A/N: Here is the next chapter, hope you like. Please R/R.PLEASE.
::silence:: Or not, it's okay.
Disclaimers: No.do not own anything except for our souls! We aren't making any money of this, so please no suing.
Clarice Starling sat on the hard copper park bench. She was muttering to herself, shuffling and quickly thumbing through the thick stack of papers that rested in her lap. Pen in hand, she marked some unintelligible scribble on one sheet of paper, licked her thumb for better friction, thumbed through four more sheets and marked again. One sheet full of words and five digit numbers with a large black and white picture of a sullen looking woman, scraggly hair and deep-set eyes appeared from the stack. Clarice slid her sunglasses from her nose to rest on top of her head and squinted down at it, then held it out at arms length.
"Damn," she muttered and shoved it back into the pile. The case she was currently working on was a sticky and confusing one. Some drug bust on Fifth Avenue had caused a real stir with the FBI a few days ago, mainly because the dealer was a member of the gang that had been tipping off and guarding Evelda Drumgo, the infamous femme fatale that Starling had shot and killed some time ago. There had been a drive by shooting by one rival gang as the deal was in progress, and several people including three innocent bystanders had been shot and killed. The woman Starling had just seen in the picture was Amanda Slade, a gang member's girlfriend. She had just gotten out of jail and had been missing for about a week and a half, more or less. A caption under the picture read that she was last seen with Brian Kelly, who was in fact this drug dealer from Starling's case. It seemed there were now multiple reasons this man should be locked up in jail as of now.
Starling sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She sat back and closed her eyes and let the cool breeze kiss her skin. She listened to the calming sound of wind rustling through the tall trees around her and kids playing and laughing gleefully on the swing set in the distance, and could feel the warm sun on her hair and bare arms though could not see it. A bit of her stress seemed to melt away...
A sudden memory flashed quickly, vividly in her mind. A dimly lit room, a wild crazed face set off with icily impassioned eyes bearing into hers with fire, seeing straight to her soul. A burning sensation in her stomach, steel in her eyes. Warm breath on her neck.
"Tell me, Clarice, would you ever say to me...'Stop! If you loved me, you'd stop?'"
Now fire in both of their eyes, devouring each other.
"Not in a thousand years."
"Not in a thousand years? That's my girl!"
Clarice Starling was jerked violently out of her deep thoughts as she felt a pair of soft fingers sweep across her neck, sift lightly through her hair and disappear
"Hannibal..." she breathed, teeth clenched, with a mixed tone of deep consuming relief and earth shattering passionate anger.
She snapped her eyes open and turned swiftly around on the park bench, searching around frantically. Thoughts of Lecter raced in her mind, but she saw no one around her, only the little neighborhood kids playing on the playground some distance behind her.
"No, couldn't be. My mind is getting to me," she reassured herself. That would be impossible. "It was probably one of those stupid little kids playing a trick on me. Yeah, that's it..." With that, Starling gathered all her stuff and left to meet Delia at The Zia Diner to discuss the case.
Clarice Starling walked briskly along 21st street, on her way to meet Ardelia at the local cafe to discuss this drug bust case. She needed a lot of help on this, and Ardelia was the only person that she could think of who would be willing to help her out on it. Starling came to the intersection of 21st street and Manhattan Avenue and waited with the crowd of people to cross the street.
Why was it her of all people to get assigned to this case? Hadn't the bureau gotten the hint that she'd had enough of Evelda Drumgo? Sometimes, she thought, they did it to spite her. To mock her. She knew one reason for sure: Paul Krendler.
As Clarice stood waiting, she looked across the street. There was an outdoor sidewalk sale going on at a small clothing shop, and she could see the pantomime of the shoppers talking, comparing prices. Her eyes slowly drifted to rest on a small pigeon pecking at a breadcrumb on the curb. A noisy city buss stopped at the intersection, releasing its breaks with a noise somewhat like a can of soda pop being opened, and the small bird flew away.
Her eyes wandered still, gazing at the crowd of people at the opposite crosswalk. She locked eyes with a man in a black business suit and briefcase. His eyes were concealed behind dark shades, but she could feel his eyes on her. He smiled. She grinned back slightly, and then looked to the ground.
The light changed red, and both parties proceeded across the street. As she passed the man that had smiled at her, a gust of wind brushed her hair and made her eyelids flutter, and she caught the distinct smell of the mans cologne. She recognized the fragrance at once, and turned to glance back at the man...but he had disappeared. The sense of smell is one of the oldest of human senses and closest to the center of the mind. It can bring back the most vivid of memories, more than any scene, sound of taste ever could.
