“I showed him my noose setup, you know, autoerotic asphyxia, you sort of hang yourself but not really, feels good while you—you follow?”
“I follow.”
“Well, he didn’t seem to follow. He asked me how it worked and I said, you’re an odd psychiatrist not to know that, and he said, and I’ll never forget his smile, he said, ‘Show me.’ I thought, I’ve got you now!”
“And you showed him.”
“I am not ashamed of that. We grow by our mistakes. I’m cleansed.”
“Please go on, Mr. Verger.”
“So I pulled down the noose in front of my big mirror and put it on and had the release in my hand, and I was beating off with the other hand watching for his reaction, but I couldn’t tell anything. Usually I can read people. He was sitting in a chair over in the corner of the room. His legs were crossed and he had his fingers locked over his knee. Then he stood up and reached in his jacket pocket, all elegant, like James Mason reaching for his lighter, and he said, ‘Would you like an amyl popper?’ I thought, Wow!—he gives me one now and he’s got to give them to me forever to keep his license. Prescription city. Well, if you read the report, you know it was a lot more than amyl nitrite.”
“Angel Dust and some other methamphetamines and some acid,” Starling said.
“I mean whoa! He went over to the mirror I looked at myself in, and kicked the bottom of it and took out a shard. I was flying. He came over and gave me the piece of glass and looked me in the eyes and suggested I might like to peel off my face with it. He let the dogs out. I fed them my face. It took a long time to get it all off, they say. I don’t remember. Dr. Lecter broke my neck with the noose. They got my nose back when they pumped the dogs’ stomachs at the animal shelter, but the graft didn’t take.”
Starling took longer than she needed to in rearranging the papers on the table.
“Mr. Verger, your family posted the reward after Dr. Lecter escaped from custody in Memphis.”
“Yes, a million dollars. One million. We advertised worldwide.”
“And you also offered to pay for any kind of relevant information, not just the usual apprehension and conviction. You were supposed to share that information with us. Have you always done that?”
“Not exactly, but there was never anything good to share.”
“How do you know that? Did you follow up on some leads yourself?”
“Just far enough to know they were worthless. And why shouldn’t we—you people never told us anything. We had a tip from Crete that was nothing and one from Uruguay that we could never confirm. I want you to understand, this is not a revenge thing, Miss Starling. I have forgiven Dr. Lecter just as Our Savior forgave the Roman soldiers.”
“Mr. Verger, you indicated to my office that you might have something now.”
“Look in the drawer of the end table.”
Starling took the white cotton gloves out of her purse and put them on. In the drawer was a large manila envelope. It was stiff and heavy. She pulled out an X ray and held it to the bright overhead light. The X ray was of a left hand that appeared to be injured. She counted the fingers. Four plus the thumb.
“Look at the metacarpals, do you know what I’m talking about?”
“Yes.”
“Count the knuckles.”
Five knuckles. “Counting the thumb, this person had six fingers on his left hand. Like Dr. Lecter.”
“Like Dr. Lecter.”
The corner where the X ray’s case number and origin should be was clipped off.
“Where did it come from, Mr. Verger?”
“Rio de Janeiro. To find out more, I have to pay. A lot. Can you tell me if it’s Dr. Lecter? I need to know if I should pay.”
“I’ll try, Mr. Verger. We’ll do our best. Do you have the package the X ray came in?”
“Margot has it in a plastic bag, she’ll give it to you. If you don’t mind, Miss Starling, I’m rather tired and I need some attention.”
“You’ll hear from my office, Mr. Verger.”