Clarice Starling leaned against a dice table in the FBI's casino and tried to pay attention to a lecture on moneylaundering in gambling. It had been thirtysix hours since the Baltimore County police took her deposition (via a chainsmoking twofinger typist: "See if you can get that window open if the smoke bothers you.") and dismissed her from its jurisdiction with a reminder that murder is not a federal crime.

The network news on Sunday night showed Starling's scrap with the television cameramen and she felt sure she was deep in the glue. Through it all, no word from Crawford or from the Baltimore field office. It was as though she had dropped her report down a hole.

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