那些无法抗拒的名篇37:The Silence of the Lambs沉默的羔羊(节选)

37 The Silence of the Lambs

37 沉默的羔羊

Behavioral Science，the FBI section that deals with serial murder, is on the bottom floor of the Academy building at Quantico，half一buried in the earth. Clarice Starling reached it flushed after a fast walk from Hogan’s Alley on the firing range. She had grass in her hair and grass stains on her FBI Academy windbreaker from diving to the ground under fire in an arrest problem on the range.

行为科学部是联邦调查局处理系列凶杀案的部门，位于昆迪可学院大楼的底层，有一半在地下。克拉丽丝·史达琳从联邦调查局模拟射击训练中心的靶场上一路快步走来，到这儿时已是满脸通红。她的头发里有草，那件联邦调查局学员的防风衣上也都沾着草迹，那是在射击场的抓捕训练中她冒着火力猛扑到地上时沾上的。

No one was in the outer office, so she fluffed briefly by her reflection in the glass doors. She knew she could look all right without primping. Her hands smelled of gunsmoke, but there was no time to wash一Section Chief Crawford's summons had said now.

外面的办公室空无一人，所以她就对着玻璃门，就着自己的影子，将头发简单地拂弄了一下。她知道自己不用过分打扮看上去也是可以的。她的手上有火药味，可来不及洗了，该部的头儿克劳福德说，现在就要召见她。

She found Jack Crawford alone in the cluttered suite of offices. He was standing at someone else's desk talking on the telephone and she had a chance to look him over for the first time in a year. What she saw disturbed her.

她发现杰克·克劳福德独自一人在一个杂乱无序的办公套间里。他正站在别人的桌子边打电话。一年来，这是她第一次有机会好好地打量他。他的样子，让她觉得很是不安。

Normally, Crawford looked like a fit, middle-aged engineer who might have paid his way through college playing baseball—a crafty catcher, tough when he blocked the plate. Now he was thin, his shirt collar was too big, and he had dark puffs under his reddened eyes. Everyone who could read the papers knew Behavioral Science section was catching hell. Starling hoped Crawford wasn't on the juice. That seemed most unlikely here.

平日里，克劳福德看上去像一位体魄强健的中年工程师。他读大学时的费用很可能是靠打棒球支付的—他像是个机灵的接手，由他来挡投手板，对方可就头疼了。而如今，他瘦了，衬衫的领子那么大，红肿的双眼下有黑眼圈。每个看报纸的人都知道，行为科学部眼下正大遭骂名。史达琳希望克劳福德不要开足马力拼老命，可在这儿，那看来是根本不可能的。

Crawford ended his telephone conversation with a sharp "No".He took her file from under his arm and opened it.

克劳福德突然“不”的一声结束了他的电话谈话。他从腋下取出她的档案，打了开来。

"Starling, Clarice M., good morning,"he said.

“克拉丽丝·M·史达琳，早上好!”他说。

"Hello." Her smile was only polite.

“你好。”她只是礼貌的微微一笑。

"Nothing's wrong. I hope the call didn't spook you."

“也没出什么事，但愿叫你来并没有把你吓着。”

"No." Not totally true, Starling thought.

“没有。”史达琳想，这么说并不完全是真的。

"Your instructors tell me you're doing well，top quarter of the class."

“你的老师告诉我你学得不错，班上排前15名。”

"I hope so, they haven't posted anything."

“希望如此。成绩他们还没有张榜公布呢。”

"I ask them from time to time."

“我时不时会问他们。”

That surprised Starling;she had written Crawford off as a two-faced recruiting sergeant son of a bitch.

这使史达琳有些吃惊;她原以为克劳福德是个招募新手的警察小队长，两面派的耍滑头角色，成不了什么大器。

She had met Special Agent Crawford when he was a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia. The quality of his criminology seminars was a factor in her coming to the Bureau. She wrote him a note when she qualified for the Academy, but he never replied, and for the three months she had been a trainee at Quantico, he had ignored her.

克劳福德曾以特工身份应邀到弗吉尼亚大学讲过课，史达琳就是在那儿遇见他的。他开的犯罪学课程质量高，她之所以来联邦调查局，就有这个因素。她获得进入学院的资格后曾给他写过一个条子，可他一直没有回音;在昆蒂科当实习生3个月了，也没有引起他的注意。

Starling came from people who do not ask for favors or press for friendship, but she was puzzled and regretful at Crawford' s behavior. Now, in his presence，she liked him again，she was sorry to note.

史达琳是那种不求人施恩、不强求他人友谊的人，但克劳福德这种做法还是叫她感到困惑和后悔。可此刻，她很遗憾地注意到，当着他的面，自己竟又喜欢上他了。

Clearly something was wrong with him. There was a peculiar cleverness in Crawford，aside from his intelligence，and Starling had first noticed it in his color sense and the textures of his clothing, even within the FBI-clone standards of agent dress. Now he was neat but drab, as though he were molting.

显然是出什么事了。克劳福德身上除了他那才智之外，还有一种特别的机敏，史达琳看出这一点首先是从他的着装搭配及其衣服的质地上，即使衣服是联邦调查局工作人员的统一制服。此刻的他整洁却了无生气，仿佛人正在蜕皮换骨似的。

"A job came up and I thought about you," he said. "It's not really a job, it's more of an interesting errand. Push Berry's stuff off that chair and sit down. You put down here that you want to come directly to Behavioral Science when you get through with the Academy."

