Chapter 9

Starsky occasionally looked back at Katherine to see how she was doing. He felt really bad about getting her arm broken. He was so focused on protecting her and finding the guy who shot Hutch, he didn't know where to start. He figured that the guy would hide out, but where? He figured to go see Huggy to see if he knew anything.

Katherine stirred in the backseat and turned over to face the seat. His jacket fell off of her shoulders, so he slowed down and picked it up, putting it back around her. All of a sudden, his tire popped and he held onto the steering wheel tightly. He had to hit the brakes hard to make it stop, making Katherine slide off of the seat and ram the back of his seat with a shriek.

"Ouch!" she said.

"You ok?" Starsky asked frantically

"Yeah." she replied. "I guess. I hit my arm on the back of your seat."

"I'm sorry. My tire popped. I gotta get out and fix it. You can either get out or go back to sleep." Starsky said.

"I'm not going back to sleep now."

She oyshed the lever forward on the front set and got out of the car. She went to the back, and Starsky tossed her the keys to the trunk. She unlocked the trunk and opened it.

"You got a jack?" she asked.

"Uh, there should be one in the trunk." he replied.

"I don't see one." she said

"There should be one." he said, running around to the trunk to look. He moved his spare out of the way before looking for the jack. A minute later, he threw his hands up in the air. "It's not there. Merle musta took it out when he was working in here and never put it back." he sighed

"What're we gonna do now?" Katherine asked.

"I don't know. I'm gonna call Merle and see if he can bring me a jack." Starsky replied, getting back in the car.

Katherine closed the trunk and also got in the car. He grabbed the phone that sitting on the floor.

"Hey Merle. You don't happen to have my jack in your garage somewhere do you?" Starsky said. There was silence before Starsky spoke up again. "Can you bring it out to me? I'm kinda stuck here right next to this Italian restaurant. You know where that it? Great How long is it gonna be before you get here?" Silence. "An hour? Ok, we'll be here." He hung i. "He's gonna be her in about an hour. Wanna get some lunch?"

"Sure." Katherine replied.

They walked in side by side and waited for a person to seat them. When they were seated, they each got something to drunk. Katherine got a rootbeer, while Starsky got a beer. The waitress left and they each looked at the menu before them. Starsky looked through the menu longingly. He was quite hungry. He had almost finished his beer when the waitress came back.

"Are you ready to order?" she asked nicely

Starsky looked at Katherine, letting her go first. "I would like Pesto Allo Genovese." she said. The waitress wrote it down and turned to Starsky.

"I would like Tiramio, please." he said.

"Your food will be ready in a little while." she said after writing down Starsky's order and taking the menu's away from them.

After she walked away, Starsky asked Katherine, "Is your arm hurting?"

"A little. I'll take a pain killer after were done here." she replied.

"Good idea."

After a minute of silence, Katherine spoke, her voice quiet. "Look, I'm real sorry about getting Hutch shot and everything. I should have just let him kill me so I could be with my family and not have dragged you two into my situation. You don't have to help me, you know. It's my-" she started.

"Now listen here." Starsky said, cutting her off. "It's not your fault and I don't mind helping you. It's my duty anyway." he said sternly.

"But-" she started again.

"No, buts." he stated.

She hung her head in defeat. A couple minutes later, the food came and they both dug in happily, Starsky finishing first. Katherine was having trouble eating her's because she was forced to eat with her left hand, so Starsky went out and checked to see if Merle had dropped off the jack for his car. He came back in about 10 minutes later and sat down across from her.

"What took you so long?" she asked, grinning.

"I changed the tire on my car." he said.

"Your slow. I could've had that done in five minutes." she said jokingly.

"I can believe that." he laughed. "But the Duke boys did it in 53 seconds."

She laughed as she finished eating and headed out to the car as he paid the bill for the food.

"Where are we going now?" she asked as he got in the car.

"We're going to see my go to man for information." Starsky replied.

"Who's that?"

"Huggy Bear. Owns the Pits."

"Never hear of it, or him." she said.

"You'll meet him soon enough." he said.

She didn't respond and just turned and looked out the window as he drove.

Starsky broke the ever hanging silence. "So you had brothers?"

"Yeah. I did. All older." she said.

"One was a cop?"

"Yeah. The oldest one. We were the closest. Whenever he came home, we threw his football around in our backyard. I wouldn't necessarily call it a tradition."

"What about your other two brothers?" Starsky asked.

"Well, the second one was a firefighter and the third oldest wasn't really anything. He was trying to find a job, but never did."

Starsky mumbled something Katherine couldn't understand. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing." he said.

Starsky pulled up to the Pits and parked the car. They each got out and walked to the door. Starsky opened the door for her and she walked in, instantly hit by the smell of cigar smoke and sweat from bodies. She coughed as they walked back to a booth in the far corner. Huggy spotted them and walked over to the booth.

"Hey, Starsk. I heard about your blonde brother. " was the first thing that came out of his mouth

"Yeah." Starsky said sadly.

"Who's this?" he questioned, gesturing to Katherine.

"Oh, this is Katherine. I'll explain about her later. But the guy I had arrested escaped, so I need you to keep an ear out for any information on him. Or try to find any on him."

"Name?" he asked.

"James Brown." Starsky looked at Katherine, who nodded .

"Got it. I'll keep eyes and ears out." Huggy said,

"Thanks Hug." Starsky patted him on the shoulder.

"No problem." he said, walking away

Starsky and Katherine stood up and left casually. "So now what?" Katherine asked once they got settled in the car.

"I don't really know. We can keep looking, or wait for Huggy to get back to us. Your choice."

"I kinda want to wait." she said.

"We could go back to the station or just drive around."

"I don't think Dobey wants to see us back unless we really need to be." she siad.

He nodded. "Then let's drive around and see what we can find. Then around four we can go see Hutch. How does that sound?" he asked her as she nodded.

"Sounds good."