"Found this one in a school bus, sitting across the aisle from himself. Not only did the Ripper take his kidneys…" Zeller paused like he was about to accomplish something, "But he also took his heart, which, if you'll recall, is what he tried to do in the hotel, but was interrupted before he could paint his picture."
"Which doesn't sound like the Ripper at all. The Ripper wasn't painting a picture in the hotel. Someone else was." This was his life right now. Hannibal looked particularly pleased about Will defending his work. Will wished he didn't look so damn smug about it.
"You still think he was ripping out a heart to save a life?" Zeller asked incredulously, like this wasn't Will's entire profession, the one he literally taught FBI classes on.
"Yes, I do. I don't think. I know." Will snapped, sick and bored stiff from all this back and forth.
"Well, the Ripper painted this picture, for sure." Beverly gestured to their unfortunate bus passenger. As expected, he had company, four bodies in total laid out before them. Will wondered what they had done to piss Hannibal off, making a mental note to ask later.
"Could all victims' organs have been harvested for transplant?" Will decided to focus on finding this wannabe surgeon.
"Absolutely. One could put the organs on a ventilator, long enough to coordinate the donation." Hannibal said, taking his time walking around the bodies. Three out of the four were his, of course, so he was just peacocking now. Hannibal was also soaking up all the rage Jack was quietly exuding as he just stood there, staring down the corpses like they might sit up and talk.
"A subtle variation on waking up in a tub of ice missing a kidney?" Beverly said, clearly intrigued.
"I love a good urban legend." Price as well.
Zeller, not so much. "At the hotel, the victim's abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava, that's like the kidney's in-and-out for blood, was entirely removed." Will inwardly groaned, wondering about his odds were about keeping Zeller alive. He didn't really want to be fed Zeller at some point.
"They're like USB cables. You keep them intact for an easy reconnection." Beverly explained to Will further.
"That is a wonderful analogy. I believe you would have been delightful as one of my residents." Hannibal graced Beverly with a compliment, souring Zeller.
"You and my parents both, but I prefer them non-moving and quiet." Beverly grinned.
"My former profession's loss is the FBI's gain." Hannibal said, lavishing his attention on her. Yup, if anyone of the team were going to survive this ordeal, it would be Beverly and Price. "Were Mr. Caldwill's heart and kidneys disconnected for an easy reconnect?"
"Yes, they were." Beverly was highly intelligent, but she, like so many others, fell for Hannibal's charm. You simply wanted to like him, and be liked by him.
"Um, other Ripper victims' organs and USB cables missing?" Will asked, wishing this wasn't so tedious. This was so damn time consuming, having to convince the entire time of "who did what to whom".
"It's inconclusive due to the degree of mutilation, but yes, that's how the Ripper rips." Zeller answered.
Oh Zeller, you not long for this world, are you? Will wished he believed in prayer. He could really do with some patience right about now.
"Two different killers, same agenda?" Will could have hugged Beverly.
"Is the organ harvester disguising his work as the crime of serial killer, or is the serial killer disguising his crime as the work of an organ harvester?" Brownie points awarded to Price as well. Beverly and Price were on board. Zeller still had the air of being a terrier about it all being the Ripper so Will had to do something he'd rather not with Hannibal present.
"The Chesapeake Ripper," And now he had the entire room's attention, Will keeping his voice soft and thoughtful, almost with the quality of reverence. "Wants to perform. Every brutal choice has…elegance, grace."
Could monsters fall in love? Hannibal certainly looked like he was giving it a try.
"His mutilations hide the true nature of his crimes." Will finished, looking away so he wouldn't start blushing under Hannibal's intense scrutiny or in front of the team whose job was to be observant.
"I wish he was a little less mysterious about it. These are all missing different organs. Before, we were just looking at waiting lists for a heart or a kidney." Price looked irritated as he moved from body to body. "Now we're looking at hearts, kidneys, livers, stomachs, pancreases. This guy is missing a spleen!"
