Chapter 9
Just outside his field of vision, Hutch heard a noise. A door opened and let a sliver of cold neon light into the room he'd been kept in. Unseen hands pushed the blindfold over his eyes and started to undo the restraints. Another round was about to begin and the flaxen haired cop didn't think he'd survive any more pain. In his misery and fear he shouted out to whoever might listen.
'NOOOOO' the word ending in a pitiful whimper as his body flinched away from the painful stimuli.
But the hands ignored him anyway. They once again jerked him off the bed and he cried out in pain as one of his broken hands snagged against the man's body. The yelp made his captor laugh and Hutch felt his hand grasped in a vice like grip. The pain was sufficient to tip him towards the edge of unconsciousness as he groaned pitifully. His body sagged against the two men as they dragged him back into the other room. Once again, they placed metal cuffs around his wrists and inserted a chain between them, pulling his arms up tight above his head.
All I want…..is black bean…..soup and you his voice thin and almost inaudible.
'What the fuck's he sayin'?' Harley asked Snape.
'Dunno, think the fuckers singing for us!' he jerked Hutch's chin up and slapped him across the face open handed. Hutch's head lolled to the side, but the words kept coming.
Honey…. won't you be…… my love while …love…… will stay
'He's gone fuckin' mental' Snape giggled, getting ready to backhand the blond again.
His hand was just drawing back when suddenly all hell broke loose. Both men heard the front door snap open and a surly voice yelling 'Police. Come out with your hands up'.
Snape and Harley looked at each other then back at the hanging body in front of them, then listened to the sound of doors downstairs crashing open and heavy footsteps now coming up the stairs quickly.
They had no time to think before two men, one the size of a small elephant and one with mahogany curls burst into the room, guns pointing forward and fingers lying next to triggers. Starsky took in the sight in one glance, but could hardly recognise the hanging body of his partner. Swallowing down his anger he hissed.
'Hands where we can see 'em punks'. As he saw Snape hesitate, the brunette levelled his pistol at the man's head. 'Just gimme a reason' he spat. Harley looked back at Snape, a lingering look that said we're better than these guys and as Gonzalez sprang forward to cuff the two men, Snape lunged towards him followed by Harley. Immediately, the brunettes' finger twitched against the trigger and the discharge from his weapon deafened everyone n the small room as the two men's bodies fell lifeless to the floor. Alerted by the noise, Diana came into the room through a door in the corner and skidded to a halt. Seeing the brunette and the bodies of her companions, she immediately raised her hands in the air and Starsky walked over and not too gently cuffed her. He couldn't trust himself to speak to her, instead he merely pushed her towards Gonzalez, who propped her in a corner and levelled his gun at her, eyes full of anger.
With the three perps. dealt with and waiting for patrolmen to arrive, Starsky ran over to the blond hanging by his wrists against the wall. Very gently he reached up and took the blindfold from Hutch's eyes, sickened that there was a red welt across his face where the material had been. Just how long had he been forced to wear that thing?
Hutch's eyes were closed and he was muttering something under his breath. As Starsky removed the blindfold, Hutch flinched away with a small cry and screwed his eyes up as the unaccustomed light stabbed at them.
'Hutch? Hutch it's me buddy' Starsky said softly, not knowing where to touch his partner's emaciated naked frame. Every inch of the blond seemed to have some sort of injury, either hidden by a bandage or exposed, bleeding and raw.
Hutch didn't seem to hear him and he tried again, smoothing his fingers gently over the grimy face. 'Hey Hutch, I got ya. I got ya buddy. Gonzalez, get over here an' help me get him down'.
The two men unhooked the length of chain from the cuffs and gently lowered Hutch's body to the floor. He lay there semi conscious as tremors shook his body. He was filthy and his usually flaxen coloured silky hair was matted and plastered against his head, blood and pus oozed from the various wounds across his torso and the brunette could see open sores on the backs of his shoulder blades, down the bony parts of his spine and on his hip bones. Starsky felt the heat from the wounds and saw the flush on the blonde's face. He was feverish and very weak.
