Chapter 12 Chapter Eleven

With that, Starling returned to where her career began: the defunct Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.The brown State Day building, the house of misery, the mansion chained up, doors and windows blocked, walls covered in graffiti, just waiting to be torn down. The hospital had gone from bad to worse before its director, Frederick Chilton, went on vacation and disappeared.The ensuing exposure of waste and mismanagement, combined with the dilapidation of the building itself, prevented the legislative system from appropriating it.Some patients were transferred to other state institutions, some died, and some became obscene bums on the streets of Baltimore through a poorly designed outpatient program, and more than one froze to death.

As she waited in front of the old building, Starling realized that the only reason she had traveled all the way to get here was because she didn't want to enter this building again. The building watchman arrived 45 minutes late, a stocky old man wearing a pair of pop-heeled shoes and an Eastern European haircut that might have been cut by a family member.Panting for breath, he led her to a side door that was only a few steps away from the curb.The lock on the door had been broken by the pickers, and it was now locked with a chain and two padlocks, and the chain was full of cobwebs.The grass in the cracks of the steps scratched Starling's ankles as the watchman looked for the keys.It was almost dusk, the sky was dark, the light was blurred, and there were no shadows.

"I'm not familiar with the building, I've only checked the fire alarm system," the man said. "Do you know where the files are kept? Are there filing cabinets? Are there records?" The man shrugged. "After the hospital closed it was a methadone detox clinic for a few months and everything went down to the basement, a few beds and some sheets and what else I don't know. The basement was moldy, a lot, for my asthma Bad. The cushions on the bed are moldy too. I can't breathe there. To make me climb the stairs is to put a noose around my neck. I'll lead you there, but—"

Starling would have liked to have company, even if it was an administrator, but he would slow her down. "No need. Where is your office?" "On the other side of the block is the former Driver's License Office." "If I don't come back in an hour—" The man looked at his watch. "I'm leaving in half an hour." Half an hour is damn good enough. "What I want you to do is wait in the office for the key, sir. If I don't come back in an hour, you call the number on the card and tell them where I am. But if you're not there when I come out— —If you close the door and go home, I will personally go to your competent department to complain about you tomorrow morning. And—you have to be audited by the tax department and reviewed by the immigration bureau, which will affect your...naturalization issues, understand Will you give me an answer, and I will thank you, sir."

"Of course I'll wait for you, so there's no need to say these words." "Thank you very much, sir," Starling said. Starling heard his shambling steps fade away as the watchman put his large hands on the railing to prop himself up onto the sidewalk.She pushed open the door and climbed onto the landing platform of a safety ladder.The stairwell had tall windows with bars, through which gray light filtered in.She considered whether to close the door behind her, and finally decided to twist the chain into a knot from the inside, so that if she lost the key, she could still open it.

The few times Starling had come to the psychiatric hospital to interview Dr. Lecter before, she had entered through the gate, and now she hesitated for a while before figuring out the direction. She climbed the fire escape; on the main floor, the frosted glass further obscured the fading light, leaving the room in semi-darkness.Starling turned on the large flashlight she had brought and caught a switch, turning on the overhead lights.The three lamps still glowed in the battered equipment.On the receptionist's desk were bare telephone cords. Vandals have been here, and cans of paint have been spilled all over the walls.

The door to the dean's room was open, and Starling stopped at the door.It was here that she got her first assignment with the FBI.She was still a student at that time, and she believed in everything, thinking that no matter what race you belong to, what skin color you are, what country your ancestors are from, whether you are a good child, as long as you can do things and have perseverance, you can be recognized.Now, in all of this, she has only one faith left, faith in her own resilience. Here, Abbot Chilton had reached out to her with his fat hand outstretched.Dean Chilton is here to trade secrecy, eavesdrop on conversations, and, believing himself as smart as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, make a decision that ultimately allows Dr. Lecter to escape, and a lot of bloodshed.

Chilton's desk is still in the office, but the chair is gone - small and easy to steal.The drawer was empty except for a crushed Seltzer jug.There were two filing cabinets left in the office, with ordinary locks, which took less than a minute for ex-Tech Agent Starling to open.A powdered sandwich was in a paper bag, and in the bottom drawer were some office forms for the methadone rehab clinic, as well as some breath freshener, a tube of hair tonic, a comb, and condoms. Starling thought of the dungeon-like basement of the madhouse, where Dr. Lecter had lived for eight years.She doesn't want to go down.She could use her cell phone to ask for a city police team to follow her, or she could ask the Baltimore office to send another FBI agent.But it was a gloomy evening, and even now she couldn't avoid Washington's rush hour traffic.If she delays any longer, it will be even more troublesome.

Regardless of the dust, she leaned against Chilton's desk, hesitating.Does she really think there are files at the bottom?Or was she simply drawn to the place where she first met Dr. Lecter? If Starling's law enforcement career had taught her anything, it was this: She wasn't a thrill seeker, and she'd be happy to be free of her fears.However, there may still be files in the basement, and she can find out in five minutes. She remembers the sound of the high security iron door slamming behind her as she went downstairs all those years ago.This time, just in case someone closed the door behind her back, she called the Baltimore office, told them where she was, and made arrangements to call back in an hour and tell them she was out.

