The Alexandria Detention Center was a reasonably modern jail. It lay in suburban Virginia, not far from the Pentagon and a few blocks from the federal courthouse. Although a county facility, it had a contract with the federal government to house federal prisoners. The convenience and security it offered could not easily be denied. The Alexandria Detention Center had held high-security, high-profile prisoners before. They were up to the task of holding Susana Alvarez during her trial.
It is a common misconception that murder is not a federal crime. This is not true: murder has been a violation of 18 USC 1111 since 1988. Although usually the federal government will defer to the states, it does not always do so, and it did not in the case of Susana Alvarez Lecter. For a few years before, Susana had blown up a building, killing almost the entire Hostage Rescue Team of the FBI, along with those men and women of Behavioral Sciences who had come along for the collar. That accounted for sixteen of the seventeen charges against her. The seventeenth was for the murder of Deputy Chief Peter DeGraff. Susana had not killed him at the factory she had killed the others in. Instead, she had kidnapped him and driven him to his home. There, with her cousin as a captive dinner guest, she had fried DeGraff's intestines and served them as dinner.
The National Tattler featured her on its front page and gleefully reminded its readers that not only had it detailed all the crimes of her father, it had also published articles about her a few years back, when Lisa Starling was first on the case. The Tattler was unable to secure an interview with Lisa Starling despite its best efforts. It was not known whether Lisa would testify against her cousin.
Susana Alvarez Lecter was confined in administrative segregation on the women's cellblock of the jail. Replacing the expensive townhouse was an 80 square foot cell, containing merely a shelf, a bed, a sink and a toilet. Her cell did offer one amenity that her father had once been willing to trade the life of Catherine Baker Martin for: a small window. The cell opened onto a larger dayroom where other inmates were allowed to congregate. Susana was not, however; she was deemed a security risk. Every fifteen minutes, someone would check her through the small viewing window on the steel door of her cell.
In charge of Susana's cellblock was Lieutenant Kelly McNeely. Lt. McNeely oversaw the women's section of the jail. She wasn't terribly happy about her new charge. Most female inmates under her care were charged with non-violent offenses. Drug charges were the most common: probably one out of three. Unlike the men in the other sections of the jail, most of her inmates were more likely to employ tears rather than force to get what they wanted. Every single working day provided Kelly McNeely with at least one crying inmate. Usually more. At times, it seemed to Lt. McNeely that she ran a day care center for adults.
So into this tiny, insular world of the cellblock came Susana Alvarez, who was as far from the usual inmate as one could get. Whereas most of the cellblock's inhabitants were not violent, Susana was capable of the same heights of violence and horror as her father. She shared his civility and politeness as well, which was fortunate. Lt. McNeely had taken the time to investigate both Susana's crimes and her father's, and she was determined that there would be no nurse incident on her cellblock. It had been two months since Susana had been brought here, and things had settled down into a sort of calm. Susana wasn't a difficult prisoner, and eschewed tears or histrionics to get what she wanted. That tended to dispose Lt. McNeely favorably towards her. She did possess a slew of attorneys, but handled any legal issues with her jailers on a professional basis.
So far, things had settled down into a routine. Susana was kept locked down in her cell, as was normal for high-security prisoners. She was allowed two hours a day out of it for exercise and phone calls. This was a great deal more than her father had once been permitted, but he had been a patient in a criminal asylum, not a federal prisoner. As well, the years that had passed since Dr. Lecter's incarceration had granted more rights to those in prison.
The lieutenant was not completely unsympathetic to her uncommon prisoner, and she knew from previous experience that high-security prisoners could often lose their minds through the sheer mindless tedium of lockdown. Lt. McNeely was scrupulous in observing the rights and privileges that Susana was allowed. Books, phone calls, commissary – small things to a free person, but of greater importance to the incarcerated. Behind it all were the simple, unlovely facts of penology: that even these small privileges were dependent on Susana's behavior. So far, she had not needed to discipline her most dangerous inmate. That was good: privately, Lt. McNeely wanted to avoid it if it was humanly possible to do so. For counterpointing the facts of penology was another unlovely fact that never left Lieutenant Kelly McNeely's mind: a Susana Alvarez Lecter without any incentive to behave was not something she wanted to think about.
