The Silence Of The Lambs

Nine hours later, the driver, Jeff, brings Clarice and Crawford to the FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Clarice describes the Latent Descriptor Index, the keywords it uses for Buffalo Bill’s case, and the new details she wants to input. Clarice wonders if the other bodies had cocoons in them that pathologists overlooked as debris, but Crawford doesn’t want to exhume any bodies.

Lecter suggested to Clarice that Buffalo Bill would scalp his new victims, but Crawford dismisses this as Lecter’s way of teasing Clarice. Crawford thinks Lecter’s information is nothing but clever deductions. Clarice gets out with Crawford at the FBI building to discuss the dimensions of Buffalo Bill’s vehicle. Crawford apologizes for shutting her out when talking to the deputy. Clarice understands but asks him to be a better model of behavior. Crawford leaves and Clarice continues toward the Smithsonian.

Clarice arrives at the closed Smithsonian Museum, where a security guard escorts her to the entomology offices. Clarice interrupts a game of beetle chess between two young scholars, Noble Pilcher and Albert Roden. After they swear to secrecy, Clarice gives them the cocoon specimen and tells them how it was found. The FBI wants to know if the insect has specific habitats that could narrow down their search. The insect is a pupa in chrysalis that began fracturing its cocoon.

The two men narrow down the insect to a Noctuid—a night moth. They further identify that the insect is an Erebus odora, a Black Witch Moth. Clarice fears that the insect’s habitable zone is too large to be useful, but Pilcher believes the moth was raised in a greenhouse. They compile references on the Black Witch Moth and a list of entomological publications and their subscribers. Pilcher chats with Clarice as he escorts her to the exit. He finds moths more interesting than butterflies because they “live in all kinds of ways” like the moth who feeds only on tears (106). Pilcher asks Clarice on a date, but she politely refuses. Back at the Academy, Clarice types up her notes and a memo to Crawford, suggesting that they make another appointment with Lecter.

In East Memphis, Tennessee, Catherine Baker Martin and her boyfriend smoke weed and watch TV. Catherine walks to her adjacent apartment in the Stonehenge Villa complex for food, passing a strange truck. From her apartment, Catherine sees an injured man trying to move furniture into the truck, so she offers to help him when she descends to the street. The man—Buffalo Bill—allows her to lift a chair into his truck. He asks her to look for rope and knocks her unconscious with his cast when she bends down. He removes her clothes and examines her naked body and scalp. He drives away from her apartment as Catherine’s mom, Senator Ruth Martin, calls.

The FBI triggers a standard series of events after Catherine’s kidnapping. An unmarked van goes to Senator Martin’s office and home, tapping the nearby phones in case of a ransom demand. At the FBI office at Buzzard Point, the Reactive Squad and the Hostage Rescue Team go into high alert. The Memphis police seize Catherine’s slit blouse from a man collecting roadside garbage. Later that morning, Crawford speaks to the FBI director on the phone. Though the slit blouse implies Buffalo Bill took Catherine, Crawford doesn’t want to jump to conclusions. The Senator is flying down to Memphis and Crawford worries she will impose on the investigation. He reluctantly accepts her offer to travel to Memphis.

The same morning, Clarice hears news of the kidnapping and the Memphis investigation on the radio. She packs a bag and her forensics kit, thinking she will get to help, but hears nothing. Crawford’s secretary shoos her away to class without any information. Clarice tries to distract herself from feeling left behind. She joins Ardelia and other classmates in the common area to watch the evening news.

The newscast plays an interview with Senator Martin, who pleads with Catherine’s abductor to bring her home unharmed. She urges the man to recognize her daughter’s kindness and humanity using home videos and photos of a young Catherine. The Senator promises to help the abductor in any way she can if he keeps Catherine alive. The newscast cuts away to an interview with Dr. Alan Bloom, an expert on serial killer psychology, who recommends entreating the killer to come forward.

Clarice finds a note to call Roden and receives a phone call about meeting Crawford at the Smithsonian. Ardelia urges Clarice to get Crawford’s assurance that she won’t be kicked out of school for missing important tests. Clarice drives to Washington, thinking back to the strength she found at the Potter’s Funeral Home. She arrives at the FBI building and walks to the Smithsonian.

Clarice meets Crawford in the Smithsonian. He chats about the Memphis investigation’s minimal findings. Crawford agrees with Dr. Bloom that Buffalo Bill likely won’t hold Catherine as long as the other girls. They turn toward the anthropology offices, and Crawford reveals that John Hopkins Hospital found a cocoon in Klaus’s head. Three anthropologists inspect the preserved head, while Jerry Burroughs from Behavioral Science dictates his observations to the remote FBI offices. Using Burroughs’s machine, Crawford tells his unit how to search for Klaus’s identity. Lecter likely lied about Klaus’s murder and Raspail’s involvement, as the cocoon is too distinct for multiple killers to use. Crawford thinks Buffalo Bill committed both murders.