freeze! fbi!
never cock. just squeeze.
what'd i do?
good morning, mr. crawford.
i hope so. they haven't posted anything.
not yet.
who's the subject?
the cannibal.
yes, well.  okay, right. i'm glad for the chance, sir, but - why me?
yes sir.
and what is that, sir?
i'm sure it's a great town, dr. chilton, but my instructions are to talk to lecter and report back this afternoon.
how do you mean, dr. chilton?
i graduated magna from uva, doctor. it's not a charm school.
i understand.
dr. chilton - if lecter feels you're his enemy - as you've said - then maybe i'll have more luck by myself. what do you think?
but then i would've missed the pleasure of your company.
clarice starling. yes, he did.
dr. lecter.  my name is clarice starling. may i talk with you?
doctor, we have a hard problem in psychological profiling. i want to ask for your help with a questionnaire.
i am, yes.
i'm - still in training at the academy.
we're talking about psychology, doctor, not the bureau. can you decide for yourself whether or not i'm qualified?
he said - "i can smell your cunt."
yes.
maybe they'll catch up.
did you do those drawings, doctor?
all that detail, just from memory?
dr. lecter, if you'd please consider -
i'm only asking you to look at this, doctor. either you will or you won't.
no, i came because we need -
five.  so far.
partially, yes. but doctor, that's an active case, i'm not involved. if -
i'll tell you if you'll look at this form. it started as a bad joke in kansas city homicide. they said.  this one likes to skin his humps.
it excites him. most serial killers keep some sort of trophies.
no. you ate yours.
no. i only hoped that your knowledge -
you see a lot, dr. lecter. but are you strong enough to point that high- powered perception at yourself? how about it? look at yourself and write down the truth. or maybe you're afraid to.
reasonably so. yes.
and the questionnaire?
is spattered on the face and neck - not with blood, but with pale droplets of semen. she gives a little cry, touching her fingers to the wetness. stunned, near tears, she forces herself to straighten up and walk on, fumbling for a tissue. from behind her, dr. lecter calls out, very agitated.
then please - do this test for me.
what's that, dr. lecter?
thanks, ardelia.
pleading with a crazy man, with come all over my face.
mr. crawford?
it's all there, sir, practically verbatim.
right down to the kleenex i used. sir, why? is something wrong?
i spent all evening on the mainframe. lecter altered or destroyed most of his patient histories, prior to capture. no record of anyone named mofet. but "split city" sounded like it might have have something to do with divorce. i tracked it down in the library's catalogue of national yellow pages. it's a mini-storage facility outside baltimore, where lecter had his practice.
sir, that's a field job. it's outside the scope of my assignment. and i've got a test tomorrow on -
to complete and file my report by 0800 wednesday. but sir -
sir, what is it? there's something you're not telling me.
murdered? how?
i'm here, sir, i just - i don't know how to feel about it.
well god damn it! you old creep. creepo son of a bitch. let miggs squirt you and see how you like it.
so no one's been in here since - 1980?
i won't disturb anything, mr. yow, i promise. be gone before you know it.
would you hold these, please?
mr. yow, if this door should fall down -ha ha! - or anything else - would you be kind enough to call this number? it's our baltimore field office. they know you're here with me.  do you understand?
good idea.
okay, mr. yow.
that wasn't me.
peers in through the gap, aiming her flashlight.
mr. yow? oh mr. yow? it looks like somebody is sitting in this car.
not yet! - just wait for me. maybe in about two seconds.
sighs with relief. she takes a couple more flashes, then very carefully lifts out the valentine album, holding it by the corners, and setting it atop the car. then she eases herself inside, onto the back seat, as the springs squeak loudly.
staring at this terrible thing, is pleased to find herself quickly regaining control. she murmurs to herself.
well, toto, we're not in kansas anymore.
it's an anagram, isn't it, doctor?
hester mofet.  "the rest of me." miss the-rest-of-me.  meaning, you rented that place.
you put those - things in there. paid for it in advance, ten years ago.  why, dr. lecter?
thank you.
how did - it's nothing. a scratch.
why? do you know something about him?
why don't you tell me about "miss mofet?" you wanted me to find him. or do i have to wait for the lab?
if you didn't kill him, then who did?
wouldn't it have been easier to just leave him for the police to find?
scared, at first. then - exhilarated.
because you weren't wasting my time.
i don't know. next time i'll have to check.
i never thought about it.
that doesn't interest me, doctor. and it's the sort of thing miggs would ask.
i don't know. is it?
who killed raspail, doctor? you know, don't you?
