Chapter 11

Starsky sat next to Hutch on the couch and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"How do I look?"

"You look like hell."

"That's about how I feel. Help me get into bed, will ya?"

"Sure. Let's go, Partner." Starsky helped Hutch out of his clothes and into the bed. As he covered Hutch up, Hutch started to say something but Starsky cut him off. "No more shop talk. Get some rest." Starsky made sure Hutch was covered and then went back into the living room. Starsky and Hutch had removed the microphone that had been in the lamp shade in Hutch's living room for over a month now. Starsky searched the rest of Hutch's place in case Monroe had placed another one. Not finding any in the other rooms, he wanted to search Hutch's bedroom. He decided to wait until Hutch woke up to search his room. Starsky was still tired so he pulled a pillow and light blanket out of the closet in the hall and got comfortable on the couch and dozed off.

Hutch slept a couple of hours and saw Starsky sleeping on the couch. The blanket had been tossed on the floor along with the pillow and Starsky was lying face down with his feet over the arm rest. Hutch shook his head and whispered, "You sleep in the damnedest positions, Buddy."

Starsky moaned, blinked his eyes and lifted his head up, "Whatdaya say?"

"I said…oh, never mind."

Starsky sat up, rubbed his face and squinted at Hutch with one eye open, "How you feelin?"

"Better, much better."

"Good." Starsky wrote 'no bugs in here but we need to check your room' on a piece of paper and handed it Hutch. Hutch took the note and nodded. They searched Hutch's room and did not find any listening devices. It was safe for them to talk, at least at Hutch's apartment.

They went into the kitchen and Starsky fixed himself a pastrami sandwich and Hutch a turkey sandwich. They sat at the kitchen table working on a plan to catch Monroe without getting any of their friends killed. It was not going to be an easy task, nor was it going to be a quick one. The rest of the day was spent planning and taking it easy. Hutch was in no shape to do much of anything else. Starsky made sure Hutch took his pain pills and antibiotics.

The next morning, Hutch woke up to the smell of pancakes and scrambled eggs. He put on his dark-red robe, and slippers and walked into the kitchen. He leaned over Starsky's shoulder and sniffed the pancakes that were in the skillet. "That smells good, Starsk. You're going to make a nice wife someday." Hutch grinned and sat at the table when Starsky frowned.

"How ya feeling?"

"Pretty good. I think I just needed another day of rest. I'm ready to go with you today."

Starsky looked serious, "Are you sure. It might be dangerous."

"All the more reason I need to go. You don't think I'd let you go alone do you? Come on, Starsk, you know me better than that."

"Yeah, okay. If you're sure," Starsky said as he put the plate of pancakes and eggs in front of Hutch.

"Thanks, Buddy."

Starsky plated his breakfast and sat at the table. They finished breakfast then Starsky helped Hutch get dressed. He was still having problems putting his shirt on because of his ribs. They got into the Torino and Starsky drove up to a driveway that had a pair of big iron gates. On the other side of the gate was a man dressed in a dark blue suit sitting in a chair next to a phone box. The man stood up when Starsky pulled up and walked to the gate. Starsky held out his badge and said, "Hutchinson and Starsky. We're here to see Marsolenni."

"Is he expecting you?"

"Tell him we're here. He'll want to talk to us."

"Just a minute." The guard picked up the phone and mumbled something Starsky and Hutch couldn't make out. He opened the gate and Starsky drove up the long driveway to a big brick mansion.

"Look at this house, Hutch."

"It's big, that's for sure."

"Maybe we are in the wrong line of work."

Starsky and Hutch were met at the door by another man wearing all white. He led Starsky and Hutch to a room that looked like a library. As soon as they entered the room, Starsky and Hutch carefully took their guns out of their holsters and set them on a table. "We just want to talk, Mr. Marsolenni," Starsky said, looking at the men in the room who looked like they were going to pounce on the detectives if they so much as breathed wrong.

A man, appearing to be in his early sixties, sat on a red leather couch smoking a cigar. One glance from him told the other men to back off. "Can I assume this is an unofficial visit, gentlemen?"

"Yes, Sir. Like my partner said, we just want to talk," Hutch said.

Marsolenni motioned for them to have a seat in the red leather chairs that matched the couch. Starsky sat in the chair on the left and Hutch sat in the one on the right. "Forgive me, where are my manners? Would you gentlemen like something to drink?" Starsky and Hutch both waved their hands saying 'no thank you'. "What can I do for the police, Detective Hutchinson," he asked, looking at Starsky.

"I'm Starsky," Starsky pointed at himself, "he's Hutch," Starsky said as he pointed at Hutch. "And we'd like to talk to you about Monroe."

"Never heard of him."

Starsky and Hutch gave each other a glance and raised their eyebrows. They knew Marsolenni was lying. "Well now, that surprises us because we hear he's going to take over your little," Hutch looked like he was at a loss for words.

"Enterprise, Hutch. He's going to take over Mr. Marsolenni's enterprise."

"Enterprise, that's one way of putting it," Hutch said.

"I assure you, I don't know what you are referring to, Detectives. But rest assured that no one is taking over anything of mine."

"That's a shame because as much as we like you, we'd hate to see you go out of business," Starsky said with just a little sarcasm in his tone.

"We know he took out Big John and Spitzer and he's after you next. If there's anything you can do to help the police lock Monroe up for you, be sure to let us know," Hutch added.

"As I said before, I have no knowledge of a Mr. Monroe. If I have problems within my enterprise, as you put it, I will deal with them without bothering the police."

"Oh, it's no bother. No bother at all," Hutch replied as he flashed a fake smile.

"Is that all you came to see me about?"

"Is that it, Starsk?"

"Yep. That about covers it, Hutch," Starsky said as they both stood up.

"I thank you for your concern about my business, gentlemen. Please, come back anytime."

"Oh, we'll be back," Starsky pointed his finger at Marsolenni and added, "we'll be back to put you out of business permanently one day." Starsky and Hutch picked up their guns and placed them in their holsters.

"We'll see about that, Hutchinson," was Marsolenni's reply.

Hutch turned around, "I'm Hutch, he's Starsky." And they walked out.

Once they were off Marsolenni's property, Starsky said, "That went about as well as we expected."

Hutch grinned, "Yeah, but now Marsolenni knows that we know about Monroe."

"I'm still confused. How is that going to help us get Monroe?"

"I don't know that it will."

"What? Then why did we come here and tell him?"

"I wanted to see his reaction."

"You wanted to see his reaction!? Hutch, I thought we had a plan here," Starsky said quickly and in a high-pitched voice.

"Who knows, maybe he will give us something on Monroe."

"Or maybe he'll just take Monroe out altogether and we'll just have to worry about Marsolenni." Starsky shook his head. "We're playing with fire, you know that?"

"Let's just hope we're not the fuel."

"Where to now? We can't go to the station. Dobey meant what he said about taking time off."

"What about checking in with Huggy?"

"Yeah, maybe he's come up with something we can actually use." Starsky turned the car around and parked in the alley behind Huggy's restaurant.