The Silence of the Lambs

Starling meets Everett Yow, the executor of Raspail's will, in Baltimore. Yow promises to show Starling Raspail's car, which has been in storage, as long as she reports anything she finds back to him. Together, Claire and Everett drive to where Raspail's car has sat since his death. They enter the well-guarded storage facility and make their way to Raspail's storage unit. Yow looks at the seal of the lock on Raspail's storage unit and shows Starling that no one has opened it in five years.

It takes some effort, but Starling eventually manages to open the lock. Yow sits back and lets her do the work, which she appreciates. However, even with the lock off, the door does not open. Yow suggests coming back at a later time when they have more help. However, Starling is determined to get the door open. She uses a bumper jack to pry open the door, which makes an awful squealing noise as it opens. Eventually, Starling jacks the door up enough that she can squeeze under it.

Yow looks under the door and notes that it smells like mice. Starling agrees—she can hear the mice rummaging around in the unit. Starling asks Yow to wait outside the door and call the police in case the door comes down while she is in the unit. Yow is surprised Starling is willing to go in on her own but promises to do as she requests. Starling lays on the ground and carefully enters the storage unit. As she pushes herself in, she finds she is under the car. Eventually, she stands and shines her light around the unit, which is full of boxes and spiders. Some rats scurry across a piano.

Starling shines her light in the car, but there isn't much she can see. However, it looks like a person is sitting in the car. Starling is nervous, but she does her best to stay calm. She does not want to cause a scene that would annoy everyone and make her look like a scared fool. Slowly, she moves around the boxes in the room to give herself access to the driver-side door to unlock the car. When Starling opens the car door, she realizes that the "person" she saw is just a dressed-up mannequin. However, the mannequin's head is missing, and there is a cloth-covered object where the head should be.

Starling crawls into the backseat, trying not to think too hard about what she is doing. Then, she uncovers the item with the cloth over it and sees a head in a jar. She can tell the head has been in the jar for years because it has experienced significant decay. As she examines the head, Starling realizes she is pleased with herself, though she is uncomfortable that her pleasure comes from such a disturbing place. Starling frisks the mannequin to see if there is anything to identify the body. However, she only finds a wooden dildo shoved into its crotch area. Then, she looks back at the head. Starling thinks that she can look at anything at long as it means doing something good for the world.

Starling reports her discovery to the proper authorities. When she exits the storage unit, a news crew led by a woman named Jonetta Johnson has already arrived. Starling warns the crew to stay away from the unit because it is a crime scene. Jonetta tries to distract Starling while her men sneak into the unit. However, Starling catches them while they are halfway under the door and lowers the jack to crush them so they cannot move. Starling knows she will look bad on television and tries to calm herself.