Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter 1)

“How do you know for sure it was the perpetrator that bit the cheese, Doc?” a tall detective in the front row asked.

Princi disliked being called “Doc,” but he swallowed it. “Saliva washes from the cheese and from the bite wounds matched for blood type,” he said. “The victims’ teeth and blood type didn’t match.”

“Fine, Doctor,” Springfield said. “We’ll pass out pictures of the teeth to show around.”

“What about giving it to the papers?” The public-relations officer, Simpkins, was speaking. “A ‘have-you-seen-these-teeth’ sort of thing.”

“I see no objection to that,” Springfield said. “What about it, Commissioner?”

Lewis nodded.

Simpkins was not through. “Dr. Princi, the press is going to ask why it took four days to get this dental representation you have here. And why it all had to be done in Washington.”

Special Agent Crawford studied the button on his ballpoint pen.

Princi reddened but his voice was calm. “Bite marks on flesh are distorted when a body is moved, Mr. Simpson—”

“Simpkins.”

“Simpkins, then. We couldn’t make this using only the bite marks on the victims. That is the importance of the cheese. Cheese is relatively solid, but tricky to cast. You have to oil it first to keep the moisture out of the casting medium. Usually you get one shot at it. The Smithsonian has done it for the FBI crime lab before. They’re better equipped to do a face bow registration and they have an anatomical articulator. They have a consulting forensic odontologist. We don’t. Anything else?”

“Would it be fair to say that the delay was caused by the FBI lab and not here?”

Princi turned on him. “What it would be fair to say, Mr. Simpkins, is that a federal investigator, Special Agent Crawford, found the cheese in the refrigerator two days ago—after your people had been through the place. He expedited the lab work at my request. It would be fair to say I’m relieved that it wasn’t one of you that bit the goddamned thing.”

Commissioner Lewis broke in, his heavy voice booming in the squad room. “Nobody’s questioning your judgment, Dr. Princi. Simpkins, the last thing we need is to start a pissing contest with the FBI. Let’s get on with it.”

“We’re all after the same thing,” Springfield said. “Jack, do you fellows want to add anything?”

Crawford took the floor. The faces he saw were not entirely friendly. He had to do something about that.

“I just want to clear the air, Chief. Years ago there was a lot of rivalry about who got the collar. Each side, federal and local, held out on the other. It made a gap that crooks slipped through. That’s not Bureau policy now, and it’s not my policy. I don’t give a damn who gets the collar. Neither does Investigator Graham. That’s him sitting back there, if some of you are wondering. If the man who did this is run over by a garbage truck, it would suit me just fine as long as it puts him off the street. I think you feel the same way.”

Crawford looked over the detectives and hoped they were mollified. He hoped they wouldn’t hoard leads. Commissioner Lewis was talking to him.

“Investigator Graham has worked on this kind of thing before.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you add anything, Mr. Graham, suggest anything?”

Crawford raised his eyebrows at Graham.

“Would you come up to the front?” Springfield said.

Graham wished he had been given the chance to talk to Springfield in private. He didn’t want to go to the front. He went, though.

Rumpled and sun-blasted, Graham didn’t look like a federal investigator. Springfield thought he looked more like a house painter who had put on a suit to appear in court.

The detectives shifted from one buttock to the other.

When Graham turned to face the room, the ice-blue eyes were startling in his brown face.

“Just a couple of things,” he said. “We can’t assume he’s a former mental patient or somebody with a record of sex offenses. There’s a high probability that he doesn’t have any kind of record. If he does, it’s more likely to be breaking and entering than a minor sex offense.

“He may have a history of biting in lesser assaults—bar fights or child abuse. The biggest help we’ll have on that will come from emergency-room personnel and the child-welfare people.

“Any bad bite they can remember is worth checking, regardless of who was bitten or how they said it happened. That’s all I have.”