'Gonzalez, get that ambulance here quick' he said as he took in the clumsily bandaged hands and the raw, bleeding, beaten legs. He quickly crossed the room and frisked the two men's bodies on the ground, finding the key to the cuffs. He undid them quickly, throwing them away in disgust as he saw the blood seeping fresh through the bandages already round the wrists. Gently he sat behind the blond and shuffled up until Hutch's head was on his lap and he could look down into his friend's face. Letting go of the blond head, his fingers came away wet with blood. 'Jeez, Hutch, what they done at ya pal?'
Softly, so as not to upset the broken man he whispered 'Hey Blondie, s'me, you're ok now, I got ya'. He gently stroked the matted bangs from off the sweat soaked face and Hutch stopped his fevered mumblings and cracked open his eyes. A shadow of a smile crossed his dry cracked lips as he recognised his partner. Starsky felt the body relax marginally as Hutch realised he was finally in safe hands.
'Knew he whispered between agonised breaths. 'How ….do I ….look, huh?'
'Beautiful, ya look beautiful ya big lummox. I never thought I'd see you again' the brunette whispered softly.
Hutch closed his eyes again against another wave of pain, waiting till his body stopped trembling. 'Didn't….think I'd……get through' he gasped.
'Ssh, don't talk, just relax and we'll get ya to a hospital Ok?'
But Hutch's body had gone rigid at the mention of hospitals.
'N no' he mumbled. 'no hospitals……hurts…….' He reached weakly for Starsky's hand and looked beseechingly into his eyes. 'P promise no h hospitals……please' he gasped before his hand slid away.
'Hutch you need real care babe. Ya need drugs an' x-rays an' stuff. I can't do that for ya'.
But Hutch was trembling more now, thrashing his head weakly from side to side. He was mumbling over and over again 'no….please no…'
The brunette slowly stroked the blond head and sighed. 'Ok, Ok. What'm I gonna do with ya huh?' he sat in silence for a while as patrolmen and coroners came and went around them, taking the bodies of Harley and Snape away and leading Harmon from the room, until only Starsky and his broken partner were left. In the distance Starsky heard the ambulance sirens and felt Hutch tense again.
'Hutch, at least let the paramedics look at ya.' Starsky said gently. 'I'll be right here. I won't go anywhere. Just let 'em look at ya an' we can take it from there'.
The blond opened his eyes and locked on to the indigo ones above him. He sighed a little. 'K' he said wearily. 'But 'm not…..going with 'em'.
'Ok, we'll just let 'em look then. See they're here now. Just let me go talk to 'em. I'll be right back. Promise'. He struggled out from under the blond and laid the head down on the ground as gently as he could. Hutch seemed almost beyond pain now, which worried the brunette more than if his partner had been screaming in agony. He met the paramedics at the top of the steps.
'Hey guys. My partner's in there. He's in a bad way, but he's just been held an' tortured for 2 weeks by a psycho dressed in a nurses' outfit. He's real scared an' I think it'll freak him out if he sees uniforms. He says he's not going to hospital. I need to know what you think'.
The lead paramedic nodded his understanding and both men shouldered out of their coveralls, entering the room as civilians. Starsky was back at Hutch's side, gingerly holding his bandaged hand as the two paramedics walked in quietly and knelt at the side of the broken man.
'Hi there, just take it easy, I'm John, I'm a paramedic. Will you let me check you over?' he asked gently.
Hutch opened his eyes and looked first at John, then back up to fix on his partner's eyes. 'K' he whispered as the two paramedics got to work.
Gentle as they were, they couldn't help hurting the downed detective more than they would have liked and at the end of the preliminary examination, Hutch was writhing and moaning as wave after wave of fresh pain shook him. The two paramedics stood and motioned for Starsky to come with them.
