第64章 沉默的羔羊 (1)

　　The Silence of the Lambs

　　克拉丽丝是联邦调查局的见习特工，他所在的

　　城市出现了一个专剥女性皮的变态杀人犯“野牛”

　　比尔。克拉丽丝的任务是去一所戒备森严的监狱访

　　问精神病专家汉尼拔博士，同他交谈以获取罪犯的

　　心理行为资料来帮助破案。汉尼拔被关在地牢里，

　　他是一位智商极高、思维敏捷但有些精神变态的中

　　年男子，并且是个食人狂。博士对她进行心理分析，

　　克拉丽丝说出童年的最痛苦的回忆是常常听到羔羊

　　的惨叫……经过一番心理分析，汉尼拔了解了克拉

　　丽丝为什么总会听到羔羊的惨叫。克拉丽丝把对象

　　锁定在一个叫詹米·冈的人身上。克拉丽丝找到并

　　击中了比尔，然而更危险的人物却又出现了。

　　[ 美] 托马斯·哈里斯 （Thomas Harris）

　　Behavioral Science，the FBI section that deals with serial

　　murder，is on the bottom floor of the Academy building at

　　Quantico，half-buried in the earth. Clarice Starling reached it

　　flushed after a fast walk from Hogan’s Alley on the firing range.

　　She had grass in her hair and grass stains on her FBI Academy

　　windbreaker from diving to the ground under fire in an arrest

　　problem on the range.

　　No one was in the outer office，so she fluffed briefly by her

　　reflection in the glass doors. She knew she could look all right

　　without primping. Her hands smelled of gunsmoke，but there was

　　no time to wash — Section Chief Crawford’s summons had said

　　now.

　　She found Jack Crawford alone in the cluttered suite of

　　offices. He was standing at someone else’s desk talking on the

　　telephone and she had a chance to look him over for the first time

　　in a year. What she saw disturbed her.

　　Normally，Crawford looked like a fit，middle-aged engineer

　　who might have paid his way through college playing baseball —

　　a crafty catcher，tough when he blocked the plate. Now he was

　　thin，his shirt collar was too big，and he had dark puffs under

　　his reddened eyes. Everyone who could read the papers knew

　　Behavioral Science section was catching hell. Starling hoped

　　Crawford wasn’t on the juice. That seemed most unlikely here.

　　Crawford ended his telephone conversation with a sharp

　　“No”. He took her file from under his arm and opened it.

　　“Starling，Clarice M.，good morning，”he said.

　　“Hello.”Her smile was only polite.

　　“Nothing’s wrong. I hope the call didn’t spook you.”

　　“No.”Not totally true，Starling thought.

　　“Your instructors tell me you’re doing well，top quarter of

　　the class.”

　　“I hope so，they haven’t posted anything.”

　　“I ask them from time to time.”

　　That surprised Starling ；she had written Crawford off as a

　　two-faced recruiting sergeant son of a bitch.

　　She had met Special Agent Crawford when he was a guest

　　lecturer at the University of Virginia. The quality of his criminology

　　seminars was a factor in her coming to the Bureau. She wrote

　　him a note when she qualified for the Academy，but he never

　　replied，and for the three months she had been a trainee at

　　Quantico，he had ignored her.

　　Starling came from people who do not ask for favors

　　o r press for friendship，but she was puzzled and regretful at

　　Crawford’s behavior. Now，in his presence，she liked him

　　again，she was sorry to note.

　　Clearly something was wrong with him. There was a peculiar

　　cleverness in Crawford，aside from his intelligence，and

　　Starling had first noticed it in his color sense and the textures of

　　his clothing，even within the FBI-clone standards of agent dress.

　　Now he was neat but drab，as though he were molting.

　　“A job came up and I thought about you，”he said.“It’s not

　　really a job，it’s more of an interesting errand. Push Berry’s stuff

　　off that chair and sit down. You put down here that you want to

　　come directly to Behavioral Science when you get through with

　　the Academy.”

　　“I do.”

　　“You have a lot of forensics，but no law enforcement

　　background. We look for six years，minimum.”

　　“My father was a marsha，I know the life.”

　　Crawford smiled a little.“What you do have is a double

　　major in psychology and criminology，and how many summers

　　working in a mental health center — two?”

　　“Two.”

　　“Your counselor’s license，is it current?”

　　“It’s good for two more years. I got it before you had the

　　seminar at UVA — before I decided to do this.”

　　“You got stuck in the hiring freeze.”

　　Starling nodded.“I was lucky though— I found out in time

　　to qualify as a Forensic Fellow. Then I could work in the lab until

　　the Academy had an opening.”