Chapter 9
The Rabbi walked purposefully across the compound and stopped beside the two cages. Both detectives tried to look up at him but in their confined space they could see his shoes and no further.
'Nicholas, what are you doing?' the deep resonant voice asked.
'Trying to get him to see some sense' Nick's voice explained.
'And do you think you've succeeded?'
There was a pause and Starsky sincerely hoped the pause was accompanied by a shake of his brother's head.
'I thought as much. It was wrong of you to bring him here. He's seen too much of our operation now, and being a policeman, he would not really be expected to divulge information freely. A leopard, as they say, will never change his spots'.
Nicks feet moved in the dust. 'I thought I could make him change his mind. I still can' the younger man said with a note of desperation in his voice.
'Shudup Nick. He's not gonna listen an' I'm not gonna change my mind' Starsky spat out, sick of being talked about as though he wasn't there.
The Rabbi's shoes moved as he knelt and looked into the cage. He had a sad smile on his face as he looked at the confined space. 'Not yet, perhaps. But one of the things we learned from the events of the holocaust was the art of erm….persuasion. Perhaps after some more time in your little domain, you may think differently'.
'Not likely, ya sick son of a bitch. Look, its me ya wanted, let Hutch go. He'd never have known about this if it hadn't been for Nick. This is between you my brother and me. Just leave him out of it huh?'
The smile widened. 'I can't do that, David. He's seen our outfit too. Besides which, perhaps the extra bit of leverage might help to change your mind. He stays!'
Starsky saw the shoes move and the face disappeared from his view. 'What're ya gonna do now? Isn't it against your beliefs to inflict pain?'
He heard the gentle snort of derision. 'I'm not inflicting anything. Mother Nature, on the other hand, may have a different view'.
The shoes left and within moments Starsky and his partner were left alone in the courtyard. There was silence for a minute or so and then Hutch, who had remained silent throughout the interchange with Nick and the Rabbi spoke up.
'Well that went well'.
The brunet leaned his head against the bars. 'Sorry partner. I shouldn't have lost it! It's just that every time Nick shows up there's trouble'.
'Ya think? So. What's the plan?' Hutch asked quietly.
'Other than sitting here an' bakin' I dunno. Any suggestions?'
Hutch turned his head left and right. 'Its gonna get hot pretty quick and I don't see anything that's gonna cast a shadow across here. S'pose we just sit tight an' roast'.
oOo
By midday, with the sun directly overhead, both men were beginning to feel the effects. Hutch's legs had long ago passed from the pins and needles, then numb stage. Pains shot up his thighs and back almost with each breath and lanced up into his chest.
At first he had felt vaguely nauseous, his stomach being squashed up against his diaphragm by the cramped position, but the nausea had now turned into full-scale head throbbing sickness. Over the course of the morning, as the temperature had climbed higher and higher in the compound he had started to sweat. At the beginning, the beads of moisture on his skin had felt cool and almost refreshing, but as the morning wore on, the sweat evaporated faster than it could cool him down. With his hands held fast behind his back and his stomach and chest pushed against his thighs, he had no way to change position to allow the moisture trapped in the folds of his skin to dry or cool him. He'd started to breathe faster as he became more overheated and by the middle of the day, he was beginning to see the world through a red haze of heat and pain.
Hutch's skin always carried some tan. He lived in California where it was hard to avoid the sun and he enjoyed an outdoor lifestyle when he got the chance. But now the skin on his back felt as though it was on fire and he knew that before too much longer he was going to blister and burn. Coupled with that, the good Rabbi had seen fit to leave them without water during the morning and now his tongue felt dry as sandpaper in his mouth and his lips stuck to his teeth.
Starsky was faring little better. His olive toned skin afforded him a little more protection than the blonde's, but the sun was vicious and he too was beginning to feel the effects. The damage the Vietcong had inflicted on him all those years ago also came back to haunt him now. Twice during the morning he had gotten cramp in his hips and had cried out in desperation against the crippling pain, frantic to straighten his leg to relax the muscles.
But the most fearful aspect for the curly haired man were the flashbacks. He'd spent so long trying to forget his treatment in the POW camp. His nightmares, which had shaken him awake each night for years after his release, had abated now so that it was only in times of severe stress or sickness did they return. But here' forced into similar conditions that he'd had to endure before, they were coming at him thick and fast.
Another memory hit and he shuddered, not realising he'd cried out loud, but Hutch heard him and rattled against the side of his cage.
'Hey Starsk. C'mon buddy. Snap out of it. You're here, with me. C'mon Gordo. STARSKY'. He saw the shuddering cease and the brunet head raise up a little. And then he heard the deep, shuddery sigh.
'Sorry Pal…. Better now…. How're ya holdin' up?'
