Chapter 6

Friday, 00.15 a.m.

When Will arrived at the hospital, it took him quite some time to find Hannibal. He was sitting outside a corridor, waiting for the examination of Theresa to be over.

"Did she say anything?" Will asked. He did not greet Hannibal or show any sign of affection right now. He just sat down next to him. His husband, however, put his arm around him in an unusual public display of their togetherness. In unfamiliar places, they tried to appear as friends or co-workers, not as gay lovers.

Hannibal shook his head. "How do you feel?" he whispered into Will's ears.

"Tired. Mrs. Sarandon woke me up," Will lied.

Hannibal nodded, recognizing the lie. No truth until they were home.

A policewoman came around the corner. She studied the two men and the door next to which they were waiting. "Is either of you a Mr. Leuchtenberg?" she asked, horribly mispronouncing the name. They had both gotten used to it.

"Both of us. But I was the one who had brought Miss Theresa Noakes home," Hannibal said and stood up. "Gilbert Leuchtenberg," he introduced himself and shook the policewoman's hand. Will also stood up and introduced himself.

"Theresa is still inside, getting checked," Hannibal explained.

The policewoman nodded and they waited in silence. It was not long until the door opened, and a visibly frightened Theresa walked out, accompanied by a woman in her late fifties wearing an open lab coat.

"My name is officer Penne. Are you alright?" the policewoman asked Theresa.

The red-haired woman shrugged.

"I will have a quick word with the doctor and then I would like you to come with me to the station." The policewoman entered the doctor's office to talk to the doctor.

Theresa looked very lost. Hannibal stepped forward and offered her a hug into which she gladly leaned in.

"I am so sorry that happened to you," Hannibal said comforting and stroke her back.

"Thank you for caring for me," Theresa said. Her voice was still shaking. "I… you are very kind, Gilbert."

"It's alright." He still stroked her back.

Will noticed how relieved she looked in his arms. He was surprised that a woman who was raped by her father would find relieve in the arms of a man that was of the same age. But besides the fact that Hannibal was only a few years younger than her father and the grey hair, there were no similarities between the two men.

"I…" Theresa wanted to say something, but her voice ceased.

"It's alright," Hannibal repeated. "Shall we accompany you to the station?"

"You have done so much for me already…"

"It's no problem. Not at all."

Theresa loosened the hug, stepped back and looked at Hannibal. "Are you sure?" she asked timidly.

"Of course," Will intervened. Maybe Theresa felt safe with Hannibal because she thought that he was gay and could thus not hurt her – or at least would not rape her.

At that moment, the policewoman Officer Penne and the doctor stepped out of the office. "Shall we go?" the policewoman asked.

"Gilbert and Bill have offered to come with me," Theresa explained.

"We can drive her home afterwards," Hannibal said.

"Are the two of you close?" Officer Penne asked.

"We're co-workers," Theresa said and nodded toward Hannibal. "He has been giving me a ride to school for the past two weeks. They're also neighbors who live further down the road."

Officer Penne nodded. "Is there anyone you'd like me to call?" she asked while they were walking down the corridor of the hospital.

"I don't have anyone," Theresa replied sadly. Her cheeks were shimmering wet in the bright light but right now there were no new tears coming. She had probably cried that much that she was now feeling numb.

At the carpark, Will said, "we'll get our car, and we will see you at the station."

"Can you come with us, Gilbert? Please?" It was very uncharacteristic of Theresa to ask someone for help, both Hannibal and Will knew that.

"Sure," Hannibal replied in an altruistic mood and nodded to Will who left to his car alone. Hannibal put his hand on Theresa's shoulder again.

At the police station, the policewoman naturally insisted on talking to Theresa on her own. Hannibal and Will were both sitting in a waiting corner on a sofa in the nearly abandoned police station. It must be nearly half past one in the morning.

"Mrs. Surrey called me while I was driving here," he said.

"What did she want?"

"I did not take the call, I was driving. I called her back in the parking lot, but she did not answer. She has probably gone to bed."

They fell silent. They both knew what this was about. They had referenced the dogs to the animal shelter.

Will felt rather uncomfortable. He did not have good memories with police stations, and now that he was basically on the wanted list, he liked his situation even less. Hannibal, on the contrary, looked as calm as usual, silently meditating, staring in front of him. Will leaned into him and Hannibal took the hint and put his arm caringly around his husband. Will closed his eyes and breathed in slowly. He liked Hannibal's scent – usually more when mixed with the stench of blood, but also without it.

After about half an hour later, Officer Penne gestured the two of them to join them.

"I cannot send Ms. Noakes home yet. The entire house is a crime scene and will stay like that for the days to come," she said. "I would suggest you to stay in a hostel for the next few days," she turned to Theresa. "Maybe you could pick her up for work from there," she turned to Hannibal.

"Theresa should take some sick days at work," Will said but Theresa shook her head.

"I don't want to be all alone in a hostel the next few days. I don't know what I would do." She stared at the table in front of her. "I don't want to be alone."

"You can stay with us," Hannibal suddenly offered.

Will sighed internally. What were the chances of this going well and not ending up in a pool of blood?

Theresa looked up. Her eyes were swollen and full of tears again.

"Are you sure about that?" Officer Penne asked to both Hannibal and Theresa.

"It is fine by us. Theresa can sleep in our bed, and we have two sofas on which Bill and I can sleep. This is absolutely no inconvenience. Theresa should not be alone right now. And as she said, she has no one. And I hope I am right when I am saying that she'd rather stay with us than any other of our neighbors, am I right, Theresa?"

Theresa nodded. "I'd definitely not like to stay with Mrs. Sarandon," she said and tried to crack a smile which just ended in her tears flowing from her eyes again.

So it came that Hannibal, Will, and Theresa were driving back in the early morning hours to the suburbs. Will was driving and Hannibal had sat down next to Theresa on the back seat.

For a while, no one said anything, but then Theresa stammered, "thank you. Both of you. I honestly don't know what to do now."

"First of all, you should be glad that your father won't hurt you anymore," Hannibal said.

"We will figure out a way for you, Theresa," Will offered. "You will need to move, and I am sure everyone in the neighborhood will help you."

"Oh my god… everyone in the neighborhood will know… what he did to me." Theresa came to the realization what would happen to her. Everyone would want to talk to her, hear her story.

"We will protect you," Hannibal reassured her.

"The policewoman asked me whether I would trust you," Theresa said. "She asked me why I let myself be solaced from you. You are nearly the age of my father. And of a similar statue."

"I am nothing like your father," Hannibal said.

Theresa nodded. "You are nothing like my father. He was a cruel man without feelings who pretended to fit into the society. You are so kind. And since you are married to a man, I feel safer around you. Around both of you. Don't get me wrong."

"No, it's alright," Hannibal said. Will was taking another route so that they did not have to pass Theresa's house. They could, however, see it from afar. The blue lights of the police were still there, but the crowd of neighbors had disappeared. It was safe to say that no one would get enough sleep tonight in the suburbs.