The lights were still on on the inner staircase, where Chilton had walked her to the basement all those years ago.Here Chilton explains the security precautions taken with Dr. Lecter.He stopped here—right under this light, to show her a picture in his wallet of the nurse who had his tongue eaten off by Dr. Lecter, since Lecter If Dr. Te was dislocated while being restrained, there must have been an x-ray. There was a gust of wind on her neck from the stairs, as if a window had been opened somewhere. On the landing there were McDonald's lunch boxes, littered tissues, a dirty cup with beans.Trash food.There was also string-like poop and toilet paper in the corner.The light faded when we came to the ground-floor landing leading to the large iron gate, which led to the cell for violent criminals.Now the door was wide open, hooked against the wall.Starling's flashlight used five batteries and cast a broad and bright light.

She shines her flashlight on the hallway, which used to be the place with the tightest security measures.There's something huge at the end of the corridor.The cell doors were wide open, looking a little weird.There were bread papers and cups all over the floor.There used to be a soda can on the desk of the hospital nurse, blackened with smoke from a used drug tube. Starling flicked the light switch on the back of the nursing station, and it went off.She took out her mobile phone. Although the red light of the mobile phone is very bright in the dark, it is useless in the ground, but she still shouted into the mobile phone: "Barry, back the car to the side entrance, get a mercury lamp, and play with it." A couple of trolleys are coming to pull the big stuff up...well, coming down right now." Then Starling yelled into the darkness: "Attention people inside, I am a federal police officer. If you live here illegally, you are free to leave. I have no interest in you and will not arrest you. After my mission is completed, if you If you want to come back, I’m not interested either. You can come out now. If you want to disturb me, I’ll give you a peanut in your ass, which is too much for you. Thank you.” Her voice echoed in the corridor.Many people in that corridor used to yell, hoarse, and gnaw on the railing after losing all their teeth. Starling thought of Barney, the burly orderly from Dr. Lecter's interview, and the reassurance of Barney's presence.She remembered the strange courtesy between Dr. Lecter and Barney.Barney is not here now.Something from school bumped into her memory, and as a kind of training, she made herself recall the words: (These lines are from TS. Eliot's long poem "Four Quartets), the first part "Burnt Knowlton") There is nothing wrong with a rose garden.Surely this isn't a goddamn rose garden. Starling, newly inspired by editorials to hate guns and herself, discovered that touching a gun when she was nervous was not actually hateful.she put that. The 45 pistol was close to his leg, and he walked towards the corridor with the flashlight.It is very difficult to take care of both sides at the same time and never let anyone behind you.There is the sound of ticking water somewhere. Scattered beds were piled in cells.Other cells were filled with mattresses.A puddle of water was in the middle of the corridor.Starling, ever careful with her shoes, straddled the edge of the narrow puddle.She recalled Barney's advice years ago: keep walking in the middle when going down.At that time all the cells were inhabited. Find a filing cabinet, yes.Keep walking in the middle of the corridor.The flashlight was a dull olive color. This is the cell where Matibor Miggs lived, and it is the place she hates to walk by the most.Miggs who whispered dirty words to her and threw semen at her, Dr. Lecter taught him to swallow his tongue and killed his Miggs.After Miggs' death, the cell was occupied by Sammy.Sammy, whom Lecter had encouraged to write poetry, had been amazing.Even now she can hear Sammy howl his poem: She also keeps his crayon manuscript somewhere. The cells are now piled with mattresses and bales of bundled sheets. Finally came to Lecter's cell. The sturdy table was still in the middle of the room, bolted to the floor.The boards on his bookshelf were missing, and the brackets were still sticking out of the wall. Starling was supposed to turn to the locker, but she stared at the cell without moving.The most amazing experience of her life was experienced here.Here she had been surprised, surprised and shocked. Here she heard things about herself, so terribly true that her heart rang like a great, deep bell. She wanted to be in, wanted to be in, wanted to be in like the light of the rails tempting us to jump from the balcony when we heard the approaching train. Starling looked around with the flashlight, looked behind the row of filing cabinets, and then at the nearby cells. Curiosity carried her over the threshold.She stood right in the middle of the place where Dr. Hannibal Lecter had lived for eight years, occupying his world.She had seen him standing there once, and she thought she would get excited, but she didn't.She put the pistol and the flashlight on his desk - Bo's flashlight would roll, and put it carefully.She laid her hands flat on his table, feeling only crumbs under them. Most of all, it felt disappointing.Without the original occupants, the cell looked empty, like the skin of a snake shed.Now Starling thinks she understands something: death and danger don't have to be with traps, they can be in the sweet breath of someone you love, or, on a sunny afternoon at the fish market, expand "La Macarena" was playing on the speakers. Let's work.The row of filing cabinets is about 8 feet long, with 4 cabinets that are chin-high.There were five drawers in each cabinet, and the top drawer, which had been locked with a cross-recessed lock, was now fully open.All the cabinets are full of files, and the