who killed your patient?
buffalo bill? bill killed him, all those years ago? that's impossible.
where?
i'll need the big fingerprint kit.  and the one-to-one polaroid, the cu- 5, with film packs and batteries.
sometimes.
i will.  i promise.
there's no correlation at all between where they're kidnapped and where they're found? what if - what if you trace the heaviest-traffic routes backwards from the dump sites? do they converge at all?
he's a white male.  serial killers tend to hunt within their own ethnic group. and he's not a drifter - he's got his own house, somewhere. not an apartment.
what he does with them - takes privacy.  time, tools.  he's in his 30's or 40's - he's got real physical strength, but combined with an older man's self-control. he's cautious, precise, never impulsive.  this won't end in suicide, like they often do.
he's got a real taste for it now. and he's getting better at his work.
like i have a "knack" for dr. lecter?
you haven't said a word today about that garage. or what i found there.
you knew. you knew from the start that lecter held the key to this.  but you weren't up front with me. you sent me in to him naked.
he starts this - buzzing in me, in my head. he makes me feel violated.  you used me, mr. crawford.
burning at this slight, is left alone with the troopers, who peek at her with shy curiosity. she pulls her blazer a bit tighter, self-conscious about her bulging shoulder holster.
is pulling on a pair of surgical gloves. she raises her voice, turning up her natural accent by several notches.
gentlemen. you officers and gentlemen! listen here a minute, please. there's things i need to do for her.
y'all brought her this far, and i know her folks would thank you if they could. now please - go on out and let me take care of her.  go on, now.
at a side counter, has turned back to her open fingerprint kit. she is lifting out a camera when she hears the zipper of the body bag being slowly opened, behind her.
bill.
well, she's not local. her ears are pierced three times each, and she's wearing green glitter nail polish. looks like town to me.
she waxed her legs, i think.  a big girl, just like the others - but she was careful about her appearance.
two of the fingernails are broken off, and there's - dirt or grit under the others. she tried to claw her way through something.  i'll scrape out samples after i've printed her.
think they were runnin' a trotline?
it's a fish and game violation. like poaching. there's a big fine.
they do it lots of places.
she's got something in her throat.
i don't know. i didn't see those on any of the other girls.
thanks, i'm not thirsty.
it matters, mr. crawford.  other cops know who you are. they look at you to see how to act.  it matters.
i'm wondering if he's done that before - placed a cocoon, or an insect. it would be easy to miss in an autopsy, especially with a floater.  can we check back on that?
then have the lab check raspail's head. dr. lecter's patient - have them probe his soft-palette tissues.  they'll find another cocoon.
raspail was killed by the same man who's killing these girls. and lecter knows him. maybe even treated him.  you think so, too, don't you? or you'd never have sent me to that asylum.
looks at ardelia, surprised. other trainees are drifting into the rec room, some whispering among themselves. clarice stares back at the tv intently.
boy, is that smart.
somebody's coaching her.  they're trying to make him see catherine as a person - not just an object.
if the beetle moves one of your men, does that count?
you really don't want to know.
i try to be a student, dr. pilcher.
not lately. but maybe someday.
you're sure?
and there's no way - no natural way - these could've wound up in the bodies?
dr. lecter.
he's already offered to help.  what would happen if we just showed our cards - asked him for bill?
but if he knew we have so little time -
i think he means it, this time. i think he'll deal.
transfer to a new prison. with a view of trees, he said, or even water.  can we swing that?
you'll back me up with some paperwork? then i'll try. but wouldn't this have more weight coming from the senator herself?
dr. chilton, i told you - this is just routine follow-up on the raspail case.
i'm acting on instruction, dr. chilton. this is the u.s. attorney's number. now please - either discuss this with him, or let me do my job.
i was your choice, dr. lecter. you chose to speak to me. would you prefer someone else now? or perhaps you don't think you can help us.
by the book, he's a sadist.
yes.
they all were.
she had an insect deliberately inserted in her throat. that hasn't been made public yet. we don't know what is means.
a moth.  how did you predict that?
if you help us find buffalo bill in time to save catherine martin, the senator promises you a transfer to the v.a. hospital at oneida park, new york, with a view of the woods nearby. maximum security still applies, but you'd have reasonable access to books.
best of all, though - one week a year you'd get to leave the hospital and go here. plum island. every afternoon of that week you can walk on the beach or swim in the ocean for up to one hour. under swat team surveillance, of course.
copy of the buffalo bill case file, copy of senator martin's terms. her offer is final and non-negotiable. if catherine dies - you get nothing.
