Hannibal

Mason Verger is a wealthy man and one of Lecter's first victims. He survived their encounter, though he sustained injuries that have left him heavily disfigured and paralyzed. Now, he lives on his vast estate in a room where an “exotic eel” (39) swims in a tank, casting shadows on the wall. He reads about Starling in the newspaper and continues his investigation into the whereabouts of Lecter. He bribes corrupt government officials such as Congressman Vellmore, who provide him with access to the FBI’s investigations.

Starling attends a debriefing. Her “nemesis” Krendler is present alongside six other men who quiz her about the raid (43). Starling defends herself, explaining in detail exactly how the “raid went wrong” (49). After the debrief, Starling is assigned to Jack Crawford in the “basement offices” of the Behavioral Science Unit (52). He reveals that the letter from Lecter has reawakened interest in the pursuit of the missing serial killer and, since she has experience with Lecter, she has been assigned to hunt him down. Lecter, however, has seemingly “dropped off the earth” (54). Crawford asks her to interview Mason, who claims to have “something that might help” find Lecter (57). Crawford warns Starling that Mason is “not pretty” (58).

The Verger estate is named Muskrat Farm. It possesses a “witchy beauty” (60). The family makes its money from meat, slaughtering roughly 86,000 cattle and 36,000 pigs each day. Starling nearly misses the entrance to the estate, arriving mistakenly at “the trade entrance” (61). Once she has found the right place, Starling meets Mason’s sister, Margot, a “broad-shouldered person with short blond hair” (62). Margot dismounts a horse and talks to Starling about Starling’s Ford Mustang as she leads her to Mason’s quarters. Inside, Starling sees “two African-American children playing” and a tall male nurse reading a copy of Vogue (64). Margot explains that Mason enjoys watching the young children, who are then allowed to ride ponies on the estate.

Starling meets the disfigured Mason, who talks through a mechanical amplifier. Mason is “noseless and lipless” (66). He talks extensively about his renewed faith in God. Mason hints in vague terms about the immunity deal he received from the DEA regarding child molestation charges. He insists that “it’s all okay now” because he has made peace with God and the authorities (68). As part of his plea deal, he was assigned to therapy with Dr. Lecter. Mason then tells the story of his disfigurement. Mason explains that he tried to get Lecter “involved in something” so as to have leverage over him (70); he answered the door to his house in a leather suit, showed Lecter the two caged dogs that he was deliberately starving to see “what would eventually happen” (71), and then showed Lecter his equipment for autoerotic asphyxiation. When Lecter showed interest in the equipment, Mason happily began to masturbate while choking himself. Mason recounts how Lecter offered him drugs, which—unknown to Mason—turned out to be “Angel Dust and some other methamphetamines and some acid” (72). As Mason began to hallucinate, Lecter broke a mirror and then convinced Mason to cut off parts of his face to feed to the dogs. Then, he broke Mason's neck. Since then, Mason has posted a reward of $1 million to anyone who provides information leading to Lecter’s capture. He is supposed to share this information with the FBI, so he asks Starling to look at an x-ray obtained in Brazil of a hand that has undergone surgery to remove a polydactyl sixth digit on a left hand. Lecter had six fingers on his left hand, and Starling agrees to find out more about the x-ray.

After Starling leaves, Mason tells his nurse, Cordell, to bring one of the African American boys into the room. The boy, Franklin, speaks to Mason about his foster family and their cat. Mason takes pleasure in telling the boy that he must leave the foster home and that the cat will be put down, mockingly asking whether there is “something wrong” with Franklin (75). When Franklin leaves the room and begins to cry, Cordell wipes away his tears with a swatch and dips the swatch into “Mason's martini glass” (77).

Starling searches for Lecter's medical records. After Lecter's escape, the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane—where he was incarcerated—fell on troubled times. After the disappearance of its former director, Frederick Chilton, the hospital closed. Patients were transferred or released, and many records were lost. Starling speaks to Inelle Corey, a former employee and Chilton's former partner. Corey explains that many important documents were “abandoned” after the hospital closed down (83).

Starling searches the derelict Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane for any trace of the records. Inside, she is surprised to find a former inmate named Sammie, who is living in his old cell with a friend. After discovering that all Lecter’s files are missing, she leaves some money for Sammie and exits. Next, she tracks down the former orderly on Lecter’s ward, Barney. He is now working at the Maryland-Misericordia General Hospital. After she follows him, Barney agrees to talk to Starling. Barney claims that he worked so well with Lecter by “being civil” (101). Barney credits Lecter with helping him study his correspondence courses; Lecter rarely patronized him. Barney now wants “to see every Vermeer in the world” (105). Starling reveals what she knows: Barney has been selling Lecter paraphernalia to collectors. Starling bargains with Barney to get access to an “X ray and books” taken from the hospital (108).

Starling finally has the office in Behavioral Science that she always wanted. Despite her early success, her inability to play “office politics” and the enmity of men like Paul Krendler meant that her career was severely derailed (109). One time, Krendler drunkenly asked her on a date, and she declined, only adding to her problems. She matches the x-ray of Lecter's surgically altered hand with the x-ray from the hospital. Though she tries to call Mason, he does not answer the call. The match is already “old news” to him as he has access to corrupt officials in the government (112).

Mason has prepared for the capture of Lecter for many years. He has received a “tip” from an Italian law enforcement officer (113), and he has no intention of sharing it with the FBI. He long regretted that he did not arrange for “Dr. Lecter to be murdered in the asylum” (115), but he was inspired by his father's background to take a very specific kind of revenge. He has arranged for Lecter “to be eaten alive” (116). His father was a genius pig breeder, so Mason Verger has bred a type of pig to specifically eat a living person. He has contracted a group of men in Sardinia to breed the pigs, capture Lecter, and then film the execution. Mason reflects that the results of the pig breeding are “remarkable” (121).

In the Italian city of Florence, Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi thinks about his ancestors. He is a member of the Pazzi family, famous for a failed assassination attempt against the Medici rulers of Florence in the 15th century. The Pazzi conspirators were executed in a brutal, public style. Rinaldo Pazzi hates the government “as much as his ancestor ever did” because he has been publicly shamed for his professional failure involving the case of Il Mostro (128). A serial killer named Il Mostro “preyed on lovers in Tuscany for seventeen years in the 1980s and 1990s” (129). After a long, arduous investigation headed by Pazzi, including liaisons with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, Pazzi believed that he had captured the killer. Girolamo Tocca had seemed like a “dream suspect” (135), and after his conviction, Pazzi was widely praised. When Tocca was released on appeal, however, Pazzi was disgraced and accused of having “planted evidence” (137).

Now, Pazzi has found a potential avenue for redemption. He visits the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the city's center of municipal government. The “longtime curator of the Palazzo Capponi [is] missing” (138), and he has been replaced by a foreigner named Dr. Fell. Pazzi observes the directors of the Uffizi Museum arguing over whether a non-Italian, non-Florentine like Fell could hold such an esteemed position. Fell silences his critics by reciting verses from Dante in “clear Tuscan” (142). Pazzi speaks to Fell, asking him about his predecessor and the scar on his left hand. Fell answers the questions calmly and then asks whether Pazzi is “a Pazzi of the Pazzi” (144), as he recognizes the inspector's features from a fresco in a nearby cathedral. Later, Pazzi follows Fell through an exhibition of “Atrocious Torture Instruments” (146). He now believes that Fell is Hannibal Lecter, living under an assumed name. Deciding how to proceed, he is determined not to “be a fool again” (152).