“What triggered you then? What set you off on that particular day?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do.”
“I had worried about it all the time.”
“What set you off, Clarice? You started what time?”
“Early. Still dark.”
“Then something woke you. What woke you up? Did you dream? What was it?”
“I woke up and heard the lambs screaming. I woke up in the dark and the lambs were screaming.”
“They were slaughtering the spring lambs?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I couldn’t do anything for them. I was just a—”
“What did you do with the horse?”
“I got dressed without turning on the light and went outside. She was scared. All the horses in the pen were scared and milling around. I blew in her nose and she knew it was me. Finally she’d put her nose in my hand. The lights were on in the barn and in the shed by the sheep pen. Bare bulbs, big shadows. The refrigerator truck had come and it was idling, roaring. I led her away.”
“Did you saddle her?”
“No. I didn’t take their saddle. Just a rope hackamore was all.”
“As you went off in the dark, could you hear the lambs back where the lights were?”
“Not long. There weren’t but twelve.”
“You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? Wake up in the iron dark with the lambs screaming?”
“Sometimes.”
“Do you think if you caught Buffalo Bill yourself and if you made Catherine all right, you could make the lambs stop screaming, do you think they’d be all right too and you wouldn’t wake up again in the dark and hear the lambs screaming? Clarice?”
“Yes. I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Thank you, Clarice.” Dr. Lecter seemed oddly at peace.
“Tell me his name, Dr. Lecter,” Starling said.
“Dr. Chilton,” Lecter said, “I believe you know each other.”
For an instant, Starling didn’t realize Chilton was behind her. Then he took her elbow.
She took it back. Officer Pembry and his big partner were with Chilton.
“In the elevator,” Chilton said. His face was mottled red.
“Did you know Dr. Chilton has no medical degree?” Dr. Lecter said. “Please bear that in mind later on.”
“Let’s go,” Chilton said.