Disclaimer: The
characters of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling (as well as
anyone you may recognize) belong to Thomas Harris, not to me. But they
are so great I couldn't resist borrowing them for a while. I will turn
them back when I've finished. No copyright
infringement intended. No profit. I'm harmless and broke ... So don't
sue me.
A/N: THANKS A LOT to all reviewers of the previous chapters. Took a while to write this one because ... No. No excuse. I'm just lazy. Hope you like it. BTW: I have absolutely no experience with the FBI. Neither did I ever participate to any police investigation. So there might be some errors in this chapter, but .. Hey, it's just a fanfic. So don't shoot me.
Chapter 6
Clarice woke up at around seven, and though she had slept less than four hours, she was feeling rested and ready for the day. Although she would never admit it loudly, she knew perfectly well what gave her this energy. The smell of the chase ... Only now did she realize how much she had missed it in the last year. She could almost feel the adrenaline run in her vein.
She got up and went to take a quick shower. Ten minutes later she went down the stairs and in the kitchen.
Jason had apparently been up for quite some time and was having his breakfast. He stood up when she entered the room.
" - I did not expect to see you so early." he said. "Did you sleep well ?
- Like a baby. Thanks. What about you ?
- I don't need much sleep. How would you like your eggs ?
- Well, usually I just take a coffee ... But after all, this is no usual day. I think I would appreciate fried eggs with a slice of bacon. But I can prepare it ...
- Please, allow me. Just sit down."
Clarice complied and he brought her a cup of coffee. Then he went back to the stove and started preparing her breakfast. He was turning his back to her. Clarice could not help watching him. It was not so much the physical resemblance between Jason and Hannibal Lecter that stroke her, but their manners, the way they talked or moved. Staring at the young man cooking her eggs, she could not help seeing Lecter back in Krendler' s house, preparing this very special dinner. Jason had the strange sort of elegance his father had, no doubt about it.
He suddenly turned his face back to her, as if he had sensed she was observing him. He did not say anything, but she could clearly see the question marks in his eyes. He came back to the table, laid her plate and a glass of fresh made orange juice before her and went to sit in front of her, sipping coffee from a large mug. She started to eat in silence.
" - Hmm ... these are delicious." she said after a while. "You're really a hell of a cook.
- Thank you."
He was staring at her and that made her slightly uncomfortable. She finished her breakfast quickly. "So ..." she said, "What if we start working ?"
They both went outside the house and started to carefully look for clues. They started from the front door and progressively enlarged the circle.
Exploring the bushes close to the steps, Jason found a piece of cloth attached to one branch. It was blue nylon, the kind of fabric Hannibal Lecter would be reluctant to wear. It could be useful to confirm an identification, but could not really be considered as a lead to find the kidnappers.
The tire print that Clarice found instead was more interesting. The tire was large and the vehicle was probably heavier than a regular sedan, but not as heavy as a truck. Probably a small van or a big 4-wheel. The pattern on the tire itself was pretty particular as well, and rather marked. It was most certainly new. Clarice went back inside and took some of the tools she had brought with her. She took some close shots, then with infinite precautions she made a cast of the print with plaster. She would scan the photos and make some researches on the internet. Maybe she could find the brand of the tire, or even the one of the car.
After two hours searching, they had not found anything else. Clarice decided it was useless going on. They went inside and turned back to their respective computers. Clarice entrusted Jason with the mission of tracking the tire, while she would deal with the travel agency that had sold his plane ticket.
At the end of the morning they got the first positive results. The tire was a Dunlop Rover Mud radial. The design was rather characteristic. They were used mainly for rally cars and sport trucks. Jason got a list of retailers in a two hundred miles area. They were not so numerous and he started calling them one by one. It took him about one hour and he got a list of three possible cars and descriptions: two Range Rover and a Ford pickup. He even got the plate number for one of the Range Rover. Clarice investigated this one and rapidly excluded its owner as potential suspect.
The travel agency instead did not give anything conclusive. It was ran by an old woman who had never met Lecter but had already sold him tickets via mail in the past. She was working alone and when Clarice had suggested she might have talked about the trade to someone else, she defended her professionalism with such force that Clarice believed her.
