As she walked Luca towards the privacy of the house, Clarice was grateful that it was so dark. Not that she would have been worried about the neighbors; the district the house situated was famous for the high walls around the houses and seemingly deaf and blind residents. No, the fear of getting caught wasn't why she silently thanked the higher powers. The reason behind her gratefulness was that the darkness hid her completely. She was excited, nervous, scared, impatient, exhilarated… All of this and more, she felt, showed on her face and she did not wish Luca to notice just how much this meant to her.
They arrived to the door. Clarice took the keys from her purse and tossed them on the ground at his feet.
"Open the door." She didn't recognize her voice. Did she sound so calm? So cold? When her insides were burning and heart running like a racehorse in the Kentucky Derby?
Luca didn't fight her - he had the brains to realize when it was better not to. He picked up the keys, unconsciously waiting for her to shoot him in the back, and opened the door. It opened just as soundlessly as it had hours before, when he had come to pick her up - something that felt to both of them like an extract from some other dimension.
The house was dark; Luca had an uncomfortable feeling of being eaten alive when he stepped in. The silent voice the closing door made behind them didn't hear far.
She marched him in front of her into the living room. The room didn't seem to fit with the scene it was now witnessing. It was too refined, too sophisticated for this brutal act; two realities melting together.
Keeping all emotions and feelings away from her face she gestured - commanded - him to sit down on the sofa. The springs squeaked faintly as he did; a voice which made both of them startle. One more than the other.
And then, a moment of total silence. They measured each other with their eyes, both evaluating the situation. By now it was very clear to Luca that he had been very, very wrong about this woman. She wasn't what she had pretended to be and Luca felt foolish to have fallen into her games. Still… He couldn't escape the feelings he had for her, which made him feel even more stupid about himself. The woman was aiming a gun at his head and still he marveled the way the light complimented her skin and danced in her eyes as blue as the ocean in fairytales.
Clarice, on the other hand, didn't feel foolish at all. For the first time in God knows how long she was in control of the situation and her emotions. She had a mission, a goal, and she was damn near achieving it. Now, if she played her cards right, soon she might know a hell of a lot more of her life than she did know.
She sat into a chair opposite to the sofa and kept the weapon aimed at him.
"First of all, Luca, I'm sorry about this." Honestly speaking, she was. Not for him, probably, but because of the situation in general. She had wished that she would have been able to handle her own life and own messes without any outsiders.
Luca's eyes were black. He couldn't help feeling betrayed. "Then why are you doing it?"
Clarice's look was calm and her voice showed no sign of second thoughts or remorse. "I have to."
"Why?"
Clarice didn't answer right away. When she did her voice was a degree colder than before." That's hardly any of your business."
Bitterness made his voice raspier than normally. "I think I'm entitled to know. You used me."
Clarice snorted. "Entitled? Used? What had you planned for this night? I think it contains some 'using', too. So don't preach me about using."
Ouch. He had definitively underestimated her. "Ok, I misjudged you. I'm sorry. But it doesn't give you the right to point a gun to my head."
A slight shrug of shoulders and an answer with a neutral tone. "Maybe not."
"But you are. Why? What did I do?"
She looked at him, her face totally expressionless. "You think this is about you?"
Now he was confused. "It isn't?"
Before she had a chance to answer, he continued. "I mean… I really don't understand what is going on. All I did was to take you on a date. Ok, I admit, I wanted to… Well I acted foolishly and apparently took you for something completely else than you are, but isn't this," He nodded towards the gun, "a bit overstated?"
Clarice smiled a wry smile. "You think that's why I'm doing this? Because you wanted to get in my pants? Even you must understand how stupid that sounds." She stood up from the chair, keeping her eyes and the gun aimed at him. "Understand that this has nothing to do with you. Nothing. It's a plain coincidence that you are here." There was a new level of annoyance in her voice.
"Coincidence? Do you always take men in your home and aim a gun at them?" It wasn't probably the best time to try to be witty but... There is only so much a man can take.
Clarice ignored him. "The reason you are here, Luca, is that I need to ask you something."
He just stared at her, feeling weirdly amused. It was not like he had a choice.
She looked calm but her eyes glide in a way which made Luca nervous. That's why her question was an even bigger bomb.
"Who are you working for?"
The fact she had caught him off guard showed on his face and heard in his voice. "What… How…"
Seeing him so surprised, opening and closing his mouth like a fish on a dry land, Clarice couldn't help feeling slightly pleased. Her act had really sunk into him.
But the satisfaction her acting skills provided wasn't the point here.
Not giving him much time to recover, she finished his question for him.
