Death Doesn't Come Easy
A/N: Jan in Va wrote a story called "Finally coming Home" That led to me writing a sequel titled "Looking For Home." Then Jan set me a sequel she had started but never finished called "Finally….coming home" which I finished with Jan's assistance. This is a pre-sequel to the original story and uses Jan's sequel "Finally… coming home" as the follow up story. All the above stories can be found at the Bay City Library.
Chapter 1
October 4th, 1984
David Starsky shrugged into his leather jacket and followed his partner, Ken Hutchinson, out of the squad room and down the hallway to the stairwell. It had been a long shift and both men were tired. They were detectives with the Bay City Police Department and had been partners for over eight years. They had been best friends even longer.
As they exited the rear entrance to the building and walked across the parking lot towards their individual cars, Starsky glanced at his partner and said, "Hey, you wanna go to The Pits…shoot some pool…knock back a couple of cold ones?"
It was not uncommon for the two men to spend their off time together. However, Hutch had a date for that evening. Reluctantly, he told his partner, "Naw, man…I'm too tired to be much company tonight." He avoided his partner's gaze…hoping he hadn't revealed that his plans for the evening included spending it with Lizzie, the woman he had been dating, rather seriously, for the past few months. Hutch didn't intentionally mislead Starsky about his plans but he didn't want Starsky to feel like Hutch was blowing him off to spend time with Lizzie.
"Yeah, I hear ya, pal…" Starsky replied with a coy smile. From the expression on the brunet's face, Hutch sensed that , somehow, Starsky knew about his plans for that evening but was willing to let it pass.
"Thanks, pal." Hutch flashed him a grateful smile as he climbed behind the wheel of his latest old beater. He watched as Starsky strolled across the lot to his car, a flashy candy apple red Torino with a distinctive white stripe running across the roof and down both sides of the vehicle, tapering to a point at the front end. Their taste in cars was just one of the noticeable differences between the two men. Starsky climbed into his car and the engine roared to life almost immediately. Flashing his partner one of his patented grins, Starsky blew the horn and tossed Hutch a wave as he pulled out of the lot.
Starsky maneuvered his way through the early evening traffic towards his apartment on the west side of the city. Starsky lived at the end of a cul-de-sac on a quiet street. The location gave the illusion of isolation and seclusion, when in reality, the hussle and bussle of the city was just a short distance away. The peacefulness of the area soothed Starsky at the end of a long hard day.
Starsky pulled into his driveway and turned off the engine. Climbing out of the car, he kept his keys in his hands as he climbed the steps to the deck in front of his apartment. A mild breeze ruffled his dark curls as he unlocked the door and stepped inside. As he reached out to flip the wall switch that lit the lamps sitting on the end tables, a movement in the shadows to his left caught his eye. Even as he turned in that direction and reached under his lightweight jacket for his gun, something solid connected with the side of his head. There was a moment of agonizing pain and then darkness as he crumbled to the floor.
Todd Banister and his brother, Matt, stepped out of the darkness. It had been relatively easy to jimmy a lock on a bedroom window and slip into the empty apartment. Then all they had to do was to wait until the guy who lived there came home. Neither of the Bannister brothers may have been very bright but the money that they had been paid to grab this guy had been too good to pass up. Hidden in the shadows, Todd had hit him in the head with a baseball bat as soon as the man walked in the front door.
Todd knelt down and pressed two fingers against the side of Starsky's neck. He nodded at his brother in satisfaction. "He's out cold. Let's get him in the Van."
Todd pulled two pieces of rope out of his pocket and securely tied Starsky's wrists behind his back and his ankles together. With that task completed, he grabbed Starsky under his arms while his partner grabbed Starsky by the legs. They lifted Starsky's limp body and carried him out the back door to their vehicle. They had parked their vehicle, a nondescript gray panel van, behind Starsky's apartment so that it was out of sight from the street. The man holding Starsky's legs let go just long enough to slide open the side door, then he lifted Starsky's legs again and the two men tossed his limp body into the back of the van.
As Starsky landed in a crumbled heap on the floor of the van, his jacket fell open revealing his shoulder harness and his gun.
"Hey, look what I found!" Matt said in an excited voice "This guy's packing."
Todd carefully pulled the gun out of the holster and checked to make sure the safety was on before slipping it into his jacket pocket. "Would have been nice to know that this guy was armed before we got here," He said in a sour voice "He could have blown us away. Wonder what other little details Tuber forgot to mention?"
Matt crawled into the van with their prisoner and swiftly patted him down. He pulled his wallet out of his hip pocket and a smaller leather case from his jacket pocket. Inside the wallet he found a driver's license made out to a David Starsky, forty dollars in cash and a couple of credit cards. He pocketed the money and the credit cards with a satisfied smile.
His eyes darkened when he opened the small leather case and found a police ID and a badge. "Fuck!" he hissed "This guy's a cop!" He looked at his brother worriedly. "Oh, man…maybe we should just leave him here and split."
"And lose out on five thousand dollars?" Todd said with a sneer "Don't be stupid. Tuber is gonna owe us big time for this one." He grumbled as he climbed into the back of the van and slammed the side door shut.
The two brothers climbed into the front seats and settled down for the long drive ahead of them. It was almost three in the morning before they arrived at the prearranged camp site hidden away in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was a desolate, isolated spot where they could carry out their plans without anyone interfering. They left their captive in the van while they crawled into the small two man tent and settled down for a few hours sleep.
Shortly after dawn, the third member of their little gang arrived. David Tuber was a tall, well built brunet with a deeply tanned skin. The badge on his shirt glinted in the early morning sunshine as he climbed out of his black two by four.
Todd and Matt were awake and hunched down in front of the campfire drinking a cup of coffee. Todd glared at Tuber as he approached the camp site. "You could have told us that guy was a fucking cop," He growled.
"So what difference does it make to you? You getting cold feet?" Tuber sneered "Just because he's a cop?"
"Hey, it doesn't matter to me. It just would have been nice to know that ahead of time," Todd snapped "The fucker could have shot us!"
"But, he didn't. Did he?" Tuber smirked "How about if I throw in another two thousand a piece for your trouble. Will that make you happy?"
"So, what are we gonna do with him now?" Matt asked, eyeing the panel van where their prisoner was still being held. The cop had been quiet so far but he should be coming around soon.
"You two can have some fun with him…just don't kill him…not yet." Tuber said
"What about you?" Todd said "Afraid to get your hands dirty?"
"We need to come up with plan so I can get away for a few days without arousing any suspicions."
"Like what?" Matt questioned
"This afternoon, you two boys are going to rob the gas station over in Clery City. I'll respond to an anonymous call about a 211 and you two are gonna take me hostage in exchange for the clerk."
"So now you expect us to add robbery and another kidnapping to our list of charges?" Todd snorted "What about you? You gonna show up in a few days and tell everybody that you got away?"
"No, I'm going to just disappear. Start a new life somewhere like Mexico. And if you two have any brains at all, you'll do the same thing," Tuber told the two brothers "Be at Jed's Gas Station on Route 34 at three o'clock this afternoon. Make sure you make it look good."
Todd watched as Tuber walked away and climbed back into his truck. As he drove away, Todd looked at his brother with a thin smile. "I don't trust that fucker any farther than I can throw him. We're gonna have to keep an eye on him and watch our own asses at the same time."