files have file folders, and some file folders are very thick.The old marbled paper folders are limp over time, while the new ones are packed in manila paper folders.The earliest medical records of deceased patients date back to 1932 when the hospital was created.The files are generally arranged in alphabetical order.There are some files stacked flat behind folders in long drawers.Starling hurried down to check.She slung the heavy flashlight over her shoulder and flipped through the file with her free fingers.What she really wished she had brought was a small flashlight that she could grit her teeth and ask.After she saw something about the files, she could skip the cabinets one by one.She skipped J, skipped K with few files, and came to L.Wow!Lecter, Hannibal. Starling pulled out the long manila folder and immediately felt it for the stiffness of an X-ray film.She put the folder on another file and opened it, only to find IJ.Miggs' medical records.bad luck!Miggs is dead and messing with her!She put the file on top of the filing cabinet and hurried to the letter M.Miggs' own manila file was there, in alphabetical order, but it was empty.Is it a filing error?Did someone accidentally put Miggs' file in Hannibal Lecter's folder?She checked all the M's, trying to find a file with no clips.She went back to J.She realized that she was getting more and more irritable.The smell of the place became more and more unbearable to her.The housekeeper was right, the place is hard to breathe.She had only checked half of J before she realized that the smell... quickly became stronger. There was a slight splash of water behind her, she turned around, raised the flashlight to shoot out, and hurriedly reached into her coat with her other hand to grab the handle of the gun.A tall man stood in the light of her flashlight, all dirty and ragged, with one too swollen leg in the water, one hand stretched out beside him, the other holding a broken plate, one leg And both feet wrapped in sheet cloth strips. "Hello," he said, the thrush crippling his tongue.Starling could smell his breath from 5 feet away.Her hand under her coat switched from a pistol to a mace. "Hello," Starling said, "will you stand over there against the railing, please?" The man didn't move. "Are you Jesus?" he asked. "No," Starling said, "I'm not Jesus." That voice!Starling remembered the voice. "Are you Jesus?" The muscles in his face moved. It's his voice!Hi, how amazing. "Hello, Sammy," she said, "how are you? I was thinking of you just now." What's the matter with Sammy?The information appeared quickly and was a bit messy.While the congregation sang "Give Thy Best Thing to the Lord," he transformed his mother's head into fundraiser gold.He said that was the best thing about him.Where is the Baptist Church.He was angry, Dr. Lecter explained, because Yera had come too late. "Are you Jesus?" he said, sadly this time.He took a cigarette butt out of his pocket, a good one, more than two inches long, and put it on a battered plate as an offering. "Sammy, I'm sorry, I'm not, I—" Sammy's face paled suddenly, and he was furious because she wasn't Jesus.His voice boomed in the damp corridor: He held up a battered plate with a sharp edge like a pickaxe.He took a step toward Starling, now with both feet in the water.His face was contorted; his free hand scratched the air between them. She felt the filing cabinet against her back. "As long as I behave . "Hi, uh," Sammy said quietly, stopping in his tracks. Starling fumbled in her purse and took out a candy. "Sammy, I have a candy bar. Do you like candy?" He didn't speak. She served him candy on a manila file like he served a donation plate. He took a bite before tearing off the wrapper and ate half of it. "Sammy, has anyone else come down here?" He ignored her question and simply put the remaining candies on a plate and went back to his old cell behind a pile of cushions. "What's this?" A woman's voice said. "Thank you, Sammy." "Who are you?" Starling called. "Fuck your ass." "Do you live here with Sammy?" "Of course not. I'm here on a date. Do you think you can leave us alone?" "Okay, answer my question. How long have you been here?" "Two weeks." "Has anyone else been here?" "A few bastards, ask Sammy to drive them away." "Does Sammy protect you?" "Mess with me and you'll know. I can walk on my feet and get food. He's got a safe place to eat. Lots of people make that trade." "Have either of you been placed on the relief plan? Do you want to be included on the relief plan? I can help you with that." "In his plan, he went to the outside world to do some stupid things, and then he went back to the same place. What are you looking for? What do you want?" "Find the file." "If not, someone stole it. You're really stupid if you don't even understand this." "Sammy?" Starling said. "Sammy?" Sammy didn't answer. "He fell asleep," said his friend. "If I left some money here, would you buy some food?" Starling said. "No, I'll pay for booze. You can get food, but you can't get booze. Don't get your ass pinched by the doorknob when you go out." "I put money on the table," Starling said.She had an urge to run away.She thought of leaving Dr. Lecter, of trying to control herself as she walked toward Barney.Barney's well-ordered post was then an island of calm. In the dim light of the stairwell, Starling pulled a twenty-dollar bill from her wallet and placed it on Barney's battered, unwanted desk, under the weight of an empty wine bottle.She opened a plastic shopping bag and put the Lecter file clip in it, which contained Miggs' records and Miggs' empty clip. "Good-bye, Sammy, good-bye," she called to the man who had gone round the world and returned to the hell he knew.She wanted to tell him that she hoped Jesus would come soon, but it seemed foolish to say so. Starling went upstairs, back into the sunlight, and continued her wanderings in the world.