Part IV

Leaving the restaurant, Starsky climbed inside of his beloved Torino and patted the steering wheel with his hands as he ran thoughts through his mind. It was still possible, after all, that Tabby had prodded a sensitive spot on Hutch too hard and he'd just gone home. But that wouldn't take into account that phone call.

He wouldn't feel right about contacting Captain Dobey until he went and checked out Hutch's apartment first. Yes - good thought. Go to Hutch's first to verify whether he's there or not, then stop back by The Pits to see if Hutch had ended up going there. After all, if Huggy saw his partner, he'd have Hutch stay put until they could let Starsky know he could quit worrying. If he got there and still no Hutch, then it might be the time to give the Captain a heads up.

Cranking his car, he headed off toward Hutch's place.

"If he did just have a snit and went home without telling me, I'm going to punch him in the arm. Hard."

Stopped at a light, he started patting his hands on the steering wheel again. He'd never in his life hoped so badly that he'd be able to punch Hutch.

It didn't look promising when he pulled up, but Starsky went up anyway and made use of the key Hutch kept hidden. No Hutch.

Relocking the door, Starsky replaced the key and glanced down at his watch. 8:30. Might as well head on over to Huggy's and hope that he'd seen or heard from Hutch, but he was really starting to get a sick feeling about everything.

When he walked into the Pits, Starsky immediately scanned the room as Huggy came out to meet him. A slight shake of Huggy's head was all it took to send his last hopes tumbling.

"Come on in, Starsk – heard a little more, but let's go sit down at a booth first. Coffee?"

"Yeh. Please. From the head shake, I'm guessing the news isn't about Hutch himself?"

"Correct, unfortunately. Nothing yet on our blonde cowboy, but have gotten a few more details on the bounty out on you guys."

They only paused long enough to collect two cups of coffee before Huggy herded the distracted Starsky over to a booth, sitting down across from him.

"So – what's the bad news?"

"How bad it is depends on how you look at it, my man. Some more details finally hit a pair of ears that owed the Bear a few favors. Word is that what a man collects depends on what a man delivers. Someone delivers you dead, they get 5K per body."

"Ten thousand for two dead cops? They couldn't even buy a Corvette to go on the run in."

"Agreed – not a lot of incentive, but they don't want you dead. Price goes up to 25K for just one of you alive. Both of you alive? Nets one hundred thousand. Someone wants you alive and they want you bad. As to the figure behind the offer, still not clear on that, but what little I have points toward one of the powers behind local drug trafficking. You guys have made more than a couple of enemies with those kind of connections, so I know that doesn't exactly narrow the field. On the admittedly slender plus side, at least if this does have something to do with Hutch being missing, best money is on him being alive."

Sipping on the coffee without really tasting it, Starsky thought over the money being offered. A hundred thousand would make a lot of folks sit up and take notice. Especially since they wouldn't have to be on the run for being a cop killer.

"I wonder how many of them will take the time to think that if we end up dead, they'd be considered as accessories to it?"

"Not many will think past the dollar signs, my man. You know that."

Back at Starsky's apartment, the phone was ringing steadily as the clock steadily moved from 9:00 to 9:01 to 9:02 before the ringing stopped.

"It would appear that either your partner can't follow instructions or can't tell the time. Too bad. Get him ready. Oh, and hand me the phone book."

Hutch was still doing his best to fight as they uncuffed him then stripped his shirt off of him, but he was able to put up just about as much resistance as a drowsy over-sized toddler. He wished he could see where they were and what was going on. Dizzy at he felt, it was hard to try and keep track of what was going on just by listening.

The voice of Angel was sounding strained as he felt himself being sort of draped into a chair, then felt the chair being scooted forward. Someone grabbed his left wrist and drug that arm over the table top now in front of him.

"Are you sure you really want to do this? You said you needed both of them."

"They specified alive, Angel. Not undamaged. Get the tape off of him while I make the call."

Peeling away the tape gag that had been there for more than an hour hurt even though he could tell she was trying to be gentle. Once it was free, she put something at his mouth. The shape felt peculiar, but once he realized he could get water from it, he drank all that she offered him.

"Looks funny seeing you holding a fricking sippy cup for a full-grown man."

"Shut up and quit giving Angel a hard time, Carl. Phone's ringing on the other end now. Yeah – I'm looking for a Detective David Starsky. Sure. I'll hold."