UP A BLIND ALLEY
I have several copies of un-filmed scripts from the series. This story is based on one of those scripts. A violent confrontation leaves Starsky blinded.
CHAPTER ONE
Starsky pulled the Torino up in front of a Chinese restaurant named the Ming Lion. Since it was after ten pm, the restaurant was closed but the two detectives knew that the couple that owned the restaurant lived in an apartment on the second floor of the building. For the past few weeks there had been unconfirmed reports of criminal mischief and vandalism in a ten block radius of the restaurant but none of the business owners in the area would talk to the police until the Chan's came forward and agreed to tell the two detectives what they knew.
"Let's hope we get somewhere with these people." Hutch grumbled as the two detectives walked towards the front entrance of the restaurant. They had spoken to Lee Chan on the phone earlier that afternoon and made arrangements to talk to the owners after they closed their business for the evening.
"Like a fortune cookie, maybe?" Starsky said with a crooked grin as he tried the front door and found it unlocked. The two men stepped into the darkened interior of the restaurant. Making their way through the deserted dining room, they headed for the swinging door that led into the kitchen.
They both blinked as they entered the brightly lit kitchen. As their eyes adjusted to the sudden change in lighting, they saw Mei Chan standing at the rear door of the building looking outside. The petite oriental woman was wringing her hands anxiously, deep tension line etched on her face. Hearing them approaching, she turned to look at them, her eyes wide with fear and obviously highly agitated.
"Thank god, you're here!" she said desperately "Stop them…STOP THEM! They're killing him!"
Starsky and Hutch exchanged a glance as they ran past the woman and out the back door onto the loading dock in the alley behind the restaurant. They saw five men working over Lee Chan. The elderly oriental man was lying on the ground, curled up in a fetal position and he appeared to be unconscious.
One of the men was a huge Samoan who stood at least six feet five. The other four men were smaller in stature but they were all wiry and muscular. Even though they knew that they were outnumbered, Starsky and Hutch had to help the elderly business owner.
Starsky immediately charged at the two men on his right leaving Hutch to deal with the other three. One of the men took a swing at Starsky and missed, leaving himself open for a hard left cross that sent him sprawling to the deck. The second man hit Starsky with a sucker punch to the stomach that left the brunet winded but he stayed on his feet. He returned the punch with a hard right, then grabbed the man's arm and pulled him forward, dropping him to the ground with a hip toss.
The big Samoan apparently decided he'd had enough and took off running down the alley. After a quick glance at Hutch to make sure he was holding his own with his two suspects, Starsky jumped down from the loading deck and took off running down the alley after the big man.
Starsky was surprised when the huge Samoan suddenly stopped running and turned around to face him. He reached down and grabbed something out of the garbage and faced Starsky with a broken table leg clutched tightly in his hand. He began swinging it wildly in front of him. He was in full swing as Starsky skidded to a stop in front of him, fumbling under his jacket for his gun. The table leg connected firmly with the side of Starsky's head, stopping the curly haired detective in his tracks. Starsky stumbled backwards and then fell heavily to the ground. The huge man dropped the table leg and immediately ran away.
Back on the loading dock, the two men that Starsky had subdued regained their feet and joined their friends in their attack on Hutch. Two of the men grabbed Hutch's arms, pinning them behind his back, as a third man punched Hutch in the gut and then added a chop to the side of his neck. As Hutch crumbled to his knees, the four men all ran off into the darkness.
Mei Chan timidly stepped out of the restaurant to see what had happened. "Mr. Hutch?" she said anxiously "Lee?"
Still addled by the last two blows, Hutch stumbled to his feet and shook his head to clear it. He managed to stand, still a bit dizzy and disoriented. He knelt down beside Lee Chan, who was unconscious but still alive.
"Call an ambulance…and get the police! Tell them there's an officer down!" he ordered Mei Chan as he jumped down from the loading deck and made his way to his fallen partner. Starsky was lying on his right side, bleeding heavily from a deep laceration in his scalp from his ear to the back of his head. He groaned and tried to move as Hutch knelt down beside him.
"Lie still, Starsky." Hutch told him "You're hurt. Don't move. Ambulance is on the way." He slipped an arm under Starsky's shoulders and pulled the brunet into his lap.
"Hutch…that you?" Starsky slurred as he tried unsuccessfully to focus his eyes on his friend's face. "Helluva a way to break up a good fight…" He tried to smile but it turned into a grimace of pain and a deep groan.
"Take it easy, buddy…" Hutch said in that gentle, soothing voice that he reserved solely for Starsky at times like this. He ran his hand up and down a leather clad arm in a comforting gesture as Starsky slumped heavily against him and closed his eyes.