Hutch snickered, his voice coming out in a thick, gasping fashion. 'Another twenty minutes at gas mark 6 an' I'll be ready. You?'
'Same. It's only the thought of what I'm gonna do to Nick that's keepin' me goin'.
They lapsed into silence again, each man trying to ignore the fire in their muscles and the burn on their backs. The worst pains were from having nowhere to rest their heads unless they knelt right forwards and rested them on the earth floor. To do anything else put added pressure on neck and back muscles which were already under an enormous amount of strain.
At just after 1:00pm, the Rabbi and another of the men came back out to see them and once again knelt down at the side of the cages, the priest on his knees and the other man lazily smoking a cigarette and looking bored. He looked at the brunet first, noticing the angry blush on the tanned back, the points of each spinal bone red and beginning to blister.
'Are you ready to come into the shade and tell me what I need to know?' he asked gently. 'Its so cool inside and you could slake your thirst with some ice cold water. Maybe splash a little on your back and wipe your face'.
Starsky listened to the seductive, tempting words. 'Go to hell' he managed to grind out. He saw the shoes move towards Hutch's cage; the first time the Rabbi had actually acknowledged the blonde's existence.
Without looking back at the curly haired cop, he took the cigarette from his companion's hand and stubbed it out through the bars on Hutch's back.
The blonde's body jerked back and hit the roof bars of the cage in shock as a yelp escaped him. But then he clamped his lips firmly shut and breathed deeply through his nose.
Starsky's head hit the bars of his own cage as he tried ineffectually to get to his partner. 'You get away from him' he yelled. 'It's me you want, not him. I'll kill the lot of ya when I get the chance'.
The man at the side of his cage kicked at the bars and grinned, glad to see some reaction from the penned detective.
With a sad shake of his head, the Rabbi stood and walked quietly away. 'Give them a while longer' he said over his shoulder as the other man followed him.
oOo
By late afternoon, the sun was beginning to loose some of its ferocity, but it had already taken its toll on the two detectives. Hutch was now slumped with his side leaning against the bars at the side of his cage. He'd come to the end of his human reactions some time ago. Mid afternoon had been the hardest for him, when the sun had been at it's hottest and he could feel the skin on his back burning and blistering. The pains of the burns almost eclipsed the pains from his cramped muscles and ominously, he was no longer sweating.
'Utch?'
The voice from the other cage was a raw whisper and for a moment it didn't penetrate the fog clouding the blonde's mind. Most of the afternoon, they had been quiet, their strength and resolve being saved for breathing and enduring. He tried to shake his head, but the thundering ache in it stopped him before he could try the manoeuvre a second time.
'Yeah?' the word came out as a dry croak.
'You….'k?'
'Sure'.
One word conversations. It was the only type they had strength for, but both partners needed the contact, if not physical, then verbal.
'Think…..sumthin cool'. Starsky's voice gave out on the last syllable and he coughed painfully.
'Ice'
'Beer'
'Swimmin'
'Utch?'
'Yeah'.
'Sorry'.
'For ….what?' the blond panted.
'Y'know'.
'Uh huh'
Starsky's head rested wearily on the ground in front of him, his back muscles screaming for release and his legs feeling oddly dissociated. His mind was a fevered whirl, one moment lucid and thinking of ways to survive the ordeal, at other times taking his back to the rain forests of Vietnam. His tongue felt huge in his mouth, the moisture having long since evaporated away until he was dry as a bone. He tried to swill it across his dry teeth again, but the skin felt like a rasp and the tongue had swollen in his mouth so that talking and swallowing were difficult.
His mind was taking him off to another place again when he heard the door of the compound open and moments later shoes surrounded the cage. There was a clanging sound above him and the ear splitting shriek of metal grinding against metal as the sides of the cage collapsed outwards and Starsky's body toppled sideways. As he looked around him he saw too that Hutch was being liberated also and he wanted to tell the blond to be careful and not to try to straighten his legs too soon.
Bitter experience told him that being incarcerated for so long and forced into one position, the circulation would burn like white fire through his muscles when he tried to move and he'd learned back in the camp to take first movements slowly.
But Hutch had no such memories and as he fell sideways onto the ground, he straightened his long, cramped legs. The indescribable pain took him completely by surprise and he was unable to quiet the scream that was ripped from his throat, ending in a painful sob as the fire licked at his legs, back and chest. He rolled over onto his back and felt the sickening pop as blisters burst down the length of his spine.
Starsky uncurled himself more slowly, but still the action was a painful one and he closed his eyes, shutting out the sight of the men around him as he groaned and paused, waiting for cramped muscles to relax.
His comfort was short lived however as rough hands took hold of him under his arms and dragged him and Hutch to their feet and towards the side of the quadrangle and towards a stand pipe in the corner, the Rabbi watching as they went.
