Disclaimer: Some of Thomas Harris' characters and information from his books were borrowed for this story, the rest are mine!
Author's note: This is a sequel to Only the Beginning posted on 6/25/03. This story will make more sense if you read the first story before this one. A lesson I learned is when you get ideas or when you're inspired, write it down while it is fresh!! I didn't which is why this story took so long but good things come to those who wait! Thank you DianaLecter/Holly4 for that advice, it sure has helped!
Scents and Sensibility
By FantaC
Part One - Tattler
Latisha sat on her bed with the Tattler spread out before her searching for any clues or hints about her friend, Sadie, or the notorious, cannibalistic, serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The night before, along with their plans for Sadie to go on a bus to St. Louis, Missouri; there were other things discussed like how to let Latisha know that Sadie was okay and whether she was successful in finding the one she thought was her father.
Both of them agreed that Latisha may be under suspicion, watched and questioned so it couldn't be anything direct. Sadie brought up the idea of having something in the Tattler to let Latisha at least know she was alive after Latisha voiced her misgivings.
So even though her friend had been gone for over a week, Latisha continued to buy the Tattler looking for anything that would tell her that Sadie was all right. Latisha looked in the personal ads but there wasn't anything that even hinted that it was Sadie!
"I hope you had a warm welcome," Latisha thought, as she continued to turn the pages. The obituary column on the page had Latisha grumble under her breath, "But not too warm involving an oven!" She looked at the obituaries (just in case) and sighed.
When Latisha bought the first Tattler after Sadie was gone, she couldn't even look at it without crying. She missed her friend and worried too. In that paper, there had been a story on the front page of how a fifth victim, Lloyd Wyman, was found dead in the trunk of his car, abandoned in a wooded area West of St. Louis, Missouri. A print had been found, identified as Lecter's. Latisha shuddered thinking this was whom her friend was with! That made her question even more if she did the right thing helping Sadie.
"Here cannibal, cannibal, cannibal! Would you like a tasty treat?" Latisha muttered a bit sarcastically.
The discovery of Sadie's disappearance didn't occur till Sunday night when she failed to show up at the Children's Home of Chicago after her weekend spent at Latisha's. That was over a day after Sadie was on a bus on her way to Missouri.
Latisha's parents took what Latisha said at face value, that Sadie had told her she wanted to go back to CHC because she wasn't feeling well. Her parents didn't even bother to call to find out how Sadie was, something they really regretted the next day when Miss Jenkins, the Home Director, called asking when Sadie would be returned to the orphanage.
Then the questioning began: first her parents, Miss Jenkins and then the police. Latisha stuck with her story and because she was missing Sadie and worried about her, it wasn't hard for her to start crying when asked if she had any idea where Sadie was, which made her denials more convincing.
The note Sadie left wasn't discovered till Tuesday when the beds were stripped of their linens for laundry. There were more questions and Latisha DID have a bit of fun telling the police how Sadie was unhappy, especially with Miss Jenkins, about being forced to attend third grade when she had her GED. Latisha told them she didn't think Sadie would do anything like this; besides, Sadie didn't have any money so where would she go? Did they have any clues or ideas of Sadie's whereabouts?
"I should be an actress! I would deserve an Oscar for how I've performed," Latisha thought. Then Miss Jenkins had to add her two cents!
"Maybe she went after that vicious killer, Hannibal Lecter since he did escape not long before Sadie disappeared! After all, she thinks she may be his daughter!" Miss Jenkins told the police. When that piece of information leaked out to the press, the focus was on Miss Jenkins. With pictures of Sadie and Lecter appearing on tv and in the papers, Latisha worried about the trouble this could cause her friend.
The stories varied but the Tattler printed the details Miss Jenkins gave about her charge at the orphanage that just proved that Lecter could be involved. Latisha heard that even the F.B.I. showed up at the orphanage after that and as her best friend, she was asked about any association Sadie may have had with Lecter.
"She would have her fun because Miss Jenkins was always upsetting her and she thought it was funny to have Miss Jenkins think she was Dr. Lecter's daughter. Sadie was interested in finding out who her father was and she did have others she wondered about. We used to share cannibal jokes and she had a couple of shirts but most of it was for Miss Jenkin's benefit." Latisha told the police and the F.B.I.
"What a cow! She's sure milking it for all it's worth," Latisha muttered, thinking of the way Miss Jenkins seemed to preen with the attention she was receiving from all of this. Latisha hoped the things she was saying were defusing things a little. When she thought of some of the things Sadie had done to encourage Miss Jenkins (and others) to think there was a connection (Miss Jenkins seemed to remember all of them), she winced.
"I think you did too good of a job there, Sadie." Then ceased musing when she looked more closely at the front page. "Hidden in plain sight!" Latisha exclaimed as she read the lead story, "That figures!"
Anonymous Tip Leads to the Rescue of Catherine Martin!
Latisha recalled how Sadie seemed to have some thoughts about the killer, Buffalo Bill, and knowing how good Sadie was at figuring things out, that she may have come up with information that led to the rescue of the Senator's daughter did not surprise her.
"A front page headline and story started this whole thing, why not continue it in the same way," Latisha thought as she read the article.
The anonymous tip was given to both the F.B.I. and the Tattler with crucial information that led the F.B.I. to Belvedere, Ohio and to Jame Gumb's door. The same moth that had been discovered in all his victims' throats was flying in the room while he was being questioned which resulted in weapons being drawn with one officer wounded and Gumb dead. Screams were heard and Catherine Martin was found clutching a white poodle in a pit in the basement.
The information was emailed by MAL. No one was able to discover any further information or the whereabouts of the informant. MAL was the acronym of Mercedes Anne Lecter - a name Sadie shared only with Latisha and in a letter to Lecter (one of two that she never did get an answer to) that she had sent him when she was only five years old.
"You go, girl!" Latisha was full of jubilation at her friend's cleverness in helping solve the case and being alive to do so! A realization then hit Latisha that had her rolling on her bed hooting with laughter; the blue and green beads in her numerous long braids clacked as they hit one another. Sadie would make a damn good detective and she was with someone who was on the ten-most wanted list!
After all the stress, worry and everything that had happened lately, it was just too much and Latisha found herself laughing and crying at the same time. "What a pair! I sure wish I could see what's going on with the two of them!"