Red Dragon

Graham speaks to Byron Metcalf, the Jacobi’s attorney. Metcalf explains that many of the family’s possessions were destroyed in an accidental fire. He also mentions Mr. Jacobi’s oldest son, who was the product of Mr. Jacobi’s first marriage and was largely estranged from his father’s family. After a recent short stint in jail, Niles Jacobi was in contact with his father and is now studying at college. Graham seeks out Niles and finds him in a dive bar, in the company of a rough-looking man named Randy. Though he fears Randy, Graham correctly guesses that Randy is a knife fighter and a recent parolee. He convinces Randy to leave him alone with Niles, and they talk. Niles has little to say about his estranged father or his father’s second family. Still feeling a need “to know the Jacobis” (128), Graham spends three days searching through their possessions. The police study the mark left by the killer in the tree behind the house. It is a Chinese character which implies good luck or positivity. It is also a Mah-Jong tile named “the Red Dragon” (129).

Chilton calls Crawford to say that a note has been found in Lecter’s cell. He reads the note to Crawford, in which Dolarhyde complains about “demeaning nicknames” (131) such as the Tooth Fairy. He hopes that Lecter will be able understand the transformative process that he is undergoing and encourages Lecter to correspond with him. The exact details of how to correspond, however, have been torn out of the message by Lecter. Chilton explains that the message was found by the man cleaning Lecter’s cell. Lecter is not currently aware, he believes, that the note has been found. After a brief consideration, Crawford tells Chilton to keep Lecter out of his cell by faking a problem with the water supply. In the brief window of time, he flies the note to the FBI headquarters and runs tests. Beverly Katz finds “one hair, maybe a thirty-second of an inch” (135). Price cannot find any fingerprints. Lloyd Bowman scans the note and, through careful deduction, theorizes that Dolarhyde wants Lecter to respond to him in The National Tattler. Crawford arranges to see the proof of the next edition’s classifieds pages.

Crawford welcomes Graham to the J. Edgar Hoover Building where the FBI are headquartered. In Crawford’s office, they discuss the note. Lecter only kept the rest of the note, Graham notes, because it is “full of compliments” (142). They discuss how the Tattler can be used to possibly lure the killer into revealing himself. Graham speculates that they could stage a “big ‘escape’” (143) for Lecter, luring the killer into finding Lecter. Graham believes that the Tooth Fairy would want “to kill” (144) Lecter as part of his transformation. Brian Zeller, the Scientific Analysis Section Chief, discusses the findings from the note, none of which can be considered conclusive. The group discusses setting up a mail drop to lure the killer into a potential rendezvous by placing a response in the Tattler on Lecter’s behalf. After, as Graham and Zeller examine evidence, Crawford telephones. Lecter has placed an ad in the Tattler, and it has been intercepted. The coded message begins “Dear Pilgrim” (153). Zeller and Graham try to crack the code, as do the Central Intelligence Agency’s cryptography section. They recognize that the Bible verse mentioned in the letter do not exist, so they suspect that the numbers for chapters and verses correspond to specific words in a book which Lecter has in his limited library. Since they cannot crack the “book code” (155), they allow the ad to run even if “it encourages him to do something besides write” (157).

Lloyd Bowman calls Crawford with the news that Lecter’s code has been cracked. Crawford is horrified to learn that the code contains Graham’s address and instructions to the Tooth Fairy to “save yourself. Kill them all” (158). By the time he tells Graham, Crawford has already arranged for Molly and Willy to be brought from their home to a safe place. Graham meets his wife and stepson at the airport. Graham apologizes for putting his family in this position. Molly reveals that Willy knows “plenty” (161) about the circumstances as he read a copy of the Tattler. Graham curses Freddy Lounds. Later, someone tries to telephone Graham through Crawford’s office. He refers to himself only as “the Pilgrim” (162). In Crawford’s relative’s house, Graham makes sure that Molly and Willy are safe. Willy asks him about the case. He wants to know about Garrett Hobbs and Graham’s time in a mental health facility. Graham tells Willy how Hobbs was murdering young women and how he tracked Hobbs down. When he went to Hobbs’s house, Hobbs killed his wife and held another girl hostage. Though he tells Willy many details, he “couldn’t help seeing them again himself” (165). He leaves out the detailed descriptions of the violence and the fact that the hostage was Hobbs’s own daughter. Graham shot Hobbs and saved the girl’s life. Killing someone, Graham explains to Willy, is “one of the ugliest things in the world” (166). The next day, Graham takes Molly to a shooting range. He teaches her to fire a series of guns, including an “extensively modified” (169) .44 special, loaded with a “devastating” (170) type of custom ammunition. When the rangemaster compliments Molly’s shooting, Graham looks “like a man who had witnessed an irrecoverable loss” (171).