They had a quick lunch in the kitchen and then left for Ashburg. They would first go and meet the Archamber, then they would go to each gas station in the area to check if someone had noticed one of the two cars for which Jason had had the description.
It was half past seven when Clarice and Jason finally returned to Lecter' s mansion. they were both exhausted but the morale was a little bit higher. The Archamber had not given them anything new. Hannibal Lecter had behaved as usual on Monday and they had not noticed anything strange in the area.
However, they had been luckier with the gas stations. About four miles from Ashburg, lost in the country side, one gas pump attendant had actually remembered a Range Rover corresponding to their description. He had noticed it because the inside was equipped like those racing cars he had seen on TV. The two men inside the car were not from the area. Or at least he had never seen them before. He gave Clarice a pretty detailed description of them. Clarice had given the man a card with her cell phone number and asked him to call her in case he would see the car again.
On their way home, they had stopped at a few shops and asked if anyone had seen the car or one of the two men. They were about to give up when finally a clerk in Ashburg little supermarket identified one of the men from his description. They did not get further information from him, but it was at least the confirmation of the testimony of the gas pump attendant.
Clarice wanted to have a look at the VICAP site to see if she could make the descriptions match to a name.
Jason stopped the car right in front of the porch. "I'll leave you here." he said. "I'm gonna put the car in the garage." She thanked him for the attention and stepped out of the car. As Jason was backing away, the headlights of his car lighted up the path and for a fraction of a second Clarice thought she had seen something shine. She shouted at him and asked him to come forward again as slowly as possible. When she saw it again, she stopped him.
Jason complied, stepped out of the car and crouched down near Clarice. She was scratching the soil with her pocket knife. "What is it ?" Jason asked. She did not answer immediately. When she thought she had enough earth on the blade of her knife she stood up and went closer to the headlights to examine the sample. Jason followed her. "Clarice, what is it ?" he asked again after a while. She turned her face to him. "I can't be sure hundred percent before I analyze it" she started, "but it sure looks like blood."
Even in the scarce light she could see the fear on the kid' s face. "We don't know whose blood it is, Jason. And we're not even sure it is blood. Come on ... Can you get me a flashlight and a little plastic bag ?" He nodded and ran to the kitchen. Ten seconds later he was back with what she had asked him for. She carefully took another sample and put it in the bag. Then they both went inside the house.
I took Clarice half an hour to make a rough analysis. Neither she nor Jason uttered a single word during the process. When she was finished she looked at him. She did not have to phrase her conclusion, he understood immediately.
" - It is blood." she confirmed.
" - My father's ?
- I don't know, Jason. I am not equipped for tis kind of analysis. Only if we take this to a lab, can we know if it is his blood type. And even then ... Anyway, we cannot just go to a laboratory like that. There would be some questions, and I don't see what kind of answers we could give."
The consequences of the finding was clear to both of them. The kidnapping had not gone smoothly. There had been a fight. Lecter could have been injured ... Could be dead by now.
" - The blood spot was tiny." she said, to try to reassure him. "We did not even saw it this morning. There would have been more if someone had been seriously injured.
- Unless somebody has cleaned the place after.
- Possible ... We'd better see if we can find others. Get yourself another flashlight."
They both started to search the soil again. Jason spotted a second trace. Then they found a third one. Clarice extrapolated a possible itinerary from the first spots and they followed it. Soon they found other traces. As they were going further, the blood spots were getting larger. Until they finally found a ten inches long dark stain. Clarice crouched down, touched it and smelled her fingers. She nodded.
She stood up and started scanning the area with her flashlight. About 6 ft away from where they were standing, a little metal object suddenly reflected the light. Jason had seen it too and rushed to it. "Don't touch it !" Clarice shouted at him. He stopped just in time.
She joined him and had a closer look. It was a pocket knife. It was open and lying under a leaf, but the blade was partially visible. Clarice delicately removed the leaf. "There's no blood on the blade." she whispered. She lifted the knife with pliers, holding it by the blade, and slipped it in one of the plastic bags she had brought. She raised it in front of Jason' s face.
" - Does it look like one of your father' s ?" she asked. Jason concentrated.
" - I've never seen it before ... Besides, it's not the kind of stuff he usually uses. He would rather have a good harpy, or a hunting knife. This looks like the cheap thing you can get from a supermarket."
