, greatly improves the color and flavor of stock. How do you like it in the soup, Clarice? Erin was a federal prisoner; she would have to go back to jail. If she refused to testify on Clarice's behalf, then they'd both be stuck. Or, God forbid, if DeGould made Erin an offer…well, then it would just be Clarice in the soup. Which was why she had to think of something now.
Wait a minute. Maybe Erin didn't have to go to jail. Heck, she'd impersonated a federal agent to fly with a gun and handcuffs. Why not? She could stash her in the duplex for a couple of days. Once she got reinstated, she could—
No, wait. She couldn't. That would be harboring a fugitive. They'd boot her for that alone. No, she had to do this by the book.
"Look, it has to be this way," Clarice tried again. "It's just for a few days, I swear I'll get you out the minute..the instant I am able. I'll go to the US Attorney, I'll get him to reinstate the deal, Erin, I'll get on my knees and beg if I have to, but you gotta--,"
"If you put me in jail," Erin repeated, "then no statement. Not one word. If you're gonna hang me out to dry, Starling, then I can't stop you, but I can make sure you hang alongside me."
"All I'm asking you for is to tell the truth," Clarice said, trying to keep from hissing. "Then neither of us have to hang."
"You won't. But how do I know you'll keep up your end of the bargain? After all, Starling, the smartest thing for you to do then is walk away. Nobody'll believe a prisoner against an FBI agent."
Clarice chuckled bitterly despite herself. "Dr. Lander," she said ruefully, "I don't always do the smart thing. Fact is, I often don't do the smart thing."
"Oh, really?"
"Yep," Clarice said. Then, in a softer tone, she heard herself saying words she had never permitted to march across her conscious brain, let alone speak. "I didn't go with Dr. Lecter, for one."
She saw Erin's pupils darken at the sound of his name. That was it. That was probably her way in. When Clarice spoke again, her voice was soft and breathy and regretful
"He offered. I told him no. You told him yes. You were right…and I was wrong. And now I can't ever have him back, and I have to live with that. He's your husband. You want to see him again, don't you? Course you do. I can't blame you a bit. You want to be with him, you and him and your baby, all together. And I'll…," Clarice took a deep breath and found her voice clogging for some reason she insisted on banning from her higher brain. "I'll let you do that, Erin. I'll help you do that. But for God's sake, don't let them take this away from me. It ain't much and it was the wrong choice, but it's what I got, and I'll get by. But you…you gotta trust me, Erin. I'm not gonna do whatever DeGould told you I was gonna do to you. It'll just be a couple of days in jail, a week, tops."
"No jail," Erin said firmly. "You want my help, I don't go to jail." Well, at least she was listening. But it still didn't help.
"I can't promise you that," Clarice said softly. "You're in federal custody. You're gonna have to spend a little bit of time in jail. Can't be helped, Erin. What I can promise you is that I won't leave you there. I'll get you back to Quantico, and then I'll let you go."
"To a condo in Arizona where I'd have to spend the rest of my life without him, under a fake name," Erin said bitterly, but her spite seemed to be fading.
Clarice shook her head. "No," she whispered. "I mean I'll let you have him, Erin."
Erin Lander said nothing, but looked curiously at Clarice Starling.
"I'll get you settled in somewhere, Erin, and I know what you'll do. Just what you would've done if this…hadn't happened. The marshals would come out to check on you some day and you'd just be gone, wouldn't you?"
Slowly, unwillingly, Erin Lander nodded.
"Well," Clarice said, "if you help me…if you just tell the truth…I'll let you have him." She sighed and put her head in her hands.
"You made the right choice…and I made the wrong one, Erin. But don't take away from me the only thing I have left. So I'll tell you what. However much time you have to spend in jail…I'll give you twice that, Erin. Twice that as a head start."
"Head start?" Erin asked suspiciously, but she seemed interested.
"Head start," Clarice said, and could hardly believe what she was saying. "Once I'm back on the task force, we'll concentrate on looking for you here. You and him. You spend three days in jail, I'll give you six before we start looking elsewhere. You spend a week, I'll give you two weeks. I told you I'd give you your life back before, Erin. Now I'll go that one better." She sighed, swallowed, and played her trump card. "I'll give you the life you had back, Erin. I'll give you your life with him. You, your baby, and him."
She could see Erin was still not quite convinced. Clarice could hardly blame her. It was her life's work to see Hannibal Lecter incarcerated. But there were many wolves out there other than Dr. Lecter. And there were so very many lambs to save. And if she couldn't have Dr. Lecter herself…if she had turned him down…she didn't want to prevent the woman who hadn't from having him. No matter how much that tore at her.
The Brain Police sprang up expectantly, more than willing to march off the offending thoughts to the gulag of her nether mind.
Fuck the Brain Police, Clarice Starling thought. I made my bed and I'll lie in it, by God. But I won't have the only thing I still want to do taken away from me.
"You'd let me go? Him too?" Erin asked suspiciously.