that's just part of the island. it has a very nice beach. terns nest there.
go, doctor.
the death of my father.
he was a town marshal.  one night he surprised two burglars, coming out the back of a drugstore.  they shot him.
no. he was strong, he lasted almost a month. my mother - died when i was very young, so my father had become - the whole world to me.  after he left me, i had nobody. i was ten years old.
quid pro quo, doctor.
dr. lecter, there's no correlation in the literature between transsexualism and violence. transsexuals are very passive.
no. tell me why.
i went to live with my mother's cousin and her husband in montana. they had a ranch.
horses - and sheep.
two months.
i - ran away.
no.
no! quid pro quo, doctor.
you said - i was very close to the way we'd catch him.
on what basis would they reject him?
how would he test?
yes, doctor. please.
chilton has killed her, hasn't he? that slimy little bastard! we were so close with lecter - and now her last chance is gone.
are you in trouble over this, mr. crawford? can senator martin do something to you?
if you didn't want me chasing him, you shouldn't have taken me to that funeral home.
lecter is still the key, i know he is. whatever he told me about bill is just as good now as it was before.
i lied to lecter. i'll need some kind of peace offering.  can i get the drawings from his cell?
mr. crawford.  can those cops down there handle dr. lecter?
i'm clarice starling, senator. fbi.
sir, mr. crawford instructed me -
i need the id to fly with my gun. the gun belongs in quantico.
mr. krendler.  dr. lecter trusts me. or at least, he used to. if i could just -
sir, doesn't this "william rubin" strike you as - i don't know - kind of vague?
yes sir. i can find it by myself.
i just left him.
i don't have a name for what he is.
yes, officer pembry. i've questioned him before.
i thought you might want your drawings back.  just until you get your view.
nobody sent me. i came on my own.
dr. lecter, you find out everything. you couldn't have talked with this "william rubin", even once, and come out knowing so little about him.  you made him up, didn't you?
i think you were telling me the truth in baltimore - or starting to. tell me the rest now.
then tell me how.
he kills w-
anger, social resentment, sexual frus-
no. we just -
all right, then tell me how -
dr. lecter, when there's time i'll -
later, listen, i'll -
and - one morning i just - ran away.
early. still dark.
i heard a strange sound.
i didn't know. i went to look.
screaming! some kind of - screaming. like a child's voice.
got dressed without turning on the light. i went downstairs.  outside.
i crept up to the barn.  i was so scared to look inside - but i had to.
lambs. the lambs were screaming.
yes! they were screaming.
no. first i tried to free them.  i opened the gate of their pen - but they wouldn't run. they just stood there, confused. they wouldn't run.
i took one lamb. and i ran away, as fast as i could.
i don't know. i had no food or water. it was very cold. i thought - if i can even save just one.  but he got so heavy. so heavy.
i didn't get more than a few miles before the sheriff's car found me. the rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the lutheran orphanage in bozeman. i never saw the ranch again.
yes.
yes! i don't know! i don't know.
tell me his name, dr. lecter.
yes. i'll tell you.
hugging the case file to her chest, stares back at him as the men crowd in on her, pushing her away.
no. he won't come after me.
it would be rude. and he wouldn't get to ask any more questions.
the worst part - the thing that's making me crazy - is that bill is right in front of me. only i can't see him.  lecter said, everything i need to catch him is right here, in these pages.
he's here, ardelia.
"desperately random." what does he mean?
but there is no pattern. there's no connection at all among these places, or the computers would've nailed it! they're even found in random order.
what girl?
fredrica bimmel, from belvedere, ohio. the first girl taken, but the third body found.  why?
but why? he didn't weight the others.
the first, what the hell did lecter say about.  "first principles," he said. simplicity.  what does this guy do, he "covets." how do we first start to covet? "we covet what we see -"
"- every day."
he knew her!
maybe he lives in this, this belvedere, ohio, too! maybe he saw her every day, and killed her sort of spontaneously. maybe he just meant to.  give her a 7-up and talk about the choir. but then -
but then he had to cover up, make her seem just like all the rest of them. that's what lecter was hinting!
all his victims are women.  his obsession is women, he lives to hunt women. but not one women is hunting him - except me. i can walk in a woman's room and know three times as much about her as a man would. i have to go to belvedere.
you do until six p.m.
but not from this angle. not thinking he knew her. you've got to send me!
but i just became a private citizen. i can go anywhere i want to.
he's going to kill her, mr. crawford. this morning, or maybe at noon, but today, and belvedere's our last chance. i'm flying there, right now, unless you stop me. you want my id? here - take it.