Clarice nodded. "Let's see if there's something else".
They went on looking around for another hour or so. When it became obvious they would not find anything else that night they retreated to the house. In Hannibal Lecter' s study, Clarice had a deeper examination of the knife and started to look for fingerprints. She found three distinct ones, a thumb and an index finger on the handle and one thumb on the blade. She captured and scanned them.
" - The one on the blade belongs to your father. The other two, on the handle, do not match.
- What does it mean ?
- I guess that the knife does not belong to your father, but that he had it in his hands.
- Do you think it could belong to one of his kidnappers ?
- ... I don't know ... But it's possible ... If your father had borrowed someone else' s knife, Mr. Archamber' s for instance, to use it, then we would have found his fingerprints on the handle, not on the blade.
- Sounds logical. But on the other hand, if my father had managed to spirit the knife away from one of his attackers, then why would he have left it here. It's too far from the blood spot to have just fallen from his pocket ... I mean ... if the blood is his."
Clarice thought of it for a moment.
" - Maybe he put it there on purpose ..." she finally murmured. Jason looked at her, puzzled.
" - Why would he do such a thing ?
- For you to find it ? ... Maybe he figured out the knife would be more useful as a clue for you, rather than in his pocket, where the kidnappers could find it anyway.
- You really believe this could be the explanation ?
- I don't know, Jason. I'm just trying to understand, just like you. But for the moment I don't see any other possibility. Besides, if your father really made up such a plan, that means his general conditions were not so bad, and that he was conscious."
She saw a brief sparkle of hope in Jason' s eyes. "All right," she said. "Let's see if these prints ring a bell in our files !"
She started with the VICAP files, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, but did not find anything. Then she connected to other FBI databases, but her attempts were not more successful. The only possibility left were the state police files. These were not centralized and she would have to connect to them individually, one for each state of the Union. As she had no specific information, she decided to use alphabetical order. So ... Let's start with Alabama. "Jason, do you think you can get us some coffee ?" she asked. Jason stood up and went to prepare strong italian espresso.
Clarice' s eyes were starting to hurt. It was half past three and she had just finished scanning Ohio criminal records ... unsuccessfully. She poured herself another cup of coffee. Jason had fallen asleep at Nevada. His head was resting on the desk cradled in his arms. His short black hair had lost the impeccable cut it usually had and he looked much younger ... and much more fragile. She had a small smile and went back to her task.
Half an hour in Ohio, and then she started with Oklahoma. The server was slow and the search engine not so convenient. But after a while she finally found a way to check the database: nothing. She was beginning to think she would not find anything this way.
Oregon. The site was much more modern and user-friendly. She rapidly uploaded the fingerprints she had scanned and launch the search.
Meantime, she went to the kitchen to see if she could find something to eat. Her stomach had started to rumble somewhere between Missouri and Montana and starving would help her. She found some cheese in the fridge and made herself a sandwich. She grabbed a beer too and went back to Lecter' s study.
She almost dropped the food and drink on the floor when she entered the room. The picture of a rather naughty looking man was displayed on her computer screen. She hardly believed it. She ran to the desk and read the form ...
Nathan Willinger, aka Nat Willings, aka Nathaniel Willmaker ... Recidivist burglar ... Arrested six years ago for complicity in a bank robbery in Portland ... Release on parole one year ago ... Reported missing by his parole officer a little more than two weeks ago ...
Bingo !
Clarice looked at his physical characteristics ... 5 ft 9 ... 210 pounds ... hair blond ... eyes pale blue ... It corresponded to the physical description they had of the driver of the Range Rover.
"Nathan, I got you !" She said loudly. Jason raised his head and pointed two sleepy eyes at her. She laughed. "Jason, wake up ! I've got him !" In the twinkling of an eye Jason was fully awaken. He stood up and bent on Clarice' s shoulder to watch the screen. Clarice pushed her chair aside to let him see better. "Jason Mc Namara, let me introduce Mr. Nathan Willinger ... The man who kidnapped your father."
Jason looked at her in disbelief.
" - The fingerprints ?" he asked
" - Yes. And the description corresponds.
- Where did you find him ?
- Portland, Oregon.
-Wow !"
