- Останки есть останки: всегда что-нибудь остается. Будем просеивать пепел. В общем, много не обещаю, но ты его получишь - в маленьком пакетике.

С самого начала он и Дракон слились в одно целое. Он был Пришествием, а Дракон был его высшим проявлением. Слиты воедино были их тела, голоса, их воли.

Сколько зажиточных семей с тремя детьми и собакой укладываются сейчас спать, не подозревая, что от Дракона их отделяет хлипкая дверь с замком, который и гвоздем можно открыть.

Ведь это труд всей его жизни, величественное творение, которое будет жить в веках.

Странное чувство: он может открыто смотреть на женщину, стоя прямо перед ней, столько, сколько хочет. Часто ли, находясь в компании, можно смотреть на того, на кого хочешь?

Lecter stood until Graham was seated in the hall. "And how is Officer Stewart?" he asked.

"Stewart's fine." Officer Stewart left law enforcement after he saw Dr. Lecter's basement He managed a motel now. Graham did not mention this. He didn't think Stewart would appreciate any mail from Lecter.

"Christmas, yes," Lecter said. "Did you get my card?"

"I got it. Thank you."

Dr. Lecter's Christmas card had been forwarded to Graham from the FBI crime laboratory in Washington. He took it into the backyard, burned it, and washed his hands before touching Molly.

"Frankly, I sometimes feel like Lecter's secretary rather than his keeper," Chilton said. "The volume of his mail alone is a nuisance. I think among some researchers it's considered chic to correspond with him – I've seen his letters framed in psychology departments – and for a while it seemed that every Ph.D. candidate in the field wanted to interview him. Glad to cooperate with you, of course, and Dr. Bloom."

Graham, who owned almost nothing except basic fishing equipment, a third-hand Volkswagen, and two cases of Montrachet, felt a mild animosity toward the adult toys and wondered why.

"Most of the time in sex assaults the bite mark has a livid spot in the center, a suck mark. These don't. Dr. Princi mentioned it in his autopsy report, and I saw it at the morgue. No suck marks. For him biting may be a fighting pattern as much as sexual behavior."

Graham switched on the lights and bloodstains shouted at him from the walls, from the mattress and the floor. The very air had screams smeared on it. He flinched from the noise in this silent room full of dark stains drying.

Graham sat on the floor until his head was quiet. Still, still, be still.

The bathroom looked as though a family still used it. Mrs. Leeds's panty hose hung on the towel racks where she had left them to dry. He saw that she cut the leg off a pair when it had a runner so she could match two one-legged pairs, wear them at the same time, and save money. Mrs. Leeds's small, homey economy pierced him; Molly did the same thing.

He tried to be still inside. In his mind a silver pendulum swung in darkness. He waited until the pendulum was still.

...Promise me something, Jack. Promise me you'll see to it he doesn't get too close. I think it would kill him to have to fight."

"He won't have to fight. I can promise you that."

Molly thought Crawford's thick pale forearms were repulsive. To her he looked like a damnably wise ape.