At first, Susana had simply ignored Lt. McNeely unless it was time for her to be let out of her cell. After a few weeks of stony silence, she had exchanged simple pleasantries with her through the tray slot of the cell door. From there, they had gone into deeper discussions. Susana was too canny to avoid discussing anything incriminating with her keeper, but there were plenty of other things to discuss. Medicine, surgery, philosophy, genetics, and science. Susana knew a great deal about all of it. Despite herself, Lt. McNeely began to look forward to the occasional discussions, held after lights-out before she called it a night.
But it was all routine, and the lieutenant liked it that way. Things ran smoothly: her most dangerous prisoner was cooperative. The unit ran relatively smoothly. No one got their jaw broken or their tongue eaten. Lt. McNeely's carrot-and-stick combination seemed to work on Susana as well as the more common inmates. And things were calm for a while.
Lt. McNeely's radio buzzed. It was the front office, informing her that a visitor up front awaited. She knew what this was about and sighed. The front office was not that far away from the cellblock, but there were plenty of gates and doors in between. Made getting there a pain. But she soldiered on gamely enough through the maze of bars and reached the front office.
The office itself could have been a waiting room in any large doctor's office or other business. Nothing in the room suggested that people were locked in small cells not one hundred yards away. Lt. McNeely adjusted her belt and arranged her red hair under her uniform cap as she glanced around. The receptionist wordlessly pointed at a blonde woman sitting in a waiting-room chair. The woman stood, arranging the skirt of her smart suit. A badge labeled Visitor hung from her lapel. She extended a hand.
"Lieutenant McNeely?" she asked. "I'm Special Agent Lisa Starling. We spoke on the phone."
Lieutenant McNeely though back to a few days ago, when the FBI agent had called her. She nodded. "Yes. I remember. You're here to see Susana Alvarez."
Lisa nodded. She seemed tense. This wasn't unusual in first-time visitors to the prison: by their nature, prisons tend to make people uncomfortable, even when they are not confined in them. Then again, Lieutenant McNeely thought, it was probably hard to be an FBI agent when your cousin was a dangerous serial killer.
"Yes," Lisa affirmed. "I called the jail, too, before. I'd like to know if I could give her this." She reached into her briefcase and removed a plastic bag. From it, she extracted a small Walkman-style radio. "They said that prisoners were allowed to have it, but I'm not sure if she is."
Lt. McNeely considered. Ad-seg prisoners weren't supposed to have radios, but Susana had behaved well enough and she was willing to indulge her uncommon charge. It would make the strict terms of Susana's confinement easier to bear. Knowing what she knew about Susana, that might save the lives of one or more of her staff. Finally, she nodded.
"All right," she said. "But leave the box and the bag here. Just the radio. And I'll give it to her. Come with me."
As they proceeded through the jail, Lisa felt nervous. The clang of barred gates closing behind her made her nervous. Lt. McNeely briefed her as they walked.
"So far," she said, "Susana has been pretty well behaved, we haven't had any major problems with her. We keep her segregated from the other inmates. Normally, we do visits in a non-contact basis, through phones and a partition. You may need to wait for those. There's also a room we have inmates meet with their lawyers in, and if you want, you can visit her there." She gave the FBI agent a questioning look.
Lisa realized that the jailer meant to ask if she was amenable to being in the very same room with Susana Alvarez Lecter with nothing but air between the two women and trembled. But wait, no, they would make some sort of arrangements to keep her safe. And besides, she knew Susana would not kill her.
"That'll be fine," she said.
"OK, then. A few ground rules. Do not try to touch her and don't let her touch you. You can give her anything on soft paper. No staples, no paperclip, no pens, nothing else. Do not accept anything she tries to give you. If she has something she wants to give you, she does that through us. And she knows that."