He gave her a big kiss on the cheek. "Clarice, I love you !". It was so spontaneous that it made her laugh.
" - What do we do now ?" Jason asked, his voice now full of enthusiasm.
" - We go on searching. But now we know who we're looking for. And believe me, that makes a difference. First let me print this ...
- Please forgive my stupid questions, but what exactly are we looking for, now ?
- It's not stupid. First of all, I want to know what Mr. Portland Oregon is doing in New York. I don't believe in coincidences. Willinger can't have heard of your father in Portland. He was released on parole. He presented himself for the weekly controls during eleven months or so. But his parole officer has not seen him in the last two weeks. There must have been a very important reason for him to leave Portland. If he had simply decided to escape the justice, he would have done it much sooner ... not eleven months after his release.
...
- You mean it was all part of a plan ?
- That's precisely what I mean. And that means it has all been prepared long in advance. And that means the rich Mr. Mc Namara had been under surveillance for a while. And Willinger cannot have done it from Oregon.
- So he had an accomplice here.
- Yes. And probably someone from the area.
- Why ?
- Well, tell me if I'm wrong, but your father does not exactly make much publicity about himself, does he ?
- Certainly not.
- That's what I thought. In fact, I can imagine he's been trying to draw as less attention as possible.
- Means only someone living here could have heard of him.
- Right."
While Jason was trying to assimilate the information, Clarice took a mouthful of her sandwich, followed by a gulp of beer.
" - Someone my father knows, you think ?
- Not necessarily. But someone living not too far, and from some time.
- And how do we find him ?
- Searching Willinger' s past. His known friends, girlfriends, accomplices, cell companions ...
- And we can find that in your files ?
- Sure ! But before, we both need to get some sleep.
- I'm not tired !" the young man protested. Clarice gave him a maternal smile.
- Yes you are. And so am I."
Before he could argue again, she added: "Jason, I am as eager as you are to catch them ... and find your father. But I don't want to run the risk to miss something because we're exhausted. We still have two full days. We will make it. Trust me."
For a few seconds, his piercing blue eyes dived into Clarice' s ones. Then he nodded. "I trust you, Clarice." he simply answered. Then they both went to take a few hours of well deserved sleep.
To be continued ... Thanks for reading. Reviews are as usual MOST welcome ...
Absolut.
A/N: THANKS A LOT to all reviewers of the previous chapters. Took a while to write this one because ... No. No excuse. I'm just lazy. Hope you like it. BTW: I have absolutely no experience with the FBI. Neither did I ever participate to any police investigation. So there might be some errors in this chapter, but .. Hey, it's just a fanfic. So don't shoot me.
Chapter 6
Clarice woke up at around seven, and though she had slept less than four hours, she was feeling rested and ready for the day. Although she would never admit it loudly, she knew perfectly well what gave her this energy. The smell of the chase ... Only now did she realize how much she had missed it in the last year. She could almost feel the adrenaline run in her vein.
She got up and went to take a quick shower. Ten minutes later she went down the stairs and in the kitchen.
Jason had apparently been up for quite some time and was having his breakfast. He stood up when she entered the room.
" - I did not expect to see you so early." he said. "Did you sleep well ?
- Like a baby. Thanks. What about you ?
- I don't need much sleep. How would you like your eggs ?
- Well, usually I just take a coffee ... But after all, this is no usual day. I think I would appreciate fried eggs with a slice of bacon. But I can prepare it ...
- Please, allow me. Just sit down."
Clarice complied and he brought her a cup of coffee. Then he went back to the stove and started preparing her breakfast. He was turning his back to her. Clarice could not help watching him. It was not so much the physical resemblance between Jason and Hannibal Lecter that stroke her, but their manners, the way they talked or moved. Staring at the young man cooking her eggs, she could not help seeing Lecter back in Krendler' s house, preparing this very special dinner. Jason had the strange sort of elegance his father had, no doubt about it.
He suddenly turned his face back to her, as if he had sensed she was observing him. He did not say anything, but she could clearly see the question marks in his eyes. He came back to the table, laid her plate and a glass of fresh made orange juice before her and went to sit in front of her, sipping coffee from a large mug. She started to eat in silence.
" - Hmm ... these are delicious." she said after a while. "You're really a hell of a cook.
