Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Six

The rust-colored dawn of Baltimore ushered in the distant sky, and under the dawn, fleas stirred in the most stringent precautionary ward.Inside, where the lights are never dark, a new day feels tortured, like an oyster in a barrel, its shell open, facing the receding tide.Creatures created by God cried to sleep and woke up again.These yelling people are clearing their throats. Dr. Hannibal Lecter stood erect at the end of the corridor, his face a foot from the wall.Wrapped in thick canvas netting, he was strapped tightly to a tall cart used by furniture movers like a grandfather clock.Inside the net cover, he was wearing a restraint garment on his upper body and restraint belts on his legs.He had a hockey player's mask on his face so he wouldn't bite; it was as effective as a horse bit, and the orderly was less wet to handle.

Behind Dr. Lecter, a small, round-shouldered orderly mops the floor of Lecter's cell.Barney oversees the cleaning three times a week, and he also searches for prohibited items.The people who mopped the floor thought Dr. Lecter's place was spooky, and they always wanted to rush things.Barney checked after them.He checks everything, and nothing is overlooked. Only Barney oversaw the handling of Dr. Lecter, because Barney never forgot what he was dealing with.Two of his assistants watch video of hockey game highlights on television. Dr. Lecter entertained himself—he had a wide supply of goods in his belly, and he could entertain himself for years at a time.Neither intimidation nor friendliness can bind his mind any more than Milton's can be bound by physics.His mind is free.

His inner world has strong colors and smells, but not many voices.In fact, he had to wince a little to hear the voice of the late Benjamin Raspail.Dr. Lecter was thinking silently, how to tell Clarice Starling about James Garm?It helps to recall Raspail.Here's what the fat flute player had said to Lecter about Jaime Garm in his last year, lying on his hospital bed. "James lives in this cheap hotel in San Francisco, and his room is the scariest room imaginable! The walls are sort of a fuchsia color, and there's some Hippie day sunburst paint all over the place. It's all, stained and grotesque, and everything is destroyed in a mess."

"James—you know, it's actually spelled that way on his birth certificate, and that's how he pronounced it; even though it was a hospital error, you still have to say 'Jame' , like saying 'name', or he'd blow a tantrum - they were hiring cheap helpers back then who couldn't even spell a name right. It's even worse now, going to the hospital is literally Kidding with your life! Anyway, James just sat there with his head in his hands on the bed in that dreadful room. He got fired from the antique shop and did that shit again." "I told him I couldn't stand him like that, and of course Klaus just came into my life again. James wasn't really gay, you know, just picked up a little while in jail. He wasn't anything, really, Just a kind of person who has nothing at all and wants to be satisfied, so he gets angry. As soon as he walks in, you always feel that the room is a little bit empty than before. I mean, he took his grandparents when he was twelve years old. Killed, a person with such a violent character, you must think that he must have some momentum?"

"That's what he did, got no job, found some unlucky prey and did it all over again. He swindled mail from his former employer as he passed the post office, hoping he'd get something to sell. One day A package from Malaysia, or somewhere in that area, he opened it eagerly, and it turned out to be a box full of dead butterflies, just scattered in it." "His boss sent money to all those island postmasters, and they sent him boxes and boxes of dead butterflies. He used artificial fluorescent resin to fix the butterflies into taxidermy, and the decorations that came out were vulgar. Unbelievably gorgeous - have the nerve to call them works of art! Butterflies don't do much to James, he sticks his hands in them, thinking there might be jewels underneath - sometimes they get bracelets from Bali —and got butterflies all over his fingers. Nothing. He sat on the bed with his head in his hands, and his face was the color of butterflies. He was at the end of the rope, as we all have It was the same. He cried. He heard a small sound, which turned out to be a butterfly in the opened foil, struggling to get out of the cocoon that had been thrown into the box with the dead butterfly. Come. Butterflies crawled out. Butterfly dust flying in the air, sunlight coming in through the windows, and specks of dust—you know how vivid it all is when someone describes it to you with indifference! He stared at it. Look at the butterfly and watch it flap its wings. It's a big butterfly, he said. Turn on the green light. So he opened the window and the butterfly flew away. He said he felt so relieved, he knew what to do."

"James found the little house on the beach that Klaus and I lived in, and I came back from rehearsal and he was there. But I didn't see Klaus. Klaus wasn't there. I said Klaus? He just said swimming. I know that's a lie, Klaus never swims, the Pacific is too risky. I open the fridge, hey, you know what I see. Klaus's head is in the orange juice face out. James also made himself an apron, you know, out of Klaus, and he put it on and asked me if it looked good on me. I know you're going to be shocked and I still Wouldn't have anything else to do with James—he was more capricious when you met him, and I think he found it marvelous that you weren't afraid of him!"

And then there are the last words Raspail said in his life: "I don't know why my parents didn't kill me early and let me grow up to fool them." With a twist of the dagger's thin handle, Raspail's heart was pierced, but he wanted to keep beating, Dr. Lecter said, "It looked like a straw stuck in the antfly's burrow, Isn't it?" But it was too late, and Raspail couldn't answer. Dr. Lecter could recall every word, and he could recall more.They were cleaning his cell, and he passed the time thinking about such pleasant things. The doctor was silently thinking that Clarice Starling was still very sharp, and based on what he had told her, she might catch Jaime Garm, but it would be a protracted battle.To catch him in time, she needs more specific information.Dr. Lecter felt pretty sure that after he had seen the details of James' crime, a clue would reveal itself—possibly something to do with the job training James received at the Junior School after he killed his grandparents.He would tell her about Jaime Garm to-morrow, so clearly that Jack Crawford could catch him.Get this done tomorrow.

Dr. Lecter heard footsteps behind him and the TV was turned off.He felt the hand truck tipping back.The tedious process of untying him in his cell was about to begin.Untie him the same way every time.First, Barney and his assistants gently put him on the bed, face down, then Barney tied his ankles with a towel to the railing at the foot of the bed, removed the restraint straps from his legs, and he Two assistants equipped with mace tear gas injectors and riot batons held him down, released the buckle on the back of his restraint clothing, then stepped back out of the cell, fastened the nylon net in place and locked the fence door, allowing him to Dr. Lecter slowly untied him by himself.Afterwards, the doctor traded these items for breakfast.It's been a procedure since Dr. Lecter tore the nurse apart, and it's proven to work for everyone.

Today, that routine was interrupted.