Murder Husbands

Chapter 3

Hannibal is thinking about Will, imagining what his child looks like and what her name is, now that he's alone. Sure, there are guards inside his cell, but he doesn't acknowledge them. But when Alana enters, he smells her perfume and knows who she is. He knew she was coming because of these guards.

"You've come to wag your finger?" Hannibal accuses.

"I love a good finger-wagging," Alana says, almost teasingly - knowing that he won't kill her and make a meal out of her in here.

"Yes, you do," Hannibal agrees. "How is Margot?"

"Your cogs are turning, Hannibal," Alana says, not even answering his question about her lover. "I can hear them clicking." She puts the paper down and looks across the cell at Hannibal, who is looking in the darkness and not at her.

"Click, click, boom," Hannibal says softly as Alana makes a 'clicking' noise with her tongue and the roof of her mouth.

"I don't know what you're planning with Will Graham," Alana says, "but you're planning something. Why wouldn't you be? You've already cracked the lid can't resist pulling it back."

Hannibal clicks his tongue. "Will came to me," he says.

"Yes, he did," Alana agrees.

"I advised him against it," Hannibal admits. He did tell Will not to come, not to listen to Jack when he went searching for him.

"I'm sure," Alana says. She doesn't believe him.

"Are you suggesting that I don't have Will's best interest in my mind?" Hannibal asks accusingly.

Alana smiles, almost in amusement, as she looks at Hannibal, whose back is still facing her. "I'm stating it as a fact," she claims.

"You've got Will dressed up in moral-dignity pants... nothing is his fault," Hannibal says, still not bothering to turn to look at Alana.

"I've been courteous..." Alana claims, "and you have been receptive to courtesy. But these niceties are conditional, and the conditions are non-negotiable." She walks closer.

Hannibal moves his head to the side some, but still doesn't look at Alana. "I must behave myself," he says.

"I know what you're afraid of," Alana mewls softly. "It's not pain or solitude. It's indignity. You're a little bit like a cat that way." She's almost amused that Hannibal won't look at her. "I'll take your books. I'll take your drawings. I'll take your toilet."

"Do you know..." Hannibak speaks up as Alana goes to leave and she pauses, "the name of Will's daughter?"

"I do, and I've seen her picture," Alana says. "She's beautiful." Then she leaves. Alana pauses again and she looks around. She smiles and leaves.

Hannibal closes his eyes and he thinks about Will and his daughter, wondering if she looks like Will or his wife.