Chapter 3 Chapter two

A cul-de-sac in a working-class neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia.It was just after midnight on a warm autumn night after rain, and the warm air fled uneasily before the cold air.A cricket played a tune in the smell of wet earth and leaves.There was a great shock, the crickets stopped playing, and it was the muffled rumble of cars.It was a 5-liter Mustang with steel tube bumpers.The car pulled into a cul-de-sac and was followed by a federal police officer's car.The two cars drove to the neat two-story building and stopped on the driveway.The Mustang shuddered a bit as it idling.After the engine stopped, the cricket waited and watched, and played again--that was the last time he played before the frost, and the last time in his life.

A uniformed Confederacy officer dismounted from the driver's seat, walked around the front of the car, and opened the door for Clarice Starling.Starling got out of the car, her ears bandaged and held in place by a white headband.She didn't wear a shirt, just a green surgical gown, the orange betaine staining her neck, which was exposed outside the collar. She carried a zip-lock bag of personal items—a bunch of keys, some money, an FBI Secret Service ID, a quick-loading gun, five rounds of ammunition, a small can of Mace gas.Along with the zip-lock bag she carried a belt and an empty leather holster.

The officer handed her the car keys. "Thanks, Bob." "Do you want me and Fallon to come in and sit with you for a while? Or do you want me to get Sandra for you? She's up and waiting for me. I'll take her to sit with you for a while. You need someone." accompany……" "No, I'm going in now. Alicia will be back in a minute, thank you, Bob." The officer and his partner got into the waiting car, and seeing Starling safely inside the house, he drove off in the Federal service vehicle. The laundry room in Starling's house was warm and smelled of fabric softener.Washer and dryer hoses are secured with plastic tie down straps.Starling set down her supplies on the washing machine, and the car keys jingled against the metal cover.She pulled a large roll of laundry from the washer and stuffed it into the dryer, then removed her uniform pants, green shirt from surgery, and bloodstained bra, and threw them in the laundry tub.She was wearing only socks and underwear, and she had a .38 special gun in the holster, with a safety on the hammer.She had bruises on her back and ribs, bruises on her elbows and swollen right eye and cheek.

The washing machine was heating up and started to rattle.Wrapping herself in a large beach towel, Starling went into the living room and took a bit of Pure Jack from a large mug.Daniels whiskey, sitting on a rubber mat in front of the washing machine.Sitting in the dark, by the washing machine.The warm machine was rattling.She sat on the floor, sobbed a few times with her face up, and tears flowed down her cheeks. Axunlia.Mapp's boyfriend had driven her all the way from Cape May and arrived home around 00:45.She said goodbye to her boyfriend at the door, and then in her bathroom she heard the washing machine switching functions, the water rushing, and the pipes spitting.

Mapp went to the back of the house, turned on the light in the kitchen she shared with Starling, looked into the laundry room, and saw Starling sitting on the floor with her head bandaged. "Starling! Ah, baby." She hurried to her knees beside her. "My ear was pierced, Ardelia. It was stitched up at Walter Reed's. Don't turn on the light, will you?" "Okay, I'll make you something to eat. I didn't hear the radio, we're listening to music in the car—you tell me." "John is dead, Ardelia." "It can't be John Brigham!" When Brigham was a shooting instructor in the FBI, both Mapp and Starling had a crush on him, and they both wanted to see what words he had tattooed on his body through his sleeves .

Starling nodded, wiping her tears with the back of her hand like a child. "Evelda Drumgo and a few Krips. It was Inelda who killed him. They also killed Max Burke of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. We went together Evelda got the news in advance, and the TV news arrived at the same time as us. I will do Evelda's work, but she refuses to give up resistance. Adeleia, she refuses, and holds a doll .We opened fire on each other and she was killed." Mapp had never seen Starling cry before. "Allia, I killed 5 people today." Mapp sat on the floor next to Starling and put his arms around her, and they leaned together against the running washing machine. "What happened to Evelda's doll?"

"I washed the blood off his body. I saw that he had no injuries. The hospital also said that he was fine. They sent him to Evelda's mother in a few days. You know Evelda The last thing she said to me? She said, 'Let's fight this two. Bitch'." "I'll get you something to eat," said Mapp. "What?" Starling said.