"How did I know what you do for living?" She paused for a second, as if to think what to say next. "Let's just say that I have my… resources. But I think that question falls pretty much into the same category as why I'm doing this; I can't and won't tell you."
Stunned, confused, surprised. "Then why should I tell you whom I'm working for?" Desperate.
There was a flicker in her eyes. For a short moment Luca wondered if she was slightly insane. "Because I'm the one holding the gun." There was terrible simplicity in her answer.
"Uhm."
She stared at him without blinking. "Who are you working for?" The threat of what she might do if he decided not to share his information was obvious in her voice.
Honestly speaking, Luca was irritated. Scared he was also, but disguised some of it as a sheer annoyance. He had been fooled, lied to and now this woman was threatening him with a gun and insisting on to know who had hired him. Luca might not like Dr Golding but he had his honor. He had never let a client down and he wouldn't do so now - not even if it cost him his life. Straightening himself in the chair he gathered all his willpower and answered her ice-cold stare.
"I can't and won't tell you."
Clarice looked at him and saw him in a whole new light.. It seemed she had given this man too little credit; he maybe wasn't as stupid as she had considered him to be. She came to think that the information about him in his flat case file had perhaps been accurate. He was the man on his field, and you can't be that if you're a teller.
But, as admirable his work ethics might have been in some other circumstances, she would have to force the information out of him. In one way or the other.
She let out a considered sigh. "I don't want to kill you, but I will if you don't work with me."
Luca gulped. Was Dr Golding worth this? Especially when he also had expressed his not-so-friendly feelings?
Clarice noticed his hesitation. She took a step towards him and pointed the gun right between his dark eyes. She listened to herself for a while. Would she be able to do this? To shoot him in cold blood?
Kill a man just to serve her own purposes?
Murder because of her determination?
Take a life on the behalf of her own happiness?
The answer was yes. She didn't bother to analyze it any further.
"I'll ask you one more time. Who hired you?" Her voice was as cold as the gun in her hand.
Luca looked in her eyes and saw she would shoot him.
He gulped.
An arched eyebrow was the last chance he'd get.
Without even realizing it, he stopped breathing.
Time passed extremely slowly.
To die with honor or to live in shame?
A slight movement on the finger resting on the trigger.
To die or to live?
The hell with honor.
And like that, looking at the bride of Satan in the eyes, he broke his oaths to himself. Had the feelings he still foolishly had for her something to do with it... Maybe, maybe not. But he knew that the woman in front of him was the only person on the face of the earth who was -and ever would be- able to brake him.
Some lady.
"Dr. Golding. Dr. John Golding." His voice was silent. Betray yourself and let's see if you can speak out loud.
Clarice's level of anticipation rose to the clouds. Her mouth felt very dry. Pa-Dam, Pa-Dam her heart beat. When she spoke her voice was husky.
"What does he look like?"
Luca didn't care anymore. He was beaten. "Fifty-sixty years old… Brown eyes, dark hair. Sleek. The man is a fucking weirdo if you ask me."
Clarice felt like kissing him. Or herself.
"And why did he hire you?" It was hard for her to control her voice.
Luca felt tired… Tired and old. And something else… Cheap? "I don't know. I honestly don't know. He just wanted me to follow you."
The feelings she experienced were too much for Clarice to take. There was some reason, an explanation to why he had left. There were more in the picture than eyes were able to see.
Not even realizing it, she muttered his name.
"Hannibal…"It wasn't much more than a sigh but Luca heard it. And then it all came to him in one terrible realization; he understood why Kelly had seemed so familiar and why Dr Golding had scared the living shit out of him.
Jesus fucking Christ.
He looked at her face -Starling's face - and saw her eyes where unnaturally clear. They both knew that he knew.
He also knew he wouldn't leave the house alive.
When she spoke her voice was soft as a Harpy folded in angora. "Where is he, Luca? Where is Dr. Lecter?"
The name uttered aloud was like a punch into stomach. Hannibal fucking Lecter. He couldn't bring himself to answer to her, just stared at her with his mouth open and face pale as a sheet.
Starling, obviously, wasn't the model figure of patience.
"Where is he?" Her voice was harsher.
His mouth closed with a snap and he gulped. The glee in her eyes forced him to speak.
The voice leaving his numb lips was nothing but a whine. "Have you lost your mind?" It was a stupid thing to say and he knew it, but it was all he could think about.
Clarice had had it. She closed the distance between them with a single step, grabbed his hair into her fist and pressed the gun against his temple. As she leaned to hiss the words to him her eyes were burning like coals.
"It was mine to give away. Where is he?!"
A voice, deep and soft, coming from the living room door chased the Grim Reaper waiting for Luca away.
"I'm right here, Clarice."