thank you.
approaches him, and the man lowers his hammer. he has red- rimmed eyes of watery blue. his face is deeply seamed.
mr. bimmel?
turns, absorbing nuances. there is loneliness here, an echo of desperation under this steeply pitches ceiling. a shrill meow, and she looks down.
picks up the cat, scratches behind his ears. she glances up.
sitting at the desk, turns the pages of a high school yearbook. the cat is curled on her lap.
kneeling by the old decca record player, flips through lps and singles. the cat has wandered off.
pulling a string to light up the closet. she is surprised and intrigued to see an extensive wardrobe, groaning from the rod. a shelf above the rod is stacked high with sewing supplies, in clear plexiboxes. she flips through the hanging clothes, pulls out one dress, on its hanger, for a closer look.
who stares at them, starting to tremble.
sewing darts. you bastard.
he's making himself a "woman suit," mr. crawford - out of real women! and he can sew, this guy, he's really skilled. a dressmaker, or a tailor -
that's why they're all so big - because he needs a lot of skin! he keeps them alive to starve them awhile - to loosen their skin, so that -
where?
sir, that's great news. but how -
sewing.
chicago's only about 400 miles from here. i could be there in -
yes sir.  i'll do my best.
yes sir. thank you, sir.
somewhat embarrassed, crosses over to him.
mr. bimmel.  did fredrica ever mention a man named jamie gumb, from calumet city? or john grant? did she know any men that sew?
who was her best friend, mr. bimmel? who'd she hang out with?
stacy, did fredrica ever mention a man named jamie gumb? or john grant? do you think she could've had a friend you didn't know about?
did you ever work with her?
where does mrs. lippman live? i'd like to talk to her.
i think so.
sometimes you do.
good afternoon.  i wonder if you could help me. i'm looking for mrs. lippman's family?
excuse me, but i really do need to talk to you. this was mrs. lippman's house. did you know her?
i'm investigating the death of fredrica bimmel. who are you, please?
mr. gordon, did you know fredrica when she worked for mrs. lippman?
thanks.
i think we may be, yes.
mr. gordon, did you take over this place after mrs. lippman died?
did she leave any records here? tax or business records? maybe a list of employees?
unaware, is still glancing around the room. for several agonizing moments, we think she won't see the moth - but then she turns, does see it, and her eyes freeze. a beat of pure fear. a tremendous struggle to keep her voice calm.
no.  no, we don't.
keeps her distance. they are about ten feet apart.
good, thank you. mr. gordon, do you have a phone i can use?
whips her gun out, gripping it in both shaking hands.
freeze!
tries to force more authority into her voice.
okay.  okay, mr. gumb, you're under arrest. down on the floor, hands and legs spread, move it.
hesitates, just a split second, to shoot him in the back - and then it's too late.
shit!
rushes to this - pauses - then elbows the door aside, aiming her gun down -
hates this, hates this, which door, it's a trap, what to do: she is very scared, but suddenly hears -
rushes through the doorway, and down the stairs.
follows her gun around the corner, looking right.
moves cautiously towards this chamber.
kneels, staring up from one door to another, she can't cover them all, she's totally exposed - and what's a dog doing there?
fbi, catherine, you're safe.
you're all right! where is he?
i'll get you out! just be quiet so i can hear. shut that dog up. is there a ladder? is there a rope?
catherine. listen to me. i have to find a rope. i have to leave this room, just for a minute, but -
shut up! the other officers will be here any minute! you're perfectly safe now!
spins, almost shoots, before seeing -
gasps for breath, fighting for calm. she turns again, slashing her free hand at the moths, moving quickly on.
centers her gun on the curtain, at chest height, and yanks it aside with her left hand. no one standing there. something lower down catches her eye.
is reacting with horror to this sight, the lights go out, to be replaced, a split-second later, by the eerie green glow of mr. gumb's infra-red system. clarice cries out, turns blindly, reaching for the door, can't find it, free hand clawing desperately into what is, for her, utter darkness. sound of catherine keening again, in the far distance. clarice stumbles, goes to her knees, rights herself, finally clutches the door frame.
spins, still in slow motion, flame already leaping from her gun muzzle, as we see -
dazed, her face bandaged - comes out of the house, walking protectively beside catherine, who is wheeled on a gurney.
grins - more happy than we've ever seen her - then turns to wave towards the crowd with the others.
agent mapp! thank you!
starling.
turns back, gripping the phone more tightly.
where are you, dr. lecter?
dr. lecter -
you know i can't make that promise.
dr. lecter.  dr. lecter!