Chapter 11

Huggy Comes Through Again

When Starsky and Hutch arrived at Seth and Austin's, they found everyone asleep except for Seth. Seth explained that he would take the first watch and wanted to get their clothes washed and dried before they woke up. Austin heard them talking and got up from the couch he had been sleeping on. Starsky and Hutch told them everything Keith said and that he was at the station spilling his guts out now. Hutch told them Johnson, Reynolds and the chief were working out a plan to bust everyone and keep the kids safe at the same time.

"It looks like it's going to be a long day. Why don't you two get a couple of hours of sleep while you can?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Starsky said, making his way to the empty couch. He quietly and gently stepped over Mathew, Beth and Lee who were sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags that Seth and Austin brought in from the garage. He also stepped over Kiko, Martin, Devon and Thompson who were sleeping on blankets on the floor.

"Hey, Starsk?"

"Not a chance, Hutch," Starsky answered as he settled himself on the couch into a comfortable position. He rolled over on his left side and grabbed a pillow.

"Where's Molly?" Hutch asked as he looked at the others sleeping.

"Molly's in Austin's room. My room's empty, you can sleep in there, Hutch."

Hutch smiled knowing he was getting a better bed than Starsky. He pointed at Seth, "If you need me, you wake me." Seth nodded.

When Johnson and Reynolds finished with Keith they left him alone in the interrogation room with instructions for no one to enter. They walked into Chief Sterling's office. It was now time for them to decide the best way to proceed.

"I know we need to make the busts simultaneously but that won't help us find any of the kids that may be hidden like Tyler was." Chief Sterling said. His voice was a cross between being angry at the men who were involved and concern for the children.

Johnson's phone rang and knew it was Huggy when he looked at the coller ID. "It's Huggy." He flipped the phone open, "Johnson here, Huggy."

"I got some info for you two fine gents if you wanna come to my crib. I know you've already arrested Marshall, don't make any more arrests until we talk. I got some heavy info you need before you do anything else."

"Sure, Huggy, Reynolds and I can be there in ten minutes."

"Don't forget, now, my crib not 'The Pits'. I have Mario opening for me today."

"Your place, got it." Johnson put his phone back in its case attached to his side.

"What's Huggy got?" Reynolds asked, standing up getting ready to follow his partner out of the door.

"Don't know but he said it's important and not to make any more arrests until after we talk to him. He said to come to his house not 'The Pits'."

"Get back to me as soon as you can. I'm not going to sit on this very long," Chief Sterling told them as Reynolds and Johnson left his office.

"Sure thing, Chief," Reynolds shouted through the closed door.

Huggy opened the door just as Johnson was about to knock. Reynolds followed Johnson into Huggy's apartment. Huggy showed them in and the two detectives took a seat on the couch. Huggy offered them a drink but they declined the offer. "What I got is big," Huggy said, as sat on the love seat.

"What is it, Huggy?" Johnson asked.

"There are more kids being hidden like Tyler and Michael were."

"We figured that," he paused then added, "You know where they are, don't you?"

Huggy nodded. "In San Diego there are four being held in an old warehouse on Ocean Drive." He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and read, "It's 3489 Ocean Drive. My connection said that none of the others know that Marshall's been arrested yet, but if they find out…"

"Those kids will be moved and we may never find them," Reynolds said, rubbing his hands together.

"You got it," Huggy said, "There's more. You'll find two more at Grace Street in Los Angeles. I'm not sure of the exact address, but it's an old abandoned hospital. You're supposed to look in the basement there. In San Francisco you'll find the kids you're looking for at Sea Side Avenue. That address is 4655 and they are in a railroad boxcar. There's one more thing you need to know."

"What's that?" Johnson asked.

"All of the kids have guards watching them and some of them aren't going to be as helpful as Mathew and Lee, you dig?"

"We dig. Thanks a million, Huggy," Johnson said, as he stood up. With that information they could now arrange to bust everyone involved. He didn't even ask Huggy how he knew where all these children were. He trusted Huggy enough to know that his information was good.

Reynolds called Chief Sterling who said he'd like his six detectives in his office as soon as possible. He also said that he'd like for Starsky, Hutch and Devon to remain at the house to keep an eye on Molly and the kids that were there. Starsky started to protest but Hutch calmed him down and convinced him that they needed to stay where they were. "They're just going to make some phone calls and sit around the Chief's office anyway. We can do more good here, Starsk." Hutch told him.

