Hello everyone! I look forward to starting this story I have been thinking about it for a while and decided, why not? Everyone should be aware of a few things. First anything italicized is considered thoughts or internal dialogue. Second that this story takes place immediately after the film. And last, I plan on making this a rather long story with multiple parts, but I will let you know when one part begins and another ends. This should be entertaining and fun. Please remember to comment and give lots of feedback because it really helps me in my story developing as well as inspires me to keep writing.

Enjoy!

Lecter

A night that never seems to end. It is dark out, but the sky is illuminated with fireworks. The water reflects the colors beautifully. Clarice only smiled as police officers ran to her on the lake shore. The sirens were loud and deafening to the ear, but not to her. No, she had unfortunately heard this sound for what felt like a lifetime. She held her arms up high as the officers approached, guns raised, unsure of what the situation was. Her arm was throbbing from the recent surgery the Good Doctor was so kind to leave her with before departing.

One officer shouted, "Starling? Is that you?"

Clarice turned her head slightly so as to make out the figures fast approaching, "Yes, it's me. I'm the one who called you boys."

"Jesus Starling what happened? We found Krendler in the kitchen. What is going on?"

"Detain her now!" Pearsall shouted.

The first officer gripped Starling's arm and twisted it around her back and then the other to finally cuff her hands together.

Pearsall was fuming, he stood in front of Starling looking her up and down. She could feel all the officers looking her over, up and down. She might as well have been nude.

Pearsall started first, "Where is he?"

"I do not know sir. I tried to chase after him, but he was gone when I made it out of the house."

"Where is he going?"

"I don't know."

"So let me get this straight, I have a man down in there with half his brain missing, a shoot out at the fucking Verger Estate, and an agent on suspension standing before me telling me she has nothing?"

Clarice glanced at the ground for a moment. The shoes he got her were very nice and fit comfortably. Starling never was one to choose heels over sneakers, but these fit her perfectly. She knew there was no reasoning. No explanation that could justify her actions, no hope, no help, nothing. She was most likely going to be taken to jail now. She knew the charges stacked against her. Suspended agent with a gun, a bunch of dead bodies and no murderer to show, except for herself.

Pearsall sneered, "If you aren't going to answer me, then fine, take her away now, we will question her later. Keep her locked up tight."

The officer escorted her to his police car and shoved her in the back apologizing to her. Then he moved to the front and drove off into the night.

Pearsall turned around and shouted, "Set up a perimeter now! The bastard couldn't have gotten far. I want every inch of this ground checked and I want men at the closest airports from here. Move it now!"

Back in the police car the officer kept asking Clarice questions but she had long since tuned him out. The street lights were flashing by. Internally Clarice was unnaturally calm and it frightened her.

It all seemed to happen so fast. Doctor…where are you? With a wound like that you can't get far. Not without help. But where would you go? This is it. This is how Clarice Starling goes down. Arrested and locked up. God I am such a fucking idiot. Did I really think I was just going to show up and bust him out of there while simultaneously arresting Verger and his men? I have to be delusional.

Starling's mind raced and raced. She couldn't go to jail like this. Her life as an FBI agent was over, she was over. She has to do something. Starling shifted quietly so the officer wouldn't notice. She raised the back of the dress slightly and retrieved the key from the inside of her underwear and then slide the dress back down. The officer was now on the phone and Clarice was the last thing he was paying attention to. She now held the power in her hand. The power to escape from this madness. She thought of the men in the barn, dead on the floor. Then her mind shifted to Lecter strapped up like a remake of the crucifixion. She felt his strong arms carry her out of the barn. She heard her father's voice in her ear. For the first time in her adult life. Clarice Starling had no clue what to do. She fought for justice and was arrested. She broke the laws she swore to protect. The outcome of the events was one man that was saved, and when she handcuffed him, he took his own hand instead of hers. He could not hurt her. Starling had to speak with the Doctor, she needed answers.

She twirled the key in her hand over and over.

Pearsall had the forensics team taking blood samples and inspecting the crime scene in Paul Krendler's summer home. He walked up the stairs and found Starling's gun and clothes on a nightstand by the bedroom door. Jesus Starling, you had access to your own fucking weapon? Why didn't you shoot the bastard then? He looked towards one investigator and told him to bag the gun and clothes. He walked back down the stairs to the kitchen where they were photographing Paul's dead body before bagging him up. Portions of his brain where missing, and a dirty towel was thrown over his head. Blood covered the kitchen floor and a butcher knife laid on the counter soaked in blood.

Pearsall was in for a very long night indeed, and the entertainment didn't stop there. No, it was another hour before he received the phone call that Agent Starling had gone missing, and the police car was found abandoned on the side of the road with the police officer dead inside.

By the next day two things had changed, the investigation on Doctor Hannibal Lecter had officially been opened up by the FBI, and right beside his picture on the ten most wanted was the face of Clarice Starling.