Disclaimer: The characters of Hannibal Lecter, Clarice Starling, Jack Crawford, Clint Pearsall and Paul Krendler do not belong to me, but to Thomas Harris. No copyright infringement intended. I won't make any money of it. Just borrowing them for a while. Lecter' s blue eyes belong to Anthony Hopkins, though (I'm not sure there's a copyright on this).


Chapter 8: No coincidence ...

Clarice looked at the photo for a long moment to convince herself she was not dreaming. Then her brain started racing.

First, the picture was the one element they never talked about to the media. Nobody knew, except the investigators, and not even all of them. Price could say what he wanted: whoever was sending her these messages was not just a fool who wanted to play with the FBI. He knew a lot more about the case; maybe more than themselves. He may even know the killer.

Another possibility of course was that the killer himself was writing to her. This particular kind of psychopaths who desperately want to be caught. Or one of these criminals who think they are far too clever for the police to catch them, even with all the clues available.

But why was he writing to her. Why among the twenty or so investigators working on the case had he chosen Clarice Starling ? Because she was one of the very few women involved ? Not likely. The crimes had absolutely no sexual component. No, there had to be another reason. For sure she had had her moment of fame eleven years ago when she saved senator Martin' s daughter; and then when a certain kind of press started to talk about her relationship with Hannibal 'the cannibal' Lecter. But after what happened last year, her popularity dramatically decreased. She had almost been fired from the FBI after the death of Paul Krendler and the Bureau had tried its best to have her forgotten since.

Her second thought was about the messages themselves. If her secret friend had such a knowledge of the murders and the murderer, it could be a good idea to start considering the content of his letters. Till now, she had only been concerned about the identity of her correspondent, paying no attention to what he said. It was high time she changed her approach of the matter. She had lost two days already. "Starling, move !"

She went back to the counter of the library and registered to borrow the copy of the magazine. Then she went back to her office. She retrieved the first two messages from her drawer and arranged them on her desk, along with the one she had just received and the copy of Newsweek. Then she opened a new file on her computer and started to type:

1. More than one killer

2. No logic in the choice of the victims

3. Things not as significant as they seem
??? WHAT is not significant ?
- The picture of the kid was just taken from a magazine
- It was not even illustrating a news article, but just an ad
- Means there are probably no personal relationship between the killer and the kid
Then WHY leave it on the victims ?

She looked at her screen for a long moment. Then she added:

Just for the show ? A staging ?
He is playing with us ? Or are THEY playing with us ?

We've been looking for a logic, for connections, for motives. But if there weren't any ? If the only purpose was the crime itself ... kill people without being caught ... no motive, no link, no continuity ... the perfect crime ?

She knew the perfect crime did not exist. They always committed a mistake sooner or later. But how many people would be dead before the first error ?

She put her hand in her hair and laid back in her chair. That did not fit: a man - or a group of men - killing people as a game, as a challenge, and then giving her the clues to understand what they were doing ? People in search of the perfect crime did not want to be caught. And that did not fit with the psychopath version either.

Then someone - someone else - knows who they are and what they have done, and wants to stop them. But why not go simply to the police or to the FBI ? Why not turn them in ? Why write to her ?

She read again the first message. Why write to her personally ? Calling her by her first name as if they were old friends. Or were they ? Does he know her, the messenger that is ? Someone who knows her, wants to stop the hecatomb but for some reasons cannot go to the police ?

So many questions, and not even one answer. Clarice felt the headache was coming back. she had a look at her watch: 7:30 pm ! She had spent the whole afternoon playing with hypothesis. She just realized she had not told anyone about her findings. She had to see Price.

She gathered the messages and printed her notes. When she arrived at the third floor, Price' s secretary was leaving.

" - Good evening Lucy. Is the boss alone ?
- He's not here, Clarice. He's left early today. He flew to New York in the afternoon. Big bosses meeting tomorrow there.
- Means he won't be in tomorrow either ?
- Well, he should come back end of the afternoon. He told me he would drop by. Anything wrong ?
...
- Clarice ?
- Umh ? No, thanks Lucy. I need to talk to him, but it can wait till tomorrow.
- I can tell him you want to see him when he's back if you want ?
- Yeah. Thanks. That would be great.
- No problem.
- Bye Lucy.
- Good bye."

Clarice watched Lucy go. Should she tell anyone else ? Though the real question was: did she trust anyone else enough to tell him ? She decided she would wait.


To be continued ... Thanks for reading. Reviews welcome.
Absolut