Clarice Starling's heart began to beat wildly as memories cascaded into her mind...as she flipped through these, one picture flashed intensely among them and then froze still like a freeze frame in her memory.
It was another dark picture, her dark office, lit only by a small lamp on her desk. Pouring over names, faces, locations...all having to do with Dr. Hannibal Lecter. She remembered the light fragrance of his letters...Armani men's cologne, she had guessed. She also remembered staring at his picture for some time, lost in thought.
"Where are you." she had thought over and over again. "Where are you...where are you...?"
As she neared the cafe, Clarice Starling shook herself angrily out of her thoughts once more. She suddenly clapped her hands quickly and fiercely together, as if smacking the memory out of her head. Several bystanders on the street looked at her awkwardly. Clarice looked back at them and realized how crazy she must have looked...she had probably even been talking to herself without realizing it. These thoughts and memories were indeed driving her mad.
Clarice opened the door to the cafe and stepped inside, letting a small gust of air in behind her. The cafe was small and Vintage, it had an early 90's feel. Sounds of clinking silver-wear and hamburgers sizzling and spitting on the grill filled the cafe.
Clarice immediately found Ardelia sitting at the closest booth to the door.
"Hey girl," she said as Clarice threw her purse on the table and sat down.
"Hey," Clarice said. She paused, and then continued, "Smells great in here."
"You want somethin' to eat?"
"That'd be great. What's that you're drinking?"
"Just a coke."
"I want one of those, too."
Ardelia laughed. "Sure thing."
A waitress came over to take their orders and once she left, Delia and Clarice began to discuss the case. Clarice explained about the drug bust and Amanda Slade and Brian Kelly. Ardelia nodded and sipped at her drink thoughtfully.
"You have no proof that this Kelly guy kidnapped that woman," she pointed out when Starling was finished.
"Slade was last seen with this guy, one week ago. She has been reported missing since then. He's been reported missing since last Tuesday, right after he dodged the D.C. cops the day of the bust."
"So what are you saying?"
"Slade and Kelly were boyfriend and girlfriend. Now let me tell you something, Kelly doesn't have a clean record at all-" She laughed. "Oh, no. Far from it. He's had a history of gang related violence and has been arrested more times than you could count. Yet various people have bailed him out every time. According to the police reports. He and Evelda were close. Very close, based on what the sources have said. Now Evelda, she had a lot of money, what whit her drug selling and rich husband and all. My guess is Kelly took a lot of shit for Evelda and got arrested for it, but was bailed when he did his time and got paid good money for it. I'm thinking Evelda just had different people from her little club to bail him out each time, and he'd do it all again for a couple hundred. Now I believe the reason the police never figured this all out is for one, they were extremely discreet. And two, what could they do if they found out? Chase Evelda Drumgo? They were already doing that. Plus Kelly never actually killed anyone, did almost everything but, but nothing a couple Thousand-bail money couldn't take care of. He had to have been her most valuable-"
Clarice was cut off short when the waitress came by with their food and drinks.
"Thanks-" Clarice glanced at the waitresses nametag, "Betty."
"Your welcome," she said. "Is that it?"
"Yes, thanks," Delia said. Clarice smiled and nodded, and Betty walked back to the bar, disappearing behind the counter.
"Alright, go on." Delia said picking up her fork.
"Well now that Evelda's gone..." Clarice paused, resisting another wave of terrible memories. She shook her head and popped a French fry into her mouth.
"Kelly doesn't have bail money now. He doesn't have any more rich friends. At least, not ones that care about him enough. I would think that he's still got money from Evelda in savings, but no...I found out he blew it all on a Jaguar with a full-out stereo system. Blew thousands and thousands just on that. So when he did this drug deal, he drew attention to himself, and he had no bail money this time so he ran. Maybe he didn't want her to squeal or maybe he just wanted some company with him, maybe even both, but either way he took Amanda Slade that day and left town. Took his Jag with him. A bystander caught the license plate. Damn stupid bastard, if you ask me. He'll either get caught or have to ditch the Jag. Tough luck, huh?"
Ardelia sat still for a moment once Clarice was done.
"That's some stupid confusing shit right there," she said.
"Damn straight."
"So what do we need? Proof?"
"Proof. And we need to track this guy down."
"All right. What do we need to do with all this?" She motioned to the stack of folders and files on the table.
"We gotta go through these police reports and talk to people who knew Kelly. Plus file a missing person report...no one has done that yet...have our friends in New York and places like that be on the look out for him."
"We'd better cancel his checks and credit cards...things like that."
"Good thinking."
Delia smiled and clapped her hands together.
"Alright, lets see these reports," she said sliding the stack of papers from the side of the table to sit in front of her. Clarice smiled and popped another French fry into her mouth.