Clarice nodded. "Not forever," she said. "I can't promise you that. But…you'd have a head start. You..him…," God, it was hard to say. Partially because of her disbelief…and partially because of her own realization that she had made a mistake. Words she had always wanted to hear herself. Words that would have the same meeting to another orphan. "Your family. All together. The way…the way you want it to be."
Erin Lander studied her face carefully. Clarice could see distrust and fear on her face, but also softening and hope. Clarice simply let her think, hoping to God it was enough.
"All right," Erin Lander said finally.
Clarice Starling let out a great sigh of relief.
"Ladies," a voice came from behind them. "How are you? Trust I wasn't too late for the coffee klatch."
Clarice Starling turned. Her hard-won relief suddenly ran from her mind like dirty water. Replacing it was anger, dread…and fear.
Rebecca DeGould entered the hotel room, her weapon out and aimed at Clarice. Automatically, Clarice stood and turned, so that she was protectively in front of her prisoner.
"Agent DeGould," Clarice said, her voice grating.
"Private citizen Starling," DeGould returned, her voice as bitchily pleasant as ever. She nodded at the handcuffed woman in the chair. "Dr. Lander. I'm afraid the end has come to your unauthorized field trip. We'll be taking you to the FBI's Columbus field office. There's a waiver of extradition for you to sign, and if you're smart, my dear doctor, you'll sign it. But don't worry, Dr. Lander, I'm not an unreasonable woman. And it's not you I really want, anyway."
The muzzle of DeGould's weapon waggled at her. "Move away from her, Starling. Now."
Clarice crossed around the chair so that Erin was between the two of them. She didn't think DeGould was going to shoot Erin – or her. Not right here. It wasn't her speed anyway. Or was it? Clarice hadn't thought she was going to betray her.
If this went wrong, Clarice was dead meat. But she had to trust the only ally she might have. Carefully, while she was behind Erin, she dropped two things into the other woman's manacled hands. A leap of faith.
"Away from her, Starling," DeGould said harshly. "Drop the gun, too. And the badge, too."
Clarice glared at DeGould and wondered for a moment what would happen if she simply fired. A quick double-tap and that patrician face would trouble her no more. But then she sagged. Not with a prisoner in the middle of the firing zone. And though killing DeGould would be immensely, immensely pleasurable, it would simply put her in a world of hurt afterwards.
"Fine," she said heavily, and put the gun down.
"Kick it over here," DeGould demanded.
Hating herself, knowing full well she could pick it up and pick off DeGould, Clarice Starling kicked the gun over to her enemy.
"Now turn around and put your hands on your head," DeGould demanded. Clarice complied silently, knowing where this was going.
The ratcheting of the handcuffs was quite loud in the still room. No one spoke.
"Clarice M. Starling," Rebecca DeGould said in a tone of rich satisfaction, "you have the right to remain silent. If you give up this right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, and to have that attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you at no cost. Do you understand your rights as I have read them to you?"
"Yes," Clarice Starling grunted, her voice filled with barely contained rage.
"Good. You are now under arrest." She chuckled. "Now sit on the bed, please. I need to call in a team to come get both of you." Once Clarice had sat down, DeGould pulled out her cell phone. She dialed a number and held the phone to her ear. Her other hand kept the gun on Clarice at all times, even though she was already handcuffed.
"Hi, Sneed," DeGould said cheerily. "You're gonna love this. I've got Lander…and Starling. Both under arrest, already cuffed. I'm gonna call my team." She waited a moment, as the man on the other end of the line asked a question.
"I want you to tip the media," she said, as if Sneed was an idiot. "My team can be here in ten minutes, fifteen minutes tops. I'm gonna spot you five. I want every TV camera I can get here." She grinned coldly. "We want to perp-walk these two for as many cameras as we can. The media – best conviction you can possibly get." She waited another few minutes. "OK, thanks," she said lightly.
Clarice's eyes were rimmed with anger. "What are the charges?" she demanded. "I do have the right to know."
DeGould shrugged and grinned. "Kidnapping," she said lightly. "Interfering with the custody of a federal prisoner. Who knows? Maybe rape, the press would love that. And that's just for starters."
"What about Dr. Lander?" Clarice asked. Erin turned and looked at her, surprised that she would care given the situation.
"Going back to Quantico," DeGould said, and her eyes sparkled with malicious glee. She turned her attention to the handcuffed surgeon. "Oh, don't worry about a thing, Dr. Lander," she said. "Like I said, I want to have a little chit-chat with you. I think we may be able to help each other. I don't know what former Agent Starling has been telling you, but I assure you, I'm a reasonable woman…and perhaps even generous to those who please me." She chuckled. "Now, keep in mind, Starling is suspended. I am the one who has legal custody of you. But we'll talk later. Alone." She smiled bitchily at Clarice Starling.
