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.”