- Thank you."
He was staring at her and that made her slightly uncomfortable. She finished her breakfast quickly. "So ..." she said, "What if we start working ?"
They both went outside the house and started to carefully look for clues. They started from the front door and progressively enlarged the circle.
Exploring the bushes close to the steps, Jason found a piece of cloth attached to one branch. It was blue nylon, the kind of fabric Hannibal Lecter would be reluctant to wear. It could be useful to confirm an identification, but could not really be considered as a lead to find the kidnappers.
The tire print that Clarice found instead was more interesting. The tire was large and the vehicle was probably heavier than a regular sedan, but not as heavy as a truck. Probably a small van or a big 4-wheel. The pattern on the tire itself was pretty particular as well, and rather marked. It was most certainly new. Clarice went back inside and took some of the tools she had brought with her. She took some close shots, then with infinite precautions she made a cast of the print with plaster. She would scan the photos and make some researches on the internet. Maybe she could find the brand of the tire, or even the one of the car.
After two hours searching, they had not found anything else. Clarice decided it was useless going on. They went inside and turned back to their respective computers. Clarice entrusted Jason with the mission of tracking the tire, while she would deal with the travel agency that had sold his plane ticket.
At the end of the morning they got the first positive results. The tire was a Dunlop Rover Mud radial. The design was rather characteristic. They were used mainly for rally cars and sport trucks. Jason got a list of retailers in a two hundred miles area. They were not so numerous and he started calling them one by one. It took him about one hour and he got a list of three possible cars and descriptions: two Range Rover and a Ford pickup. He even got the plate number for one of the Range Rover. Clarice investigated this one and rapidly excluded its owner as potential suspect.
The travel agency instead did not give anything conclusive. It was ran by an old woman who had never met Lecter but had already sold him tickets via mail in the past. She was working alone and when Clarice had suggested she might have talked about the trade to someone else, she defended her professionalism with such force that Clarice believed her.
They had a quick lunch in the kitchen and then left for Ashburg. They would first go and meet the Archamber, then they would go to each gas station in the area to check if someone had noticed one of the two cars for which Jason had had the description.
It was half past seven when Clarice and Jason finally returned to Lecter' s mansion. they were both exhausted but the morale was a little bit higher. The Archamber had not given them anything new. Hannibal Lecter had behaved as usual on Monday and they had not noticed anything strange in the area.
However, they had been luckier with the gas stations. About four miles from Ashburg, lost in the country side, one gas pump attendant had actually remembered a Range Rover corresponding to their description. He had noticed it because the inside was equipped like those racing cars he had seen on TV. The two men inside the car were not from the area. Or at least he had never seen them before. He gave Clarice a pretty detailed description of them. Clarice had given the man a card with her cell phone number and asked him to call her in case he would see the car again.
On their way home, they had stopped at a few shops and asked if anyone had seen the car or one of the two men. They were about to give up when finally a clerk in Ashburg little supermarket identified one of the men from his description. They did not get further information from him, but it was at least the confirmation of the testimony of the gas pump attendant.
Clarice wanted to have a look at the VICAP site to see if she could make the descriptions match to a name.
Jason stopped the car right in front of the porch. "I'll leave you here." he said. "I'm gonna put the car in the garage." She thanked him for the attention and stepped out of the car. As Jason was backing away, the headlights of his car lighted up the path and for a fraction of a second Clarice thought she had seen something shine. She shouted at him and asked him to come forward again as slowly as possible. When she saw it again, she stopped him.
Jason complied, stepped out of the car and crouched down near Clarice. She was scratching the soil with her pocket knife. "What is it ?" Jason asked. She did not answer immediately. When she thought she had enough earth on the blade of her knife she stood up and went closer to the headlights to examine the sample. Jason followed her. "Clarice, what is it ?" he asked again after a while. She turned her face to him. "I can't be sure hundred percent before I analyze it" she started, "but it sure looks like blood."
Even in the scarce light she could see the fear on the kid' s face. "We don't know whose blood it is, Jason. And we're not even sure it is blood. Come on ... Can you get me a flashlight and a little plastic bag ?" He nodded and ran to the kitchen. Ten seconds later he was back with what she had asked him for. She carefully took another sample and put it in the bag. Then they both went inside the house.