Disclaimers: No.do not own anything except for our souls! We aren't making any money of this, so please no suing.
Clarice Starling sat on the hard copper park bench. She was muttering to herself, shuffling and quickly thumbing through the thick stack of papers that rested in her lap. Pen in hand, she marked some unintelligible scribble on one sheet of paper, licked her thumb for better friction, thumbed through four more sheets and marked again. One sheet full of words and five digit numbers with a large black and white picture of a sullen looking woman, scraggly hair and deep-set eyes appeared from the stack. Clarice slid her sunglasses from her nose to rest on top of her head and squinted down at it, then held it out at arms length.
"Damn," she muttered and shoved it back into the pile. The case she was currently working on was a sticky and confusing one. Some drug bust on Fifth Avenue had caused a real stir with the FBI a few days ago, mainly because the dealer was a member of the gang that had been tipping off and guarding Evelda Drumgo, the infamous femme fatale that Starling had shot and killed some time ago. There had been a drive by shooting by one rival gang as the deal was in progress, and several people including three innocent bystanders had been shot and killed. The woman Starling had just seen in the picture was Amanda Slade, a gang member's girlfriend. She had just gotten out of jail and had been missing for about a week and a half, more or less. A caption under the picture read that she was last seen with Brian Kelly, who was in fact this drug dealer from Starling's case. It seemed there were now multiple reasons this man should be locked up in jail as of now.
Starling sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She sat back and closed her eyes and let the cool breeze kiss her skin. She listened to the calming sound of wind rustling through the tall trees around her and kids playing and laughing gleefully on the swing set in the distance, and could feel the warm sun on her hair and bare arms though could not see it. A bit of her stress seemed to melt away...
A sudden memory flashed quickly, vividly in her mind. A dimly lit room, a wild crazed face set off with icily impassioned eyes bearing into hers with fire, seeing straight to her soul. A burning sensation in her stomach, steel in her eyes. Warm breath on her neck.
"Tell me, Clarice, would you ever say to me...'Stop! If you loved me, you'd stop?'"
Now fire in both of their eyes, devouring each other.
"Not in a thousand years."
"Not in a thousand years? That's my girl!"
Clarice Starling was jerked violently out of her deep thoughts as she felt a pair of soft fingers sweep across her neck, sift lightly through her hair and disappear
"Hannibal..." she breathed, teeth clenched, with a mixed tone of deep consuming relief and earth shattering passionate anger.
She snapped her eyes open and turned swiftly around on the park bench, searching around frantically. Thoughts of Lecter raced in her mind, but she saw no one around her, only the little neighborhood kids playing on the playground some distance behind her.
"No, couldn't be. My mind is getting to me," she reassured herself. That would be impossible. "It was probably one of those stupid little kids playing a trick on me. Yeah, that's it..." With that, Starling gathered all her stuff and left to meet Delia at The Zia Diner to discuss the case.
Clarice Starling walked briskly along 21st street, on her way to meet Ardelia at the local cafe to discuss this drug bust case. She needed a lot of help on this, and Ardelia was the only person that she could think of who would be willing to help her out on it. Starling came to the intersection of 21st street and Manhattan Avenue and waited with the crowd of people to cross the street.
Why was it her of all people to get assigned to this case? Hadn't the bureau gotten the hint that she'd had enough of Evelda Drumgo? Sometimes, she thought, they did it to spite her. To mock her. She knew one reason for sure: Paul Krendler.
As Clarice stood waiting, she looked across the street. There was an outdoor sidewalk sale going on at a small clothing shop, and she could see the pantomime of the shoppers talking, comparing prices. Her eyes slowly drifted to rest on a small pigeon pecking at a breadcrumb on the curb. A noisy city buss stopped at the intersection, releasing its breaks with a noise somewhat like a can of soda pop being opened, and the small bird flew away.
Her eyes wandered still, gazing at the crowd of people at the opposite crosswalk. She locked eyes with a man in a black business suit and briefcase. His eyes were concealed behind dark shades, but she could feel his eyes on her. He smiled. She grinned back slightly, and then looked to the ground.
The light changed red, and both parties proceeded across the street. As she passed the man that had smiled at her, a gust of wind brushed her hair and made her eyelids flutter, and she caught the distinct smell of the mans cologne. She recognized the fragrance at once, and turned to glance back at the man...but he had disappeared. The sense of smell is one of the oldest of human senses and closest to the center of the mind. It can bring back the most vivid of memories, more than any scene, sound of taste ever could.
Clarice Starling's heart began to beat wildly as memories cascaded into her mind...as she flipped through these, one picture flashed intensely among them and then froze still like a freeze frame in her memory.
