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The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter 2)

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“Dr. Lecter, you’re an experienced clinical psychiatrist. Do you think I’m dumb enough to try to run some kind of mood scam on you? Give me some credit. I’m asking you to respond to the questionnaire, and you will or you won’t. Would it hurt to look at the thing?”

“Officer Starling, have you read any of the papers coming out of Behavioral Science recently?”

“Yes.”

“So have I. The FBI stupidly refuses to send me the Law Enforcement Bulletin, but I get it from secondhand dealers and I have the News from John Jay, and the psychiatric journals. They’re dividing the people who practice serial murder into two groups—organized and disorganized. What do you think of that?”

“It’s … fundamental, they evidently—”

“Simplistic is the word you want. In fact, most psychology is puerile, Officer Starling, and that practiced in Behavioral Science is on a level with phrenology. Psychology doesn’t get very good material to start with. Go to any college psychology department and look at the students and faculty: ham radio enthusiasts and other personality-deficient buffs. Hardly the best brains on the campus. Organized and disorganized—a real bottom-feeder thought of that.”

“How would you change the classification?”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Speaking of publications, I read your pieces on surgical addiction and left-side, right-side facial displays.”

“Yes, they were first-rate,” Dr. Lecter said.

“I thought so, and so did Jack Crawford. He pointed them out to me. That’s one reason he’s anxious for you—”

“Crawford the Stoic is anxious? He must be busy if he’s recruiting help from the student body.”

“He is, and he wants—”

“Busy with Buffalo Bill.”

“I expect so.”

“No. Not ‘I expect so.’ Officer Starling, you know perfectly well it’s Buffalo Bill. I thought Jack Crawford might have sent you to ask me about that.”

“No.”

“Then you’re not working around to it.”

“No, I came because we need your—”

“What do you know about Buffalo Bill?”

“Nobody knows much.”

“Has everything been in the papers?”

“I think so. Dr. Lecter, I haven’t seen any confidential material on that case, my job is—”

“How many women has Buffalo Bill used?”

“The police have found five.”

“All flayed?”

“Partially, yes.”

“The papers have never explained his name. Do you know why he’s called Buffalo Bill?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me.”



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