'Hutch buddy, just gonna go talk to the paramedics, OK? Be right back'.
Hutch mumbled something and his eyes flashed open briefly as Starsky left his side. He joined the two medics.
'I don't think he can escape a visit to the hospital' John said. 'He's a mess! So far as I can tell, he's had a broken rib with an attempt to put in a chest drain. He's got bad bruising over his stomach and I think there may be some internal damage there. All his fingers are broken as is his right leg below the knee. The other leg is so badly bruised it may as well be broken. He won't be walking anywhere any time soon. He has multiple lacerations over about 80 percent of his body, notably his wrists and legs and welts around his neck, chest and ankles as if something has continually rubbed at his skin. There's what looks like pressure sores all down his back. He's dehydrated even though someone has passed an NG tubes into his stomach. We aspirated some fluid and it contained blood, so we think he's been fed some irritant or poison. Finally he has a high fever, probably due to a kidney and lung infection. He's got an indwelling catheter, but it hasn't been cared for, so infection is common. All in all I'd say if he doesn't get good hospital care now, you might loose him'.
Starsky let out the breath he'd been holding as he heard the litany of injuries. He'd unconsciously balled his hands into fists and if the three mental patients had been there he wouldn't have been responsible for his actions.
'So, what d'ya suggest?'
'It's no suggestion' John said grimly. 'We need to get him to hospital. Now'.
The brunette pursed his lips. 'You saw what he was like when you came near him. If he's as bad as you say, what'll it do at him of he gets so stressed again?'
John shrugged. 'I can only tell you the facts'.
'What if he was sedated?' his colleague asked.
Starsky shook his head. 'Same problem. You'll never get near him, an' he has a phobia about needles'.
'You could do it' John said.
'Me?' the brunette squeaked. 'You got the wrong guy buddy. Been on the sharp end of enough needles to last a lifetime, but I've never injected anyone'.
John took hold of Starsky's arm. 'If we don't get him there soon…..'.
He sighed and looked back at his partner who had stopped shaking for the moment and had gone back to his mumblings. He knew deep down that if anyone was going to stick a needle into Hutch, he'd rather it be him than a stranger. 'Ok. What do I do?'
John gave him a brief lesson and finally the brunette walked back over to Hutch and knelt by him, the loaded syringe held behind his back.
Hutch opened his eyes as he felt his partner at his side. Gathering his strength he licked his dry lips. 'How bad?'
'As bad as it gets buddy. You need real care, but I got a deal for ya. If you didn't know anything about the hospital and I promised to stay with ya the whole time, would ya let 'em do what they had to?'
Hutch tried to understand. 'Don't know…….huh?'
'If you were asleep. I'd stay with ya till they'd done what they had to, bring ya home and look after ya there. You just gotta go to sleep first'.
'Yeah?... When?'
'Now buddy'.
Hutch struggled against Starsky's hand on his shoulder. 'Don't want 'em near me. Don't….want 'em'.
'No, s'ok, Blintz, they won't touch ya, promise'.
'Yeah?'
'D'ya trust me?'
'Sure…..why' Hutch whispered, the pain still arguing with him.
'If ya trust me, I'll give you the injection, then you'll know nothing more till home, honest. John showed me what to do, but ya need to let me. Can ya do that, huh?'
Hutch closed his eyes a moment then gave an almost imperceptible nod. Quickly, Starsky tied the tourniquet around the blonde's upper arm and swabbed a small area on the unwashed skin. .With a steadying breath and a reassuring look from John, he felt for the vein, feeling it springy and turgid under his forefinger. As gently as he could, and keeping the needle parallel with the skin, he drove the needle home, quickly pulled back on the plunger seeing a little blood enter the barrel. He released the tourniquet and injected the contents firmly into his friend. As Hutch's eyes closed he whispered
'Glad you're…not a doctor……hurts'.