Lisa nodded.
"This is not totally regulation," the lieutenant added. "The rules say any ad-seg inmate gets only non-contact visits. I'm doing this as a favor, since you're FBI and…well…family."
Lisa nodded again and smiled tightly. "Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that."
"What I mean is don't go back and file a report saying I let you do this."
"Of course not," Lisa answered. "I was wondering…would it be possible for me to see her cell?"
Lt. McNeely shook her head. "No. No visitors in the inmate pods. Too unsafe." She neglected to mention that the only real danger was Susana Alvarez herself. Lisa Starling could fend off most of the other inmates by simply yelling at them. "Why do you want to see her cell?"
"To see what's there," Lisa hedged. Then, realizing that was only drawing a quizzical stare, she elaborated. "To see how she has things arranged. See if she's drawing anything. If so, what she's drawing. That sort of thing gives us some insight into what she's thinking."
Lt. McNeely rounded on Lisa then and stood in the middle of the concrete hallway.
"OK, wait a minute," she said. "Don't try to tell me you're doing this for the FBI. I know you're not. She hasn't gone to trial yet and her lawyers would have a field day with that if you were. People try to con me every single day, Starling."
Lisa sighed. "No…wait…that's not what I meant." She shook her head and looked vaguely guilty. Lt. McNeely, who heard those words at least five times a day, looked on unconvinced.
"I'm not here as part of anything official," Lisa admitted. "Just as her cousin. And I…well…I have some bad news for her."
Lt. McNeely's ears pricked up and her head tilted, not unlike her prisoner. Her tone lost any jocularity. "All right," she said. "Tell me now, that way I know what to expect."
Quietly, Lisa told her as they started back down the hall.
Lt. McNeely took off her hat and ran her fingers through her hair. "Great," she said. "Just what I need."
"It's not--," Lisa started.
"I know, it's not your fault." The final gate opened and she escorted Lisa to a small, barren little room. A scarred table and two chairs were all that was there. The door to the room was barred. Lisa realized that they meant to lock her in with Susana Alvarez Lecter and trembled involuntarily.
"Have a seat," the lieutenant said calmly. "We have to go get her. She doesn't know you're coming. It'll be a bit."
Lisa sat and waited nervously. Lieutenant McNeely turned and stalked down the hall. Lisa's news was not a good thing. It would upset the routine. But she couldn't exactly forbid Lisa from telling her cousin the truth. As she headed down the corridor to Susana's cell, she rounded up some guards in order to give her the benefit of numbers. Susana Alvarez hadn't done anything yet, but there was little sense in taking chances.
Susana Alvarez Lecter's cell was at the end of the cellblock, and there were no inmates either the cell adjoining hers or the cell across the hall. Normally, there were no other inmates down in that corner. This time, there was. Lieutenant McNeely recognized another of her federal inmates, Ana Castillo, squatting down by Susana's door and whispering through the tray slot. Lt. McNeely sighed. Castillo was perfect prey for Susana: barely nineteen years old, small, and barely spoke English. She was one of McNeely's champion weepers. She thought her guards might show her some sympathy because she was small, nonviolent, and easy to control. In that, she had been largely correct. She had also thought she could smuggle a large amount of cocaine taped to her body into the country, but she had been mistaken on that score.
"Castillo," she said sharply. The woman looked up with wide eyes.
"Castillo, you don't belong down here. Leave her alone."
"Yes, ma'am," Castillo said in a voice that sounded like a Guatemalan Betty Boop. Tears welled in her eyes. McNeely fought the urge to roll hers. Crying. Here we go again. Oh my God, more crying. Her voice was gentler when she spoke again.
"She's in ad seg, Castillo. We keep her separated. She's dangerous. Leave her alone and she'll leave you alone."
"Yes, ma'am," Castillo repeated. She took a step forward as if to flee, then looked at the four correctional officers and halted.