Hutch sighed in relief when he heard the sound of approaching sirens in the distance. From previous experience he knew that head wounds tended to bleed heavily even if they weren't that serious. But, he also knew that Starsky had taken a hard blow to the head that had left him confused and disoriented. He probably had at least a mild concussion and the laceration was deep enough that it was going to need some stitches.
The ambulance pulled into the alley, followed closely by a black and white cruiser. A few minutes after that Captain Dobey's sedan pulled in behind the cruiser and the burly black man climbed out, hurrying towards Hutch and Starsky.
Two uniformed officers began talking to Mrs. Chan, while two paramedics knelt down beside Hutch and began to examine Starsky.
"How is he?" Hutch asked in a tightly controlled voice as he reluctantly released his hold on Starsky, leaving his care to the two medics.
"Can't tell yet." One of them told Hutch as he carefully applied pressure packs to the injury on Starsky's head. "His head is busted open. He could have a fracture…a concussion…anything. We WON'T know until we get him to the hospital."
Hutch made a frustrated sound in his throat. It was pretty much the answer he had expected but that didn't ease his concern for his best friend. He watched as the attendants loaded Starsky on a stretcher and rolled it towards the open doors on the ambulance. Lee Chan was already loaded on a second stretcher and was waiting for a second ambulance to arrive to transport him to the hospital.
"Who did it, Hutch?" Dobey asked as he stepped up to the blond's side.
"No idea." Hutch said in a distracted voice, his attention focused on the two attendants who were still working on his injured partner in the back of the ambulance as they prepared him for transport to the hospital. "No one I've ever seen before."
"What kind of answer is that?" Dobey growled in an irritated voice. "You saw them, didn't you? What did they look like?"
"Big." Hutch said shortly. He took a step towards the ambulance but the doors swung shut and the vehicle took off before he could reach it.
"You can ride with me to the hospital." Dobey said, touching Hutch's arm gently to focus his attention. He turned to the two patrol officers and snapped, "I'm going to the hospital. I want this entire area cordoned off! Get me something…anything!"
He stomped to his car with Hutch following close behind. Hutch absently rubbed his sore jaw as he climbed into the front seat beside his commanding officer.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Across town from the Ming Lion, three men stood in the shadows outside the condominium and rang the security buzzer. There was a soft click as the door unlocked and opened. A slender Caucasian male in his late thirties stood there dressed in a blue silk robe. Even at this late hour, he was immaculately groomed. Sam Kaufman looked at his late night visitors and scowled darkly.
"Why are you here this late?" he demanded coldly as he ushered the three men into his lavishly decorated apartment.
Fuji, the large Samoan, looked at the smaller man fearfully and said,
"Boss, we was at the Chan place like you tole us…and…and Starsky and Hutch busted in on us. We worked 'em over good…well, one of them anyway…"
"You just made a hit?" Kaufman said sarcastically "Wonderful…you have to wake me up to tell me that?" He frowned as the big man's words finally registered. "You hit who?"
Too intimidated to talk, Fuji shut up, so one of the other men, Tamaso, took over.
"We ran into Starsky and Hutch," he explained in a rushed voice. "They came out of no where and surprised us."
"Tell me EXACTLY what in the hell you idiots have done." Kaufman said in a icy calm.
"While we was at the Chan place, Starsky and Hutch showed up. They saw us working over Chan and jumped us. We worked 'em over pretty good."
"And…"
"Fuji took off before we could waste 'em…so we took off. I mean…we didn't know if they had other cops with 'em or not…we didn't wanna stick around to find out." Tamaso said
"Did any of you take long enough to make sure the first job was done?" Kaufman demanded with a hard edge to his voice.
"Chan's out of it." Tamaso reassured him confidently. "I think we made our point. And Starsky looked pretty bad."
"Did Hutch see you?"
"Yeah, boss…but he was pretty punchy. He was too worried about Starsky to come after us." Joey, the third man, spoke up.
"You stupid bastard, he can still pick you out of a lineup. "Kaufman snarled As the three men stood mutely watching him pace the floor, Kaufman tried to decide what to do now. Finally, he smiled thinly and said, "First, we need to find out what happened to them and how much they know. Second, you idiots are going to have to stay out of sight. All of you will stay at the guesthouse until I tell you otherwise. I'll call Julie and tell her to be expecting you. So get out of here!"
The three men scrambled for the door. They didn't need to be told twice. Their boss was not a man you wanted to cross, not if you valued your skin. As they left the apartment, Kaufman called after them, "And watch your asses! Hutchinson is going to be out for blood if you hurt Starsky."