Nothing has changed, T. Harris still owns them. All disclaimers apply.
The Maugeris are mine.
My humble thanks to Iris Stuart, Melanie-Ann, PrincessDarkness, Ducki, Marcus Aurelius, Hannibal-Hopkins, Shanna, Jess, Nancy, and all the other folks who follow Exchanges.
Double thanks to Marcus Aurelius for proofreading the chapter for me.
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Exchanges XX
Family Ties
A predator by nature, Dr. Hannibal Lecter's senses, and basic instincts were highly developed and as sharp and uncontaminated by civilization as those of a wild animal. His perception, and intuition were reliable beyond human understanding and dependable beyond reason.
The characteristic great calm he'd mastered was
the result of his being in tune with his surrounding and the signals they
transmitted to his senses.
When Hannibal Lecter sensed danger, his stillness intensified as he
concentrated, in an attempt to further enhance his perception of the situation.
His senses were his compass and he just followed his intuition.
He was entirely devoid of fear.
His nightmare the night before, had been a response to an overflow of many
signals, clues, smells and images, all pointing to one direction and screaming
DANGER…, imminent danger.
Lately, he often pondered about the many changes he underwent since Clarice
became his companion.
During all the years he spent by himself , he was never bothered by danger, the
possibility of loss of a loved one or his own death. His priorities had
since changed, and he experienced now a feral need to protect her, similar as
that of a wild animal protecting his mate.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hannibal Lecter was on the phone with a travel agency in Paris, when Sal
Maugeri walked into the room with a cordless phone in one hand. His
naturally dark complexion looked as pale as a ghost. Small beads of sweat
shone on his forehead.
The Dr. excused himself and put the travel agent on hold.
"What is it, Sal?" he asked calmly, though he fully anticipated the nature of
what his friend would say.
"The driver who met the helicopter that brought the girls to Catania,
has been found shot in a ditch by the side of the road. The car is
missing and so are Lucy and Clarice." Maugeri was brief and to the point.
Quietly, Hannibal Lecter leaned back on the chair. Calmly he got back on
the phone with the travel agent, excused himself and promised to call back to
finish the arrangements.
His remarkable composure didn't fail him. His jaw was set in a slight
overbite as he unconsciously did when weighting possibilities and making
choices based on his instinct.
"If they overcome the kidnappers, where do you think they'll go? If they
still have a cell phone; surely, they will call. But until we reach them, what
options will they have available to them?" He found his lack of knowledge
of the area hampered his choice of options. After a pause, he went on.
"Clarice can easily jump start a car," Hannibal said reflectively. "Suppose
they are dirty from a struggle, and perhaps bloody." He trailed off, "how
exposed is the area, would they be able to hide until dark?"
Maugeri run a hand through his face, then seemed to remember he had a
handkerchief in his pocket, retrieved it and whipped the sweat off his brow.
For a moment, he just sat still, elbows on his knees, handkerchief in hand,
deep in thought.
"I don't know," he shook his head in frustration, " if they have a car Lucy
might attempt to reach her mother's house in Catania" he paused, "Hannibal, you
understand we can't call the authorities?"
"I know that all too well," Hannibal responded. "It's good though, because they
generally botch things up."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The driver froze when he heard the shots. It was clear that he was not prepared
to deal with the pair of women in the back.
The man on the passenger seat was slumped over, obviously dead, while Clarice,
pointing her gun at the driver, said in English ,"do exactly as I say, or I'll
shoot you!"
Lucy volunteered a translation, which immediately reminded Clarice of her
entrance into the Barn at the Verger Estate.
The man brought the car to a full stop without resistance, and following Lucy's
instructions got out off the car, adopted the classic position leaning on the
car with his hands where they could see them and his legs apart.
Clarice came from around the car and carefully searched him for weapons. She
found two automatic weapons, which she greedily confiscated along with a few
additional cartridges of ammunition.
Then, leaving Lucy to watch the driver, she opened the trunk of the car and
looked for rope and perhaps some rags. She didn't find rope; there were
instead some jumping cables, which she decided will serve the purpose.
She removed both the cables and the rags from the truck, as she thanked
the Higher Powers, that the traffic on this particular road was
non-existent.
Still at gunpoint they ordered the driver to pick the body of his accomplice
and place it in the trunk of the car. Once that was done, Clarice tied
his hands with the jumping cables and ordered him with hand movements to get in
the trunk; Lucy translated.
The man hesitated, clearly uneasy about getting in the trunk with a dead body.
But the two women were not about to take no for an answer.
With both kidnappers in the trunk; they made a brief and unsuccessful attempt
to wipe the blood off the passenger seat; but soon gave up and Clarice decided
to ride in the back instead.
Once on their way, they decided to call home.
Clarice dialed Lucy's cell phone, and place it in her friend's upturned hand.
Sal answered at the first ring.
