Chapter Nineteen: Cemetery Stakeout.
"Ashley. Ashley wake up. It's time to go." Eddie says shaking Starling.
"I'm up. Give me a few minutes to get some things together."
"I'll be waiting in the car."
Starling grabs her book bag and quickly brushes her hair out. She opens the front door and takes a white rose from the bush she had planted. Starling climbs into Eddie's truck.
"You ready kiddo?"
"Yep." She says buckling her seatbelt.
Two hours later the two enter the cemetery gates. Ashley looks around for any sign of the FBI. She spots a 'funeral' a couple of roads from her mother's grave. Starling knew better, it was undoubtedly FBI agents.
Michaels felt bad about the whole thing, he knew he was putting Starling at a great risk but the department had threatened his sister and her children. Michaels knew that there was a least ten agents waiting in case Lecter showed up. There was one sniper waiting on the top of a crypt. He had convinced the department not to use a listening device, give the kid her privacy he told them. After he dropped Starling off he would join an agent waiting outside of the cemetery. They pull up on the street her mother is buried on.
"Call me when you want to leave. OK kiddo?"
"That's fine." Starling says walking away.
Ashley watches Eddie drive away. He would find the letter she left him soon.
Eddie drives to the meeting place outside of the cemetery. He opens his briefcase and finds a Post-It note on the top of his papers. It reads:
Eddie—
You're sister is going to be just fine.
Starling
Michaels is shocked at what he reads. She must've overheard his conversation. She knows she's being used for bait. What a brave kid.