Part XIII

At Angel's words, all of the blood seemed to drain from Starsky's face. He couldn't speak at all at first. This wasn't making sense to him. Finally, he managed to force one word out.

"How?"

Angel's eyes had flickered up enough to notice his pallor, but she avoided his eyes. After a moment's thought, she decided to stick to the truth. Partial truth. Carl likely would have killed Hutchinson if Mike hadn't made him put his gun away. Actually, no likely to it. Carl had all the restraint of a three year old. The blonde would never have left the alley alive.

"The building across from the restaurant. A man was in there with phone and a gun. I think he actually expected you to take the call."

Starsky winced. Hutch had jumped up to get away from Tabby. That was another one he owed her.

"He was told they'd kill you if he didn't cooperate and do what they told him to. They - you really don't want to hear this."

"Maybe not. But I have to."

She swallowed a lump in her throat again. The man's voice was barely over a whisper.

"They used his handcuffs on him. Wrapped over his eyes with gauze and taped over his mouth. Then - well, one of them made the mistake of forgetting he could still hear. They said that they were going to be going after you anyway and using him as a lure to trap you. I'm not sure how he managed it, but your friend managed to get up and attacked. Nailed the one that was threatening you in the gut with his shoulder. But that just made the guy mad -"

Angel couldn't go on for a minute, but it was obvious that Starsky wasn't going to make a sound, so she took a sip of the water in front of her before continuing in a near whisper herself.

"Your friend couldn't defend himself and he was outnumbered. I'm sorry."

Left hand rubbing his forehead, Starsky tried to process it all. It did sound very much how Hutch would react to protect him - and how he would have reacted himself if it was Hutch threatened. Still, something wasn't quite adding up for him. Somehow he'd always thought that he'd know if Hutch were gone. That might not have made much sense to anyone else, but the two of them had always been so much on the same wavelength that he would have sworn that he should have known when Hutch died. He had trouble finding the voice to get his next question out.

"What about Huggy?"

"I'm sorry - who?"

"Huggy Bear. About the same height as Hutch. Lanky, black guy."

"Oh. I never heard his name - just the Bear. He - was shot. He didn't make -"

At the strangled sound of grief coming from the man across from her, Angel finally looked fully at him. His misery was so plainly obvious that her thoughts went to her daughter. How she'd be feeling herself if someone she didn't even know was telling her that her daughter was gone without even the chance to say goodbyes. Starting to sob softly, she shook her head.

"I can't do this. Damn him. He knew I couldn't do this."

"Who?"

The new unexpected voice made her jump. Captain Dobey had moved to Starsky's side, laying his hand on the detective's shoulder as he studied the woman.

"Hutchinson."

Starsky's head snapped up at that.

"Wait - what?"

"He's alive?"

She nodded miserably as Dobey's question.

"They both are. At least, they both were a couple of hours ago. He said he knew I couldn't do anything for him, but he wanted me to keep you away. He and the Bear both said to tell you they were gone so you would come after them."

"Wait. Back up. Why couldn't you help him? How the hell did you get mixed up in all of this anyway?"

"It's complicated. But I'll give you the Cliff Notes version. I have a daughter and an idiot for a brother. Said idiot of a brother owes money to the men that have your friend and offered me to them as payback. Without asking me. Carl and Mike are equally aware that my brother's an idiot and they decided they didn't trust me to be willing to work for them to cover his debts. They have my baby, but I don't know where and I don't get to see her again until they've gotten their money from Stryker."

Angel felt two sets of eyes fixed on her as Dobey and Starsky repeated the name in unison.

"Stryker!"