Jimmy Price was not a happy man.
"A spleen! Who the hell gets a spleen transplant?" Will bit back a smile as Price fussed at the corpses. Hannibal was doing something similar to hide his own amusement.
"Intestines are the only organ missing from this body?" Will asked before Price started frothing at the mouth over spleens. All this was like leading a damn horse to water to try making that fucker drink.
"Yeah, right, so we're either looking for someone with short bowels or…" Zeller said, this time coming closer to the truth than anyone else for once. "The Ripper is making sausage."
"He's selling these organs to someone." Jack said, reminding everyone that he was still in the room.
"We don't even know if he's transplanting them within the US. He could be exporting them to China." Zeller sighed.
"The Chinese have a cultural taboo that restricts voluntary donation. You gotta die with all your parts, or you dishonor Mommy and Daddy." Price expanded.
"I mean, you could still kill a guy for parts. That doesn't break the taboo." Zeller said.
"I was agreeing with you." Price sassed when Zeller gave him a look. "Well, I was."
"Your tone was a little…" Zeller said, giving Will a moment of insight about the pair. There was something there if either of them wanted it to be there. Will wondered if they knew.
"Okay, okay." Jack put an end to the tiff, a little to Will's disappointment. Hannibal caught his eye to wink at him. They definitely had something new to talk about. "How many killers?"
"Two." Will answered easily enough.
"You confident one of them is the Chesapeake Ripper?" Jack asked his favorite question.
"Yup." Will put an emphasis on the 'p' so it popped. Jack looked annoyed, but kept sullenly silent for once.
"What have we got on the possibility of a kill vehicle?" Will asked the room.
""About that," Beverly answered, looking radiant about something so Will knew the next part was going to be good. "I think I've got something. I've been looking for the kill truck-a van or SUV-but it was a whole lot easier than that."
Beverly put what she had found on the main viewing screen in the lab. It was a bird's eye view of a parking lot with a cop car arriving while an ambulance left the scene. All in all, it looked pretty unremarkable.
"What am I looking at here?" Jack asked for the group.
"One of the hotel's security cameras." Beverly said as the team played "Where's Waldo" looking for the clue.
"And the kill truck?" Jack prompted.
"It's a private ambulance." Will answered, his amazement making Beverly grin over at him.
"The city works with dozens of private companies. So what?" Zeller grumped, not recognizing the importance of the scene playing out before they all.
"Including this one, but not as a first responder. A first responder driving away was from the emergency." Beverly wasn't about to be detoured. "An ambulance would be a smart place to perform surgery."
"Indeed. No one would think twice about seeing blood in an ambulance." Hannibal nodded.
"And if the cops show up, blend in and drive away." Beverly said.
"Society, including law enforcement, knows not to hinder an ambulance." Will added.
"Excellent work, Ms. Katz. You may have just found one of our killers." The Ripper told her.
"Looks like we got a lead, people!" Jack boomed, the team like a pack of hunting dogs catching the whiff of a scent as everyone grabbed their stuff in preparation to leave. "Doctor Lecter, I assume you'll be tagging along to help catch the Ripper?"
"How could I refuse? I wouldn't miss it for the world." Hannibal's answer made Will want to kick him.
Beverly basically took lead, quickly sussing out where MN19 would be when it became apparent that the ambulance was not in the garage for repairs. Their suspect was a medical pretender, one Devon Silvestri who was taking the MCAT's. Beverly find their kill truck easily enough with a DF sweep.
Hannibal and Will stayed back by the cars as Jack led other armed agents to the ambulance with a shotgun steady in his hand, ready to jack up the law of it turned out to be the killer he hoped and prayed for.
"This entire process has been very educational." Hannibal smiled as the doors of the ambulance were flung open. Mr. Silvestri was definitely in there, working on his next victim.
"Try not to sound so smug about it." Will muttered.
