The Eyes of a Lamb

Wonderland

"I need to know what you know" Will said trying to concentrate on driving. He was having a hard time with this headache, even if it was slowly subsiding. Clarice sat quietly on the other side of the car, not wanting to have this conversation at the moment.

"I don't know anything until we see the next house" Clarice said looking over at Will "Your guess is as good as mine right now."

"But you have a hunch" Will said "You've had one since the beginning of all of this. I need to know what you know. It's the only way we are going to catch him. You said you were a fourth victim, a fourth victim to who?"

Clarice tensed up and tried to breathe but the breath came out with his name "Jame Gumb."

"Who?" Will said confused.

"Jame Gumb" Clarice said again, her hands beginning to shake a little "You must have been around fifteen when they caught him. I don't suppose you would remember a thing like that."

"No I don't" Will said still trying to keep his eyes on the road. He could sense the pressure building up in Clarice, knew this was something she didn't want to talk about...but he had to know.

"He was a killer, much like this one" Clarice said "He killed the parents and took the girls. He was smart, careful, and the worst, patient. He would always go in patterns of four. Four girls of different hair, skin, and eye color."

"That's how you knew he wanted a red head" Will said "But how did you know it would be red?"

"Because that's the way he likes them" Clarice said calmly, almost too calm for Will "He likes blondes first, raven haired girls second, red heads third and brunettes last."

"And you are sure about this?" Will said a little skeptical.

"I'm not sure about anything" Clarice said shaking her head "All I know is that girls are getting abducted and their parents are getting murdered. I think I have a given right to bring whoever it is to justice."

"Okay" Will said backing off as he sensed Clarice was at the tipping point.

Clarice sighed and closed her eyes wanting to sleep, wanting to dream this day away. But she knew she had work to do, knew there were two more lives she could save if she just tried.

They finally made it to the second house, only this time it was in a suburb, somewhere on the opposite side of the spectrum from where the first victim's house had been. Clarice looked around the surroundings, seeing white complex houses with three or four cars in the drive way, kids toys and cars out on the lawn, it almost seemed too real. And then standing there like a sore thumb was the second victim's house, it's doors taped shut just like the first as the grass began to grow tall on the lawn. Clarice could see no tree lines for the killer to stake out in, no way he would climb on somebody's roof to see the house for fear of being caught, and she just knew he was too cautious to try and break in before he made his mark.

"So how did he get his information?" Clarice said as she stood outside.

"Well he didn't go in through the window this time" Will said as he walked towards the house "We think he actually went in through the garage."

"He's changing things up" Clarice said shaking her head "That's not like him."

"He knew the code Starling" Will said "He must have watched them at least a hundred times to know the combination for the garage door."

Clarice heard him but was thinking too hard to really take notice her body was following Will into the house. It didn't make sense for him to step up his game like that, to vibrate out of pattern just for a certain girl. What Jame did took effort, took guts, it wasn't like him to fall out of that same routine he knew worked. Things could have gone wrong, an alarm could have tripped, hell even the neighbors would have noticed him. There was just too much risk.

So why would he do it?

That is, if this really was Jame and not some copycat.

Clarice followed Will through the house until they came to the back where the living room was set. The walls were stained with blood while the victims had been tied just like the last ones on the couch. A fire place stood center in the wall, family pictures hung up around while dying plants stood in the corners. Clarice looked at the couch and carpet and immediately spotted something out of the ordinary.

"He moved the couch" Clarice said moving around the cream colored sofa "It was by the window, and he turned it to angle it right in front of the fireplace."

"He wanted it to look like something he had dreamnt up" Will said studying the same place "He wanted it to be perfect. He was too patient to let everything go to waste."

"Sage was tied up here" Clarice said pointing to a empty spot along the wall "He didn't use a chair this time."

"Probably because Sage was too small" Will said "He probably feared she could slip out of whatever knot he put her in."

"Forensics found cut zip ties" Clarice said "Which meant he had tied up her hands and feet."

"Police use the same method in some states" Will said shaking his head "You think?"

"No" Clarice said shaking her head "Too much risk, especially now a days."

"So he ties her up, does the exact same thing he did to Jessica's parents, and even to her brother" Will said.

"And Sage gets so frightened she follows him out, just like Jessica did" Clarice said moving away from the broken record of a scene. Her feet moved around the house till they found Sage's room, it's poppy colors stinging out from the cream colored walls. Sage's parents had themed her room from Alice in Wonderland, the crazy looking creatures dancing around the walls of the room while Alice lay sleeping by the bed. Clarice could see all the little girl's keepsakes, memories that Clarice hoped she could return to one day. But there was no stuffed animal, no figurine with the colored red message on who the next girl would be.

Then Clarice noticed it.

The rabbit, a white one with dark black eyes painted underneath the window of the room, it's ears floppy as it's head tilted up as if it itself wanted to look out the window too.

The blood stained rabbit that had been in Jessica's room looked similar to it, if not exact. And there outside the window was a house. A empty house.

"Will!" Clarice cried out as she raced out of the room. Will found her immediately as they both bolted out the door to the house across the street. Clarice drew her gun, her feet moving quickly as she approached the door. In one swift kick she had it open and threw her arms up, checking corners of one room till it was clear and then moving on to the next.

"Downstairs is clear" Will said checking the rest of the house.

"He watched her Will" Clarice said as she stared out the first floor window "He watched them all from this house. There has to be something here."

"Let's check upstairs" Will said placing his hand on Clarice's shoulder.

Clarice and Will moved cautiously upstairs, Clarice's hands still poised on the gun, ready to shoot at something if it dared to move. They checked the first few rooms until finally they settled on the last one, the door closed to them as Will nodded to Clarice, and she to him.

Will opened the door, throwing it open and letting Clarice in to check it clear.

But Will saw Clarice drop her arms fast, and her shoulders hunch as she looked down. He walked in and saw what she did, his own body cradling in with fatigue.

A teddy bear lay in the middle of the room, the same blood smeared face staring up lifeless as crude drawings of red hair were squiggled around the head on the carpet.

"I see the pattern Will" Clarice said looking at the bear "I see who the next girl is."

"Then let's go catch the bastard" Will said.