“来了件活儿，我就想到了你。”他说，“其实也不是什么活儿，更确切地说是一份有趣的差使。你把那椅子上贝利的东西拿开坐下。这儿你写着，学院的实习一结束，你就想直接来行为科学部。”

"I do."

“是的。”

"You have a lot of forensics，but no law enforcement background. We look for six years, minimum."

“你的法医学知识很丰富，但没有执法方面的经历。我们需要有6年执法经历的人，至少6年。”

"My father was a marsha, I know the life."

“我爸曾是个司法官，那生活什么样我知道。”

Crawford smiled a little. "What you do have is a double major in psychology and criminology, and how many summers working in a mental health center—two?"

克劳福德微微笑了笑。“你真正具备的是心理学和犯罪学这一双专业，还有就是在一个心理健康中心干过，几个夏天?是两个吗?”

"Two."

“两个。”

"Your counselor's license, is it current?"

“你那心理咨询员证书现在还能用吗?”

"It's good for two more years. I got it before you had the seminar at UVA一before I decided to do this."

“还可以管两年，我是在你到弗吉尼亚大学讲课之前拿到这证书的，那时我还没有决定要干这个。”

"You got stuck in the hiring freeze."

“雇用单位冻结不招人，你就被困住了。”

Starling nodded. "I was lucky though—I found out in time to qualify as a Forensic Fellow. Then I could work in the lab until the Academy had an opening."

史达琳点了点头。“不过我的运气还不错—及时发现了结果并获得了法医会员的资格。接下来我可以到实验室干，直到学院有空缺的职位。”

"You wrote to me about coming here, didn’t you, and I don't think I answered一I know I didn't. I should have."

“你曾写信给我说要上这儿来是吧?我想我没有回信—我知道我没有回。应该回的。”

"You've had plenty else to do."

“你有许多别的事要忙。”

"Do you know about VI-CAP?"

“你知不知道有关VI-CAP的情况?”

"I know it's the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. The Law Enforcement Bulletin says you're working on a database, but you aren't operational yet."

“我知道那是指‘暴力犯罪分手拘捕计划’。《执法公报》上说你们正在处理数据，尚未进入实施阶段。”

Crawford nodded. "We've developed a questionnaire. It applies to all the known serial murderers in modern times." He handed her a thick sheaf of papers in a flimsy binding. "There's a section for investigators, and one for surviving victims, if any. The blue is for the killer to answer if he will, and the pink is a series of questions an examiner asks the killer, getting his reactions as well as his answers. It's a lot of paperwork."

克劳福德点点头。“我们设计了一份问卷，它适用于当今所有已知的系列凶犯。”他将装在薄封皮里的厚厚一叠文件递给了她。“其中有一部分是为调查人员准备的，还有一部分是为幸存的受害者准备的，如果有幸存者的话。那蓝色部分是要凶手回答的，假如他肯回答的话。粉红色那部分是提问者要问凶手的一组问题，他以此获得凶手的反应及回答。案头活儿不少呢!

Paperwork, Clarice Starling's self-interest snuffled ahead like a keen beagle. She smelled a job offer coming—probably the drudgery of feeding raw data into a new computer system. It was tempting to get into Behavioral Science in any capacity she could, but she knew what happens to a woman if she's ever pegged a secretary—it sticks until the end of time. A choice was and she wanted to choose well.

案头活儿。克拉丽丝·史达琳出于自身利益，像一头嗅觉灵敏的小猎犬一样在闻着什么。她闻到有一份工作正向她降临—那工作很可能单调乏味，只是往新的电脑系统中输入原始数据。竭尽全力进入科学部对她来说是诱人的，可她知道，女人一旦被拴住做秘书，结果会是什么样—一辈子就在这位置上呆着吧。选择的机会来了，她要好好地选择。

作者介绍:

托马斯·哈里斯，美国通俗小说家，曾任美联社驻纽约记者兼编辑，专门从事刑事案件的采编，积累了丰富的写作材料。他先后出版了《黑色星期五》、《红色龙》、《沉默的羔羊》等多部侦探小说和犯罪小说，其中以《沉默的羔羊》影响最大，曾跃登《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜榜首。

克拉丽丝是联邦调查局的见习特工，他所在的城市出现了一个专剥女性皮的变态杀人犯“野牛”比尔。克拉丽丝的任务是去一所戒备森严的监狱访问精神病专家汉尼拔博士，同他交谈以获取罪犯的心理行为资料来帮助破案。汉尼拔被关在地牢里，他是一位智商极高、思维敏捷但有些精神变态的中年男子，并且是个食人狂。博士对她进行心理分析，克拉丽丝说出童年的最痛苦的回忆是常常听到羔羊的惨叫……经过一番心理分析，汉尼拔了解了克拉丽丝为什么总会听到羔羊的惨叫。克拉丽丝把对象锁定在一个叫詹米·冈的人身上。克拉丽丝找到并击中了比尔，然而更危险的人物却又出现了。