"Scat," McNeely said, and Castillo scatted, at least fifteen feet or so down the hall where she turned and watched them prepare to open the monster's cell. She watched them with wide eyes, looking like a little girl watching the zookeepers enter the tiger's cage.
Lt. McNeely stood in front of the heavy steel door that was all that separated her from Susana Alvarez Lecter. She could see a silhouette inside the cell, seated on the bunk. Although she had to do this every day, it never got any easier. Every time she did this, she always had to wonder. Was this going to be the time Susana had outthought her? The pictures of the nurse Dr. Lecter had attacked all those years ago were available on the Internet, and Lt. McNeely did not intend her picture to follow suit.
She took her radio and told the picket officer to open Susana's cell. With a mechanical buzz and a click, the door swung open. Lt. McNeely took a deep breath and stepped forward into the monster's lair. The other guards flanked her and waited.
Susana sat cross-legged on her bunk, watching the lieutenant calmly. Her maroon eyes were placid as she watched the woman in front of her. She had heard them coming – four guards made enough racket that they couldn't possibly hope to sneak up on anyone – and had simply retreated to her bunk. She seemed vaguely like a lioness about to spring on her prey, even though she had not acted violently during her incarceration.
"You're early," Susana Alvarez Lecter said calmly.
Lt. McNeely let out a slow, measured breath. "You have a visitor. Cuff up."
Slowly, languidly, Susana got off her bunk and stood. She took an opportunity to stretch before facing the far wall and compliantly placing her hands behind her back. Lt. McNeely put the cuffs on her and took out a leather belt, fastening it around Susana's waist.
"If it's another Tattler reporter, I'm not interested," Susana said blandly, as if McNeely was her social secretary instead of her jailer.
"It isn't," McNeely said calmly. "By the way, want to tell me what you were doing with Castillo?"
Even though she couldn't see Susana's face, Lt. McNeely knew she was amused. "Talking," Susana said calmly.
"She's not supposed to talk to you, and you're not supposed to talk to her," the lieutenant reminded her. "You know the rules."
"I suppose," Susana allowed. "But the poor dear hardly speaks English, and there aren't many Spanish-speaking inmates she can speak to."
"She can speak English and it isn't your problem anyway," McNeely riposted, kneeling to attach the leg irons. The other guards stood ready to enter the cell. If there was going to be a problem, now would be the time. Everyone except Susana tensed.
"She knows a few English phrases, less even than a phrasebook." Susana observed. Her voice took on pedantic tones not unlike her father's. "She knows that if she smiles and says 'Yes, ma'am', that will get her through most situations. If you asked her what her favorite color was she couldn't possibly answer you. You haven't noticed because she isn't a discipline problem and so you have no reason to pay any real attention to her. Haven't you noticed that any time she wants something complicated she seeks out Officer Martinez?" Susana chuckled. "But she sought me out because she wanted someone to talk to. She's lonely and scared and only half understands what's going on. And her public defender is Anglo, they've probably passed twelve words together and she might have understood two. The poor thing." She shook her head in mock sympathy.
Lieutenant Kelly McNeely realized that her caged killer had just essentially accused her of ignoring an inmate who couldn't understand them and gritted her teeth. Don't let her get under your skin, she counseled herself. She double-locked the ankle chains and took her prisoner's upper arm.
"We'll take care of it," she said briskly. "Now, come on. Back out of the cell. Slowly."
Susana's restraints assured that fairly well, and she left the cell without fuss. Ana Castillo was still down the hall, watching and waiting. Again, Lt. McNeely was reminded of a little girl at the circus, fascinated by the tiger. She stood in front of Susana along with another guard flanking her. Two more stood behind her.
"Castillo, I said get out of here," McNeely said, trying to sound stern. "You're not supposed to talk to her. We've got to move her now. Go to the dayroom or I'll write you up."
"Dice que tienes que ir. No se permite hablar conmigo. Necesitan movarme. Vaya al cuarto de dìa o ella te escribarà un billete," Susana Alvarez Lecter said helpfully.
