A/N I've not written a more action based story before so helpful criticism would be gratefully received.

Thanks for everyone's reviews of my other stories, particularly if you're a guest reviewer (as I can't message you back to say thanks).

Elijah's quote is from Psalm 67. Original Star Trek quote: McCoy in "The Omega Glory".

Enjoy!

Present time

"Hey, Starsk?"

"Mmm."

"You still with me, buddy?"

"Yep."

"Keep talking to me, buddy."

"Whatcha wanna talk 'bout?"

"Anything you like, Starsk. Just keep talking to me."

"Whatcha doing Hutch?"

"Trying to find a way out, buddy. I need to get you to a hospital."

"I hate hospitals, Hutch."

"I know you do, Starsk, but we gotta get that leg of yours looked at."

"Hutch?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Think anyone's looking for us yet?"

"I sure hope so."

There was silence: at first for a few seconds and then stretching into minutes.

"Starsk?...Starsk? Say something, buddy. You still with me?"

The silence got louder.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Eight hours earlier

"Dispatch: Zebra Three. Show us on duty at 1500 hours."

"Copy that Zebra Three."

Hutch slipped the radio back in its slot and looked out of the half open window.

"Nice day, Starsk, shame we gotta work."

"My thoughts exactly, pal."

Starsky turned left on Grant Street and headed towards the seedier end of town. It was one of the sectors that they regularly patrolled just to keep an eye on things and discourage low levels of crime that might escalate into something higher if left unchecked. As they drove past, the two men kept a watchful eye on the possible hypes hanging around the doorways of clubs and bars and the down and outs lurking in the alleyways.

"Hey, Starsk, let's go check on Elijah. We haven't seen him for a few weeks."

"Yeah, good idea," Starsky agreed.

He made a right at the end of the street and drove for another mile before turning into an alleyway that was just big enough for a car to creep down. Slowing the speed of the Torino, they cruised down the narrow pathway between the worn out buildings and were rewarded by the sight of a hunched elderly figure rummaging through a bin at the end of the row. The red and white car slowed to snail's pace as it got closer and Hutch wound down the window fully.

"Hey, Elijah. How are you doing today?"

"Hutch, Starsky. I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Any words of wisdom for us today, 'Lij?" Starsky leaned across and asked.

Elijah stuck his head on one side and looked thoughtful then he intoned: "Do not fret because of those who are evil. For like the grass they will soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good."

Starsky grinned at the worn out old man. "Thanks, 'Lij, we'll do our best."

Hutch pulled a note from his pocket and slipped into the old man's thin fingers. "Buy yourself a hot meal tonight, Elijah."

"Thanks, Hutch, I'll do that. All right if I take my buddy too? We can dine like kings on this."

Hutch was moved by the thought of two people dining like kings on a ten dollar bill but he didn't let it colour his voice: "Of course, Elijah. Look after yourself. See you around."

As they drove away, Starsky caught Hutch's eye to reassure him that he knew what his friend was thinking even if he hadn't vocalised it. Sometimes, the number of down and outs they saw regularly on their beat was depressing. Especially knowing there wasn't much they could do to help.

"Zebra Three, Zebra Three. Come in, please."

Hutch grabbed the microphone and depressed the call button: "Dispatch, this is Zebra Three."

"Zebra Three. Homicide reported at 3240 Western Avenue. Adam Four securing the scene. Please attend and investigate."

"Acknowledged, dispatch. On our way."

Hutch shoved the mars light on the roof and flipped the switch for the siren while Starsky shifted his car up a gear and hurried across town. Western Avenue was just on the edge of their patch. It was a mostly residential area: the houses were small and tended to be lived in by low income families but it was a fairly peaceable neighbourhood and not one they got called to very often.

As Starsky pulled the car into the sidewalk with a screech of tires, Hutch killed the siren and hopped out. The coroner's van was there plus three squad cars. There was also a van which the forensics team used to travel to crime scenes. They could see four officers knocking on doors and taking statements while two officers guarded the premises.