Clarice sighed. She could see where this was coming. And for a woman in desperate straits like Erin, there was no guarantee she would do what Clarice wanted. DeGould could doubtlessly be very convincing. Why, Dr. Lander, Starling's a lost cause…don't throw away your life. Just sign this affidavit, testify for me, and you'll be free. Not too different from what Starling was offering her. The only real difference was that it would be the truth. Would that matter to Erin? Would a woman with so much on the line – her marriage, her baby, her life – care about the truth? Clarice had worked the seamier parts of law enforcement, and her experience told her that most people would sell out for much, much less. It was a depressing fact of life, but that's how prosecutors did most of their business. Often the guy Clarice arrested one day would be testifying the next month against his former cohorts, and a couple months after that, he'd be back on the street.
It took perhaps fifteen minutes before other agents were brought up to the hotel room to bring both of them down. They seemed shocked to see their current boss holding a gun on their former boss. But they swallowed their surprise and did their job. DeGould gave them instructions.
"I want Clarice put in the back of my car, which is a few car-lengths up from the entrance," DeGould said. "I want another car pulled up right near the entrance for Dr. Lander. Don't be rough with her, but I want her in the car before they get too many pictures of her." She didn't need to add that it was Clarice who would be the main event, paraded in shame before the cameras. Trying not to think about it, she glanced over at Erin Lander and realized that Erin had colored her hair red and wore blue contact lenses. We're going to look like the fucking Bobbsey Twins gone bad, she thought.
Two agents scooped up Dr. Lander and began walking her down the hall to the elevator One other pulled Clarice to her feet. With a sinking feeling, she watched Rebecca DeGould approach her other side. Thankfully, DeGould kept her mouth shut on the ride down. The air of victory radiating off the hateful bitch was all she needed to express her assessment of the situation.
…
Dr. Lecter had been roaming the streets around OSU, believing that his wife would stick close to what she knew. He noticed the first car pulled up by the hotel lobby. Quite obviously a police car; it was a big rear-wheel-drive sedan, which was tip enough. Secondly, it had been sitting there for some time. The hotel staff was also distinctly hands-off towards it, neither unloading it or telling the driver to move.
When he saw news trucks begin to arrive, he suspected this might be something worth checking out. He swiftly hailed a taxi and asked the driver politely for the nearest electronics store. Once there, Dr. Lecter selected a very nice and expensive 35mm camera and flash. He explained that he was in a bit of a rush. The transaction was swiftly completed, which Dr. Lecter appreciated. Normally he liked to shop, to peruse things a bit more, but now he was in a rush.
When he got back to the hotel, he was almost bowled over to see the two women in his life both marched out in handcuffs. He saw through the hair and eye color Erin had employed to disguise herself almost immediately. She did not look at him. Even so, he was well disguised himself. They had her swiftly in a car and shut in, agents standing casually by the windows in order to foil photographers.
Then Clarice, being led along in shackles in front of the gauntlet of cameras. Dr. Lecter raised his own and took a photograph. Now this was something he had never expected to see. The woman alongside her was quite brassy and self-confident. Dr. Lecter pinned her as the leader of this task force almost immediately. She seemed to quite enjoy parading her captive for the cameras. She smiled at them as she walked down to the car Dr. Lecter stood not far away from.
When she got closer, Dr. Lecter raised his hand.
"Jason Michaels, CNN," he said. "Could you tell us what this is about? Is this related to the Lecter case?"
The woman turned after stuffing Clarice into the back of the car and smiled a practiced, phony smile.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Agent Rebecca DeGould, the task force leader for LECTFOR. As you may know, a few days ago, we had Dr. Erin Lander – a protected witness – escape from federal custody. After allegations of abuse came to light, former Agent Clarice Starling was placed on administrative leave. We just found both of them up there. Dr. Lander was handcuffed in a chair with former Agent Starling looming over her with a loaded .45 in her hand. We got there just in time, the poor thing."
"What are you going to do with them?" Dr. Lecter asked, and took her picture in order to feed her ego.
"Dr. Lander will be checked out at a local hospital and then returned to custody pending the US Attorney's decision on what to do next. Ms. Starling will be transported to the local jail on charges of kidnapping and interfering with the custody of a federal prisoner."
"Any news on Dr. Lecter?" another reporter over Dr. Lecter's shoulder asked. How very ironic, Dr. Lecter thought.
"We have several good leads on Dr. Lecter," DeGould said smoothly. "We've cracked several of his false names and expect to have him in custody shortly. My name is Rebecca DeGould, that's D-E-G-O-U-L-D, and I'm the task force leader." She smiled coldly and opened the driver's side door of the car Clarice was stashed in the back of. "But if you'll excuse me, I have to take this criminal downtown."
Dr. Lecter sighed as she got in the car and left. Now really, this was uncalled for. He'd offered to help Clarice if she needed it, and it was safe to assume she needed him now. Getting Erin from the hospital would be easy, and could wait a bit. He melted into the crowd and disappeared, heading for his car.
Rebecca DeGould played a bit more for the reporters and then slipped behind the wheel of the car. Clarice glared at her openly and hatefully, but did not speak. DeGould's eyes met hers easily and unafraid in the rearview mirror. Her carefully painted lips curved up in a cool, victorious smile.
"Next stop," Rebecca DeGould said, "county jail."