"Are you both all right, Lucy?" he said in way of a greeting. His voice
reflected his relief. "Where are you?"
"We are fine, but need you to come and get us back home, the sooner the
better." Then talking rapidly in Italian proceeded to give him their
location and briefly described the events.
She then switched to English and announced the obvious "someone knew we were
coming, Sal, please check into that."
After a few more words with her husband, Lucy passed the phone to
Clarice.
"Hopefully we'll get you both home in a short while, Clarice" Hannibal said,
his voice perfectly controlled. "However, if you see anything that
doesn't seem right, or just plain odd. Call us at once," his voice was emphatic
as he repeated "at once!"
"You expect more action?" Clarice asked. She felt tired.
"Yes," he replied simply.
"I love you," she said and hung up.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After a few minutes of silence, Clarice asked "What's the plan, where are we
heading?"
"My daughter Rosemary and her husband have a house in Catania, he inherited it
from his parents. They hardly ever go there, but keep it partially staffed, and
I know their staff. It's not too far from here and it has a huge, fenced
yard with a large clearing where a small helicopter can land."
"Sounds good to me," Clarice said, finally leaning back on the seat and taking
a deep breath.
Then, just to make conversation, she asked "Do they live in Rome, your eldest
daughter and her family?"
"Yes, my son in law is the president of the Italian branch of Rosencraz
textiles, with headquarters in Rome," Lucy responded, "they have two lovely
grown children, my Rosemarie is 39 now, a year younger than Luke, her oldest
daughter married last year, a lovely wedding…"
Clarice didn't hear anything after the name Rosencranz. Just felt the old
familiar feeling above her stomach and recognized it as fear.
The phone was still in her hand, she said to Lucy, "I have to call Hannibal, I
just noticed something important"
"Just press redial," her friend said, casually, and added "anything wrong?"
Clarice didn't even know where to start. She didn't want to alarm Lucy.
"I'm not sure," her voice was almost broken, this new discovery seemed to be
leading to yet another calamity. She felt slightly sick.
"Hi Sal," her voice was edgy "may I please talk to Hannibal, is really an
emergency!"
Lucy looked at her curiously on the rearview mirror.
"Hannibal," she said, not waiting
for a greeting. "We are headed to Lucy's and Sal's daughter's house. Do
you know what her husband does for a living?"
Hannibal could hear the urgency in her voice, but his composure never broke,
"He is the president of the Italian branch of Rosencranz Textiles." He
announced calmly.
"You knew?" she didn't hide her surprise.
"Found out right after you hung up," he informed, and went on "give me a
second."
Hannibal continued to sound calm.
She could hear him talking briefly in the background, then "Clarice, all is
under control, Luke is on his way by helicopter with his men, he'd be there
momentarily. Sal and I will follow." His voice was soft and reassuring, and she
was grateful for that . " Clarice," he added as an afterthought, "Rachel might
not be involved in this, you know?"
"It might be difficult for him to accept the woman would plot against him,"
she thought, but didn't say anything.
After a brief pause, while he waited for her to say something, then, concluded
that she wouldn't. Hannibal went on, "Sal wants to talk to Lucy,"
Clarice gave the receiver to Lucy who had been following the conversation with
increasing interest and some inner unrest.
After a few words, Lucy put the phone down.
She looked at Clarice in the rearview mirror.
"I hope he is not involved in this," Lucy said reflectively "I hope so, because
son in law or not if he is plotting against us, he is finished."
"You don't like him?" Clarice's words were more a statement than a
question
"Like has nothing to do with it," Lucy responded, "Oh, he's very
likable, a real charmer." The sarcasm in her voice was unmistakable.
"He is much older than my Rose, about my age, in fact, which is fine in
my book, except that I don't think he is faithful." Lucy sounded sing
song as she went on. "I don't trust him, never did. When someone sounds too
good to be true, it's generally because he isn't."
After a pause, she continued,
"He comes from one of those penniless aristocratic families who would do
anything for money." she chuckled.
She went on, reflectively, maybe to pass the time, or perhaps to hear her own
thoughts flow and try to get them in order.
"You know, both Sal's and my family are from less than aristocratic background, generations of peasants with connections, who made tons of money and used it to start legitimate business without giving up the connections.
Sal's father, like my own, was a
legend here in Sicily, very powerful, very wealthy, but far from aristocracy,
we are from humble origin. My father
was an extremely cruel man, unlike Sal's who was a gentleman.
Paolo, my son in law, always displayed a veiled condescending attitude towards
us, which we found sort of amusing."
"But this," she exclaimed incredulous, "you think he is
responsible for this?"
"I don't know, lets hope he is clean." Clarice whispered.
"One or the other, soon we'll find out" responded Lucy, "he'll be either clean
or dead, we'll see."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I hope you liked.
Comments and suggestions are more than welcomed.
Clariz
