"Did you talk with Dr Lecter a lot?"

"Sometimes he went months without saying anything, and sometimes we'd talk, late at night when the crying died down. In fact – I was taking these courses by mail and I knew diddly – and he showed me a whole world, literally, of stuff-Suetonius, Gibbon, all that."

Barney picked up his cup. He had a streak of orange Betadine on a fresh scratch across the back of his hand.

"Did you ever think when he escaped that he might come after you?"

Barney shook his huge head. "He told me once that, whenever it was `feasible,' he preferred to eat the rude. `Free-range rude,' he called them."

Barney laughed, a rare sight. He had little baby teeth and his amusement seems a touch maniacal, like a baby's glee when he blows his pablum in a goo-goo uncle's face.

Starling wondered if he had stayed underground with the loonies too long.

"What about you, did you ever feel… creepy after he got away? Did you think he might come after you?"

Barney asked.

"No."

"Why?"

"He said he wouldn't."

This answer seemed oddly satisfactory to them both.

The eggs arrived. Barney and Starling were hungry and they ate steadily for a few minutes. Then…

"Barney, when Dr Lecter was transferred to Memphis, I asked you for his drawings out of his cell and you brought them to me. What happened to the rest of the stuff-books, papers? The hospital doesn't even have his medical records."

"There was this big upheaval."

Barney paused, tapping the salt shaker against his palm. "There was a big upheaval, you know at the hospital. I got laid off, a lot of people got laid off, and stuff just got scattered. There's no telling-"

"Excuse me?" Starling said, "I couldn't hear what you said for the racket in here. I found out last night that Dr Lecter's annotated and signed copy of Alexandre Dumas' Dictionary of Cuisine came up at a private auction in New York two years ago. It went to a private collector for sixteen thousand.dollars. The seller's affidavit of ownership was signed `Cart' Phlox.' You know 'Cart' Phlox,' Barney? I hope you do because he did the handwriting on your employment application at the hospital where you're working but he signed it `Barney.' Made out your tax return too. Sorry I missed what you were saying before. Want to start over? What did you get for the book, Barney?"

"Around ten," Barney said, looking straight at her.

Starling nodded. "The receipt says ten-five. What did you get for that interview with the Tattler after Dr Lecter escaped?"

"Fifteen G's."

"Cool. Good for you. You made up all that bull you told those people."

"I knew Dr Lecter wouldn't mind. He'd be disappointed if I didn't jerk them around."

"He attacked the nurse before you got to Baltimore State?"

"Yes."

"His shoulder was dislocated."

"That's what I understand."

"Was there an X ray taken?"

"Most likely."

"I want the X ray."

"Ummmm."

"I found out Lecter autographs are divided into two groups, the ones written in ink, or pre-incarceration, and crayon or felt-tip writing from the asylum. Crayon's worth more, but I expect you know that. Barney, I think you have all that stuff and you figure on parceling it out over the years to the autograph trade."

Barney shrugged and said nothing.

"I think you're waiting for him to be a hot topic again. What do you want, Barney?"

"I want to see every Vermeer in the world before I die."

"Do I need to ask who got you started on Vermeer?"

"We talked about a lot of things in the middle of the night."

"Did you talk about what he'd like to do if he was free?"

"No. Dr Lecter has no interest in hypothesis. He doesn't believe in syllogism, or synthesis, or any absolute."

"What does he believe in?"

"Chaos. And you don't even have to believe in it. It's self-evident.".Starling wanted to indulge Barney for the moment. "You say that like you believe it," she said, "but your whole job at Baltimore State was maintaining order. You were the chief orderly. You and I are both in the order business. Dr Lecter never got away from you."

"I explained that to you."

"Because you never let your guard down. Even though in a sense you fraternized-" "I did not fraternize," Barney said. "He's nobody's brother. We discussed matters of mutual interest. At least the stuff was interesting to me when I found out about it."

"Did Dr Lecter ever make fun of you for not knowing something?"

"No. Did he make fun of you?"

"No," she said to save Barney's feelings, as she recognized for the first time the compliment implied in the monster's ridicule. "He could have made fun of me if he'd wanted to. Do you know where the stuff is, Barney?"

"Is there a reward for finding it?"

Starling folded her paper napkin and put it under the edge of her plate. "The reward is my not charging you with obstruction of justice. I gave you a walk before when you bugged my desk at the hospital."

"That bug belonged to the late Dr Chilton."

"Late? How do you know he's the late Dr Chilton?"

"Well, he's seven years late anyway," Barney said. "I'm not expecting him anytime soon. Let me ask you, what would satisfy you, Special Agent Starling?"

"I want to see the X ray. I want the X-ray. If there are books of Dr Lecter's, I want to see them."

"Say we came upon the stuff, what would happen to it afterward?"

"Well, the truth is I can't be sure. The U.S. Attorney might seize all the material as evidence in the investigation of the escape. Then it'll molder in his Bulky Evidence Room. If I examine the stuff and find nothing useful in the books, and I say so, you could claim that Dr Lecter gave them to you. He's been in absentia seven years, so you might exercise a civil claim. He has no known relatives. I would recommend that any innocuous material be handed over to you. You should know my recommendation is at the low end of the totem pole. You wouldn't ever get the X ray back probably or the medical report, since they weren't his to give."

"And if I explain to you that I don't have the stuff?"

"Lecter material will become really hard to sell because we'll put out a bulletin on it and advise the market that we'll seize and prosecute for receiving and possession. I'll exercise a search and seizure warrant on your premises."

"Now that you know where my premises is. Or is it premises are?"

"I'm not sure. I can tell you, if you turn the material over, you won't get any grief for having taken it, considering what would have happened to it if you'd left it in place. As far as promising you'd get it back, I can't promise.for sure."

Starling rooted in her purse for punctuation. "You know, Barney, I have the feeling you haven't gotten an advanced medical degree because maybe you can't get bonded. Maybe you've got a prior somewhere. See? Now look at that – I never pulled a rap sheet on you, I never checked."

"No, you just looked at my tax return and my job application is all. I'm touched."

"If you've got a prior, maybe the USDA in that jurisdiction could drop a word, get you expunged."

Barney mopped his plate with a piece of toast. "You about finished? Let's walk a little."

"I saw Sammie, remember he took over Miggs's cell? He's still living in it," Starling said when they were outside.

"I thought the place was condemned."

"It is."

"Is Sammie in a program?"

"No, he just lives there in the dark."

"I think you ought to blow the whistle on him. He's a brittle diabetic, he'll die. Do you know why Dr Lecter made Miggs swallow his tongue?"

"I think so."

"He killed him for offending you. That was just the specific thing. Don't feel bad – he might have done it anyway.

They continued past Barney's apartment house to the lawn where the dove still circled the body of its dead mate. Barney shooed it with his hands. "Go on," he said to the bird. "That's long enough to grieve. You'll walk around until the cat gets you." The dove flew away whistling. They could not see where it lit. Barney picked up the dead bird. The smooth-feathered body slid easily into his pocket.