"What about the other kids? Didn't you guys want to meet with all of them today?" Molly asked, as she opened the refrigerator.

"With the information Huggy just gave us, I don't think that will be necessary," Hutch stated as he took the eggs from Molly and handed them to Starsky.

"What do you want me to do with these?" Starsky asked, setting the carton of eggs on the counter.

"Look for a bowl and start scrambling them. We have a lot of hungry kids to feed," Hutch said, as he took the bacon from Molly she just handed him.

Kiko laughed at Starsky, "I'll make the eggs, Starsky. I remember the last time you made them."

"Boy, you burn eggs just once and they never let you forget it." Starsky rolled his eyes and handed Kiko the bowl. Hutch grinned and chuckled a little. Starsky searched the cabinets and found some glasses and set them on the counter.

The kids smelled the aroma of the bacon and eggs cooking and they came into the kitchen.

"Man, that smells so good," Tyler said, as he watched Kiko cook the eggs.

"Have a seat; breakfast will be ready in a minute," Kiko replied.

It wasn't long before all the food had been devoured and everyone was complaining about eating too much. Molly explained to the kids that Seth and the others went to the station. She didn't go into any more details.

Hutch called Debbie to let her and Davey know that he was okay and so were Starsky and Devon. Jeanne and Kenny had stayed the night and Debbie told him that she would let them know. She was eager to hear about what was going on but knew that would have to wait until he could tell her, if he ever could. He explained that everything should wrap up today and he would probably be home tonight. She was relieved to hear that.

Chief Sterling had made a phone call to an FBI agent he trusted that he had worked with several times over the years. By the time Reynolds, Johnson and the other detectives barged into his office, Special Agent Collin Sandidge was already there. After the introductions were made, Chief Sterling asked Johnson to fill Sandidge in. Johnson hesitated, not sure who he could trust with this information. Sterling noticed the hesitation, "It's okay, Johnson. I've know Collin here for…well, forever. You can trust him."

Johnson laid it all out. He explained everything he learned from Huggy. Now that they knew the locations of where the kids were being held in the other cities, they could move in. It would have to be done simultaneously though or they could lose track of some of those being held captive. That was where the FBI would come in. Because they had confirmation that kids were being essentially kidnapped, it was now an FBI case. Chief Sterling was happy to have the FBI on board. His own jurisdiction ended at the city line and he would never be allowed to authorize his own teams to make the arrest in the other cities. The best he could hope for was to be kept up-to-date by the FBI agents that were now in charge.

The first step was to confirm the location of the kids that were being held and having agents in place to ensure their safety when the arrests were underway. It took Sandidge about an hour to get his men in position. Chief Sterling and his men were waiting anxiously as the calls came in stating the children being held captive were still exactly where Huggy stated.

As the same time, other agents were getting into position to arrest the men in charge in each of the three cities. Jarrod and Jason Donaldson were located rather easily at their homes. The agents assigned to arrest them were told to just sit tight and watch them. The agents found James Mason in Los Angeles with his family at the zoo and had him under surveillance. The agents had a difficult time locating David Roberts in San Diego. It took about three hours to locate him. They finally found him on a boat in the San Diego bay. Once they had all been located, the four men in charge of those operations were arrested.

At the same time the other arrests were being made, the FBI also had agents arrest the fences that were moving the merchandise the parole officers had the kids steal for them. There were over ten fences busted in the four cities.

The older boys guarding the younger ones that were being held captive gave up easily. They were victims of this whole thing as much as their captives. They had been threatened with severe punishment if the others escaped. One boy said Jarrod Donaldson threatened to kill his whole family if he let the twelve-year-old he was guarding escape. Others had similar stories. Each of them had been threatened in one way or another.

When the calls came in that all the children were safe and the arrests had been made, everyone was elated. They felt a big relief that it was all over. It had been a long difficult case.

Johnson took out his phone and called Hutch and told him the good news. "We did it. The kids have all been found and everyone has been arrested. Everyone's safe now, Hutch." He said, excitedly.

Hutch had a big grin on his face as he said, "That's great, Johnson. That's just wonderful. I'll let everyone know." He closed his phone and looked around the room. Everyone heard the conversation that had taken place and they knew it was over. They were all very joyous.