The so-called Pilgrim has assured Crawford’s secretary that he “might call again on the following afternoon” (172). The FBI decide to trace the call, giving Graham a detailed understanding of how long they will need and what to say. While they wait, Bowman passes by to demonstrate that the coded messages used Joy of Cooking, one of the cookbooks known to be in Lecter’s cell. When the Pilgrim calls again, Graham answers the call. The Pilgrim tries to goad Graham into discussing their shared “business” (176). As Graham provides a few hints, however, the Pilgrim is reluctant to say anything which might identify him. After managing to hold the Pilgrim on the phone for long enough for the call to be traced, Graham hears a Chicago police officer slam open the phonebooth door and apprehend the caller. The caller is revealed to be Freddy Lounds, who deduced that Lecter was attempting to contact the Tooth Fairy and wanted to gather more information for the Tattler. As Lounds is arrested, he pleads for Crawford to “cut [him] in” (181). Thanks to his connections at the police station, Lounds is “free to go” (181). Lounds is a “lumpy and ugly and small” (182) man who is disliked by most editors. He works for the Tattler because he realizes that amoral, unscrupulous writing is far more profitable than trying to secure a prestigious journalism job. He hopes that the Tooth Fairy case will become a bestselling book and perhaps even a movie. He plans to spend his money on having “a good time” (185). A woman named Wendy packs his bag for him. She now has “her own topless bar” (186). Freddy is her business partner and lover. They plan what they will do when Freddy makes his fortune.

Bloom asks Crawford about the Lounds incident and its effect on Graham. In the past, Crawford asked Bloom for “a study” (188) on Graham but Bloom declined. Crawford has noticed that Bloom is never alone in a room with Graham. Bloom describes Graham’s talent for “pure empathy” (189) which allows him to assume almost any person’s point of view, even if that person sickens him. He fears that Graham might resent being observed by a psychologist like Bloom. Crawford seeks Bloom’s advice on how to use the Tattler. Bloom fears that Crawford is putting Graham in harm’s way with his plans to enrage the Tooth Fairy, which may drive him to break cover. Crawford goes to Graham. He has spoken to police departments in the area and asked them to restrain from entering any new potential murder scene so that Graham can go in “fresh” (193). Graham recognizes that Crawford is trying to manipulate him. He is annoyed that Crawford has cut a deal with Lounds. Crawford warns that Lounds will have to interview Graham.

Graham is surprisingly polite and cordial in his interview with Lounds. Bloom has deduced that the Tooth Fairy’s actions are based on “intolerable feelings of inadequacy” (197), while he also has a terrible fear of being accused of homosexuality, and his attacks against women are attacks against a maternal figure. Graham’s responses to Lounds are guided by this profile. He gives blunt, insulting suggestions as to how the Tooth Fairy might look and feel. He says that the Tooth Fairy is a laughingstock and clearly “not as intelligent as Hannibal Lecter” (198). In one staged photograph, the investigators have ensured that Graham’s temporary hotel room is clearly identifiable based on local landmarks. They hope that the insults will enrage the Tooth Fairy and that he will try to attack Graham in the apartment. In one picture, Graham places a “comradely hand on Lounds’s shoulder” (199). In addition, a coded message in the Tattler suggests that the Tooth Fairy visit a mail drop. Both the mail drop and Graham’s apartment are carefully observed by the FBI. Spurgen, the chief SWAT instructor at Quantico, makes sure that Graham is prepared for a possible attack. During one last night with Molly and Willy, Graham senses that she suspects he is hiding something from her.

A newspaper stand operator in Lambert St. Louis International Airport senses “something awful” (205) in the demeanor of a customer who requests the Tattler. He recognizes the customer from the previous week. Dolarhyde reads the copy of the Tattler. Despite his mixed feelings regarding Lecter’s last communication, he is interested to see if there is another message. He is also proud of his domineering attitude toward the newspaper stand operator, which he credits as a “part of Becoming” (206). He returns home and clips articles from the Tattler for his journal. He finds the “old oak wheelchair” (207) that once belonged to his grandmother.

Freddy Lounds leaves the Tattler newsroom, thinking about the money he will make from writing a book about the Tooth Fairy case. He is “possessed with a vision of a better life on the other side of the money” (209). He is annoyed that a black van is parked too close to his spot. When Lounds is not looking, Dolarhyde jumps from the van and grabs him. He knocks Lounds unconscious with chloroform. Dolarhyde wears a mask. Lounds is semi-conscious and glued into the old wheelchair. Dolarhyde places a blanket on Lounds and assures him that he will be “just fine” (210).

Lounds realizes that he has been kidnapped. He pleads for his life, claiming to know nothing about his captor. Dolarhyde quotes back the insults from Lounds’s article. He asks why Lounds wrote that he was a “vicious, perverted sexual failure” (212) and promises to help Lounds “understand” (213). Despite Lounds’s panic and fear, Dolarhyde insists that Lounds look at his naked body. He has a tattoo of the Red Dragon on his back and wears his grandmother’s teeth while showing slides of Blake’s painting and the murder scenes. With each slide, he asks Lounds “do you see” (215). Lounds insists that he can see, he says that Graham told him the “lies” (216) about the Tooth Fairy. Dolarhyde calls Lounds a slug who is “privy to a great Becoming” (217). Dolarhyde leaves the room then returns, still wearing the mask. He makes Lounds record a message, then places his grandmother’s teeth in his mouth and, with the recorder still running, he bites off Lounds’s lips and spits them on the floor.