Chapter Twenty: I miss you.
Ashley walks to her mother's grave and lays down the white rose. She sits down on the grass.
"Hi Mom. I'm doing alright. I miss you a whole lot. Not a day goes by when I don't think about you. My life has become such a wreck since you left. I'm in a place the FBI owns, up in the woods, they home school me. I haven't seen any of my friends for six months. It all happened after Dr. Lecter got away. I met him yesterday, at the football game. He's a gentlemen just like you said, and I was really polite and everything. Dr. Lecter was really nice to me though. I was really scared at first but then I just sorta relaxed after he started talking about you. He said you were brave and strong and you didn't trust him. He gave me a couple of letters and showed me pictures that he drew, he's really good just like you said. I've been doing a lot of reading about you lately, all the newspaper clippings Ardelia saved. She adopted me you know, but they feds took me away from her once Lecter escaped from prison. I found out they were just being nice to me because they wanted to get to Lecter. I don't know what else to say. One sided conversations are kinda hard you know. I hope you are doing OK wherever you are. I'm doing just fine here, don't worry about me. I'll be alright. I just miss you a bunch. I love you mom."
Ashley hears a noise to her right, a mausoleum stood directly next to her mothers grave. She tilts back to see if someone was on top of it, Starling can't see anyone. The 'funeral' was a few streets in front of her, out of earshot, and no one was looking her way.