Lieutenant McNeely turned around and gave her prisoner a short look. Susana met her eyes easily, unafraid. Even chained and surrounded by four armed guards, she seemed to be amused by it all.
"She doesn't understand you," Susana said simply. She shrugged in her restraints.
"Just come on," McNeely said, and led her prisoner down to the visiting room. When Susana saw Lisa, her eyes widened just a bit. She sat down when Lt. McNeely told her to and sat passively as the lieutenant ran the chain between Susana's handcuffs and belt through a ring on the table. Lisa eyed her cousin uncomfortably, squirming a bit under the steady gaze from those maroon eyes. Susana did not speak until Kelly McNeely had left the room and closed the door, watching carefully through a glass partition.
"What a surprise," Susana Alvarez Lecter said conversationally. "Thank you for coming, Lisa."
Lisa Starling observed her cousin carefully. Susana looked worse after her time in jail: she was noticeably paler and looked thinner. She doubted someone of Susana's tastes would care for jail food.
"Hello, Susana. How are you doing?" Lisa asked stiffly.
Susana shrugged and rocked her hand back and forth in a comme ci, comme ca gesture. "About as well as can be expected. This jail food is awful, it gives me a stomachache. You'd have thought I'd have gotten used to it by now, but there you go. How about yourself, Lisa? How's life in the FBI treating you? I should think it would be better now that there's no more DeGraff to get in your way."
"Just fine, Susana," Lisa said tightly.
Susana tilted her head and watched the other woman with interest. "Why come all this way if you're just going to be distant?" she asked. "Or have you come to gloat?" Her voice held a hint of bitterness, and Lisa started: she had never heard such a thing in Susana's voice before. "Come to vaunt your profiling prowess? Crow about how you caught me?"
Lisa shook her head. "No. I came here to see you, crazy as that sounds."
"I see. They're planning to kill me, you know."
Lisa had seen the newscast in which the USDA had announced that he would seek the death penalty for Susana Alvarez Lecter.
"I know," Lisa said carefully.
"How does that make you feel, Lisa? Happy and contented? Sated? Satisfied that your masters' baying for my blood will be answered at long last?"
Lisa sighed and shook her head. "You haven't been found guilty yet, you know," she pointed out. "Let alone sentenced. And you've got an attorney."
Susana chuckled cynically. "You're so naïve sometimes, Lisa Lee Starling," she said. "You and I both know what the outcome of this trial will be."
Lisa shrugged. "Talk to your attorney. See if they'll plea bargain."
Susana snorted and shook her head. "They won't and I don't want to rot in prison for the rest of my life anyway." Her chains clinked as she leaned forward. "So do you feel victorious, Lisa? Are you happy with what you have accomplished? Will you cheer when they finally put me in the death chamber? Cheer along with your fellow agents of the F…B…I?"
Lisa took a deep breath. Even in chains and incarcerated, her cousin still intimidated her.
"That's not my department, Susana," she said as calmly as she could. "And I'm not here as an FBI agent. I'm here as your cousin."
Susana Alvarez Lecter tilted her head curiously at her cousin.
"I have some bad news, and I thought you would appreciate hearing it from me," Lisa said softly.
Susana's head tilted a bit further. Her face opened just a bit. She visibly steeled herself.
"All right," Susana said cautiously. "I appreciate that,…what is it?"
Lisa closed her eyes, swallowed and took a deep breath through her nose. She wondered just what part of her had forced her to come here to this house of misery and see her malevolent cousin. But here she was, and she had to tell her, even though she did not know what would happen.
"It's your mother," Lisa said, and promptly hated herself for temporizing. Best to get it out and hope Susana would not react violently.
"Your mother passed away last night, Susana."
A look of shock and pain came over Susana Alvarez Lecter's face. She looked more recognizably human to Lisa at that moment than she ever had before. Her mouth opened and then closed. Her handcuffs clinked. She looked at that moment exactly like what she was: a woman in a high-security jail facing a death sentence who was now all alone in this world.
"I'm very sorry," Lisa said softly.