"Doctor Lecter!" Jack yelled, his shotgun still trained on Mr. Silvestri who was not coming out like he was supposed to.
Exchanging a look between them, Hannibal and Will jogged over to the ambulance. They discovered that Mr. Silvestri had been interrupted mid-surgery and that his victim was still very much alive at the moment.
"I need you to assess the situation here, Doctor." Jack bit out. He was definitely irked about having to ask Hannibal for help, but he prioritized.
Whisking his coat off to hand off to Will for safekeeping, Hannibal quickly climbed into the ambulance to glove up. "He was removing his kidney." Hannibal confirmed. "Poorly." He added, making Mr. Silvestri grimace up at him. Will was glad he was in the back as he quietly laughed.
"Do it." Jack snapped.
And then the real performance began. Will had not been exaggerating in the lab about Hannibal's elegance or grace. He performed surgery as easily as breathing. Will watched transfixed as he witnessed firsthand the Ripper saving a life. After experiencing all of Hannibal's sounders in vivid, cruel detail, it was surreal. Will couldn't make himself look away even if he wanted to.
"Have you got it?"
"I got it."
"Mr. Silvestri, put your hands behind your head and the exit the vehicle slowly. Do it." Jack ordered, Mr. Silvestri emerging with a defeated air about him. He was directed to the side of the ambulance. "On the ground. On your knees."
Grateful that his view was now completely unobstructed, Will moved in a little closer to watch Hannibal work. He was entranced by the movements in Hannibal's forearms, by the red on the blue of his gloves. Hannibal noticed Will watching him so intently, winking at him before turning his attention back to the victim's guts.
"I am so fucked" was all Will could think to himself.
He was still thinking that to himself as he kept Hannibal company in Mrs. Komeda's kitchen. She recently had it fully renovated to Hannibal's specifications. She wasn't about to allow Hannibal to weasel out of this dinner party for any reason under the sun. What surprised Will was the presence of other chefs, acting as supporting help. Will carefully stayed out of their way, doing his part by topping off his and Hannibal's wine.
"What are you doing with that?" Will asked. There was a lot of moving parts, but he knew blood when he saw it.
"I have a butcher," Which made Will roll his eyes, "Who carries sow's blood."…Aka the second victim in the latest sounder…."Centrifuge-separate the matter from the water-creates a transparent liquid. Serve the tomatoes in suspension and everybody will love the sweet taste."
"Looks like you're almost done here. I'll go try to be a social butterfly." Will sighed, downing the last of his wine. He ignored the annoyed look Hannibal gave him about the break in etiquette.
"Are you sure you can't stay here with me?" Hannibal asked.
"Only if we can hide out here for the rest of the night." Will tried his hand at bargaining.
"You underestimate the veracity and temperate of your host." Hannibal chuckled.
"Speaking of which, I'd better go check in on how Franklin is doing in the deep end of high society."
"Hopefully drowning." Hannibal muttered.
"He's not that bad. You're just fussy." Will grinned, already hearing Franklin's call for him.
"Ah! Here you are in the inner sanctum." Franklin gasped, wide eyed as he rubbed necked to take it all in.
"Yup! This is where all the magic happens." Will ran interference before Franklin wandered in too far or got too close to Hannibal while he was holding a knife.
"Whatcha got there, good buddy?" Made Hannibal wince, Will's use of his accent edging on malicious. He was about to roll out some Cajun French to see its effect, but Franklin did him a solid.
"Gouda." Franklin said with reverence for the cheese.
"Oh Goudie!" Will said as he made full eye contact with Hannibal, watching the corner of his eye twitch ever so slightly from the pun.
Thankfully for everyone involved, Franklin soon left with Will, the pair happily chatting about Tyromancy and about the aged blue cheese Franklin had brought with him for tonight's entertainment.
Hannibal sighed inwardly, taking a deeper sip of his red than he usually would have allowed himself. It was going to be a long night.