I took Clarice half an hour to make a rough analysis. Neither she nor Jason uttered a single word during the process. When she was finished she looked at him. She did not have to phrase her conclusion, he understood immediately.
" - It is blood." she confirmed.
" - My father's ?
- I don't know, Jason. I am not equipped for tis kind of analysis. Only if we take this to a lab, can we know if it is his blood type. And even then ... Anyway, we cannot just go to a laboratory like that. There would be some questions, and I don't see what kind of answers we could give."
The consequences of the finding was clear to both of them. The kidnapping had not gone smoothly. There had been a fight. Lecter could have been injured ... Could be dead by now.
" - The blood spot was tiny." she said, to try to reassure him. "We did not even saw it this morning. There would have been more if someone had been seriously injured.
- Unless somebody has cleaned the place after.
- Possible ... We'd better see if we can find others. Get yourself another flashlight."
They both started to search the soil again. Jason spotted a second trace. Then they found a third one. Clarice extrapolated a possible itinerary from the first spots and they followed it. Soon they found other traces. As they were going further, the blood spots were getting larger. Until they finally found a ten inches long dark stain. Clarice crouched down, touched it and smelled her fingers. She nodded.
She stood up and started scanning the area with her flashlight. About 6 ft away from where they were standing, a little metal object suddenly reflected the light. Jason had seen it too and rushed to it. "Don't touch it !" Clarice shouted at him. He stopped just in time.
She joined him and had a closer look. It was a pocket knife. It was open and lying under a leaf, but the blade was partially visible. Clarice delicately removed the leaf. "There's no blood on the blade." she whispered. She lifted the knife with pliers, holding it by the blade, and slipped it in one of the plastic bags she had brought. She raised it in front of Jason' s face.
" - Does it look like one of your father' s ?" she asked. Jason concentrated.
" - I've never seen it before ... Besides, it's not the kind of stuff he usually uses. He would rather have a good harpy, or a hunting knife. This looks like the cheap thing you can get from a supermarket."
Clarice nodded. "Let's see if there's something else".
They went on looking around for another hour or so. When it became obvious they would not find anything else that night they retreated to the house. In Hannibal Lecter' s study, Clarice had a deeper examination of the knife and started to look for fingerprints. She found three distinct ones, a thumb and an index finger on the handle and one thumb on the blade. She captured and scanned them.
" - The one on the blade belongs to your father. The other two, on the handle, do not match.
- What does it mean ?
- I guess that the knife does not belong to your father, but that he had it in his hands.
- Do you think it could belong to one of his kidnappers ?
- ... I don't know ... But it's possible ... If your father had borrowed someone else' s knife, Mr. Archamber' s for instance, to use it, then we would have found his fingerprints on the handle, not on the blade.
- Sounds logical. But on the other hand, if my father had managed to spirit the knife away from one of his attackers, then why would he have left it here. It's too far from the blood spot to have just fallen from his pocket ... I mean ... if the blood is his."
Clarice thought of it for a moment.
" - Maybe he put it there on purpose ..." she finally murmured. Jason looked at her, puzzled.
" - Why would he do such a thing ?
- For you to find it ? ... Maybe he figured out the knife would be more useful as a clue for you, rather than in his pocket, where the kidnappers could find it anyway.
- You really believe this could be the explanation ?
- I don't know, Jason. I'm just trying to understand, just like you. But for the moment I don't see any other possibility. Besides, if your father really made up such a plan, that means his general conditions were not so bad, and that he was conscious."
She saw a brief sparkle of hope in Jason' s eyes. "All right," she said. "Let's see if these prints ring a bell in our files !"
She started with the VICAP files, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, but did not find anything. Then she connected to other FBI databases, but her attempts were not more successful. The only possibility left were the state police files. These were not centralized and she would have to connect to them individually, one for each state of the Union. As she had no specific information, she decided to use alphabetical order. So ... Let's start with Alabama. "Jason, do you think you can get us some coffee ?" she asked. Jason stood up and went to prepare strong italian espresso.
Clarice' s eyes were starting to hurt. It was half past three and she had just finished scanning Ohio criminal records ... unsuccessfully. She poured herself another cup of coffee. Jason had fallen asleep at Nevada. His head was resting on the desk cradled in his arms. His short black hair had lost the impeccable cut it usually had and he looked much younger ... and much more fragile. She had a small smile and went back to her task.