It was another dark picture, her dark office, lit only by a small lamp on her desk. Pouring over names, faces, locations...all having to do with Dr. Hannibal Lecter. She remembered the light fragrance of his letters...Armani men's cologne, she had guessed. She also remembered staring at his picture for some time, lost in thought.
"Where are you." she had thought over and over again. "Where are you...where are you...?"
As she neared the cafe, Clarice Starling shook herself angrily out of her thoughts once more. She suddenly clapped her hands quickly and fiercely together, as if smacking the memory out of her head. Several bystanders on the street looked at her awkwardly. Clarice looked back at them and realized how crazy she must have looked...she had probably even been talking to herself without realizing it. These thoughts and memories were indeed driving her mad.
Clarice opened the door to the cafe and stepped inside, letting a small gust of air in behind her. The cafe was small and Vintage, it had an early 90's feel. Sounds of clinking silver-wear and hamburgers sizzling and spitting on the grill filled the cafe.
Clarice immediately found Ardelia sitting at the closest booth to the door.
"Hey girl," she said as Clarice threw her purse on the table and sat down.
"Hey," Clarice said. She paused, and then continued, "Smells great in here."
"You want somethin' to eat?"
"That'd be great. What's that you're drinking?"
"Just a coke."
"I want one of those, too."
Ardelia laughed. "Sure thing."
A waitress came over to take their orders and once she left, Delia and Clarice began to discuss the case. Clarice explained about the drug bust and Amanda Slade and Brian Kelly. Ardelia nodded and sipped at her drink thoughtfully.
"You have no proof that this Kelly guy kidnapped that woman," she pointed out when Starling was finished.
"Slade was last seen with this guy, one week ago. She has been reported missing since then. He's been reported missing since last Tuesday, right after he dodged the D.C. cops the day of the bust."
"So what are you saying?"
"Slade and Kelly were boyfriend and girlfriend. Now let me tell you something, Kelly doesn't have a clean record at all-" She laughed. "Oh, no. Far from it. He's had a history of gang related violence and has been arrested more times than you could count. Yet various people have bailed him out every time. According to the police reports. He and Evelda were close. Very close, based on what the sources have said. Now Evelda, she had a lot of money, what whit her drug selling and rich husband and all. My guess is Kelly took a lot of shit for Evelda and got arrested for it, but was bailed when he did his time and got paid good money for it. I'm thinking Evelda just had different people from her little club to bail him out each time, and he'd do it all again for a couple hundred. Now I believe the reason the police never figured this all out is for one, they were extremely discreet. And two, what could they do if they found out? Chase Evelda Drumgo? They were already doing that. Plus Kelly never actually killed anyone, did almost everything but, but nothing a couple Thousand-bail money couldn't take care of. He had to have been her most valuable-"
Clarice was cut off short when the waitress came by with their food and drinks.
"Thanks-" Clarice glanced at the waitresses nametag, "Betty."
"Your welcome," she said. "Is that it?"
"Yes, thanks," Delia said. Clarice smiled and nodded, and Betty walked back to the bar, disappearing behind the counter.
"Alright, go on." Delia said picking up her fork.
"Well now that Evelda's gone..." Clarice paused, resisting another wave of terrible memories. She shook her head and popped a French fry into her mouth.
"Kelly doesn't have bail money now. He doesn't have any more rich friends. At least, not ones that care about him enough. I would think that he's still got money from Evelda in savings, but no...I found out he blew it all on a Jaguar with a full-out stereo system. Blew thousands and thousands just on that. So when he did this drug deal, he drew attention to himself, and he had no bail money this time so he ran. Maybe he didn't want her to squeal or maybe he just wanted some company with him, maybe even both, but either way he took Amanda Slade that day and left town. Took his Jag with him. A bystander caught the license plate. Damn stupid bastard, if you ask me. He'll either get caught or have to ditch the Jag. Tough luck, huh?"
Ardelia sat still for a moment once Clarice was done.
"That's some stupid confusing shit right there," she said.
"Damn straight."
"So what do we need? Proof?"
"Proof. And we need to track this guy down."
"All right. What do we need to do with all this?" She motioned to the stack of folders and files on the table.
"We gotta go through these police reports and talk to people who knew Kelly. Plus file a missing person report...no one has done that yet...have our friends in New York and places like that be on the look out for him."
"We'd better cancel his checks and credit cards...things like that."
"Good thinking."
Delia smiled and clapped her hands together.
"Alright, lets see these reports," she said sliding the stack of papers from the side of the table to sit in front of her. Clarice smiled and popped another French fry into her mouth.