Half an hour in Ohio, and then she started with Oklahoma. The server was slow and the search engine not so convenient. But after a while she finally found a way to check the database: nothing. She was beginning to think she would not find anything this way.
Oregon. The site was much more modern and user-friendly. She rapidly uploaded the fingerprints she had scanned and launch the search.
Meantime, she went to the kitchen to see if she could find something to eat. Her stomach had started to rumble somewhere between Missouri and Montana and starving would help her. She found some cheese in the fridge and made herself a sandwich. She grabbed a beer too and went back to Lecter' s study.
She almost dropped the food and drink on the floor when she entered the room. The picture of a rather naughty looking man was displayed on her computer screen. She hardly believed it. She ran to the desk and read the form ...
Nathan Willinger, aka Nat Willings, aka Nathaniel Willmaker ... Recidivist burglar ... Arrested six years ago for complicity in a bank robbery in Portland ... Release on parole one year ago ... Reported missing by his parole officer a little more than two weeks ago ...
Bingo !
Clarice looked at his physical characteristics ... 5 ft 9 ... 210 pounds ... hair blond ... eyes pale blue ... It corresponded to the physical description they had of the driver of the Range Rover.
"Nathan, I got you !" She said loudly. Jason raised his head and pointed two sleepy eyes at her. She laughed. "Jason, wake up ! I've got him !" In the twinkling of an eye Jason was fully awaken. He stood up and bent on Clarice' s shoulder to watch the screen. Clarice pushed her chair aside to let him see better. "Jason Mc Namara, let me introduce Mr. Nathan Willinger ... The man who kidnapped your father."
Jason looked at her in disbelief.
" - The fingerprints ?" he asked
" - Yes. And the description corresponds.
- Where did you find him ?
- Portland, Oregon.
-Wow !"
He gave her a big kiss on the cheek. "Clarice, I love you !". It was so spontaneous that it made her laugh.
" - What do we do now ?" Jason asked, his voice now full of enthusiasm.
" - We go on searching. But now we know who we're looking for. And believe me, that makes a difference. First let me print this ...
- Please forgive my stupid questions, but what exactly are we looking for, now ?
- It's not stupid. First of all, I want to know what Mr. Portland Oregon is doing in New York. I don't believe in coincidences. Willinger can't have heard of your father in Portland. He was released on parole. He presented himself for the weekly controls during eleven months or so. But his parole officer has not seen him in the last two weeks. There must have been a very important reason for him to leave Portland. If he had simply decided to escape the justice, he would have done it much sooner ... not eleven months after his release.
...
- You mean it was all part of a plan ?
- That's precisely what I mean. And that means it has all been prepared long in advance. And that means the rich Mr. Mc Namara had been under surveillance for a while. And Willinger cannot have done it from Oregon.
- So he had an accomplice here.
- Yes. And probably someone from the area.
- Why ?
- Well, tell me if I'm wrong, but your father does not exactly make much publicity about himself, does he ?
- Certainly not.
- That's what I thought. In fact, I can imagine he's been trying to draw as less attention as possible.
- Means only someone living here could have heard of him.
- Right."
While Jason was trying to assimilate the information, Clarice took a mouthful of her sandwich, followed by a gulp of beer.
" - Someone my father knows, you think ?
- Not necessarily. But someone living not too far, and from some time.
- And how do we find him ?
- Searching Willinger' s past. His known friends, girlfriends, accomplices, cell companions ...
- And we can find that in your files ?
- Sure ! But before, we both need to get some sleep.
- I'm not tired !" the young man protested. Clarice gave him a maternal smile.
- Yes you are. And so am I."
Before he could argue again, she added: "Jason, I am as eager as you are to catch them ... and find your father. But I don't want to run the risk to miss something because we're exhausted. We still have two full days. We will make it. Trust me."
For a few seconds, his piercing blue eyes dived into Clarice' s ones. Then he nodded. "I trust you, Clarice." he simply answered. Then they both went to take a few hours of well deserved sleep.
To be continued ... Thanks for reading. Reviews are as usual MOST welcome ...
Absolut.