Officer Lutz greeted the two detectives as they walked towards the house and reported: "White Caucasian, mid-thirties, knife wound. Looks like he was knifed somewhere else from the trail of blood. Made it home before he collapsed. One of the neighbours, a Mrs Brown, saw him staggering home and thought to ring an ambulance in case he was ill. Nice lady lives in the house opposite. He was dead by the time the ambulance crew got here. They called us in. Units are canvassing the neighbours."

"Thanks, Lutz. We'll take a look and catch up with the canvass reports later," Hutch said as he and Starsky walked up the steps carefully to avoid the trail of blood. The crime scene boys were just finishing up their photos and the coroner was jotting notes down on his clipboard.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen."

"Hi Doc, what you got for us?" Starsky wanted to know.

"Well, two wounds made with a long bladed knife. One to the stomach and one to the leg. Think the attacker probably got lucky with the leg wound. Just nicked an artery, which led to a slow internal bleed and death. Mr Grant here probably didn't even realise it was happening as the stomach wound would have been the more painful one."

Hutch grimaced and looked around the room. One of crime scene staff handed Hutch the victim's wallet which he looked through before handing it back and seeing it tagged and put into an evidence bag.

The blond and brunet made a sweep of the property looking for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing came to light so they decided it was time to go and talk to the neighbour who lived opposite. Mrs Brown was a small lady with silvery hair. Her bright friendly eyes reminded Hutch of a bobbing Pacific Wren. They held out their badges for her to inspect.

"Excuse us, Mrs Brown, I'm Detective Hutchinson and this is Detective Starsky. We wondered if we could ask you a few questions about your neighbour?"

"Poor Mr Grant! Yes, please come in, Detectives. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No, thank you, Ma'am, that's all right," Starsky said with a polite smile.

A small Scottie dog wobbled into the room and came and sniffed Starsky's shoes. He ruffled its ears with a smile.

"Off you go, Penny. Back in your basket. Good girl," the elderly lady said, as the little dog turned round three times and settled down in her basket in the corner of the room.

Hutch settled on the sofa next to Mrs Brown and asked, "Would you be able to tell us what happened? Why you thought to call the emergency services?"

"Well, let me see now…I'd just come back from walking my Penny. We don't go too far afield these days because we're both getting on a bit truth be told. Anyway, I was just hanging up Penny's lead and I saw Mr Grant coming down the street. He was walking most erratically and holding onto his stomach. I thought maybe he was sick with the stomach flu or something like that. Anyway, he staggered up his front door steps. I saw him unlock the door and go in…but I don't know, I was just worried and I thought I should ring for an ambulance for him…I suppose I should have gone over and knocked on the door first, shouldn't I?...But I've not got much strength these days and I wasn't sure I'd be able to help the poor man if he really was sick…Oh dear, poor Mr Grant."

The little lady pulled a handkerchief out of her cardigan pocket and blew her nose and wiped her eyes. "Forgive me. It's just he was such a nice neighbour. I should have knocked on the door, shouldn't I? Maybe I could have helped him? Maybe I should have called you straight away."

She gave them a watery smile and Hutch patted her hand.

"Nothing to be sorry for, Mrs Brown. You did exactly the right thing and I'm afraid it wouldn't have made any difference if you had knocked on the door."

"Oh dear…Oh well…That's some small comfort I suppose…Poor Mr Grant."

Starsky said, "Excuse me, Ma'am, but do you think could you tell us the direction Mr Grant was coming from?"

Mrs Brown frowned as she answered: "Yes, he was coming from the left from towards Oak Street." She continued frowning.

"What is it?" Hutch asked her.

"Oh, probably nothing. Just a foolish old lady making up stories to pass the time."

Hutch patted her hand again. "Why don't you let us be the judge of that?"

"Well, Penny and I have noticed one of the houses in the next road has some very strange people living in it. In fact, Penny dislikes going past it so much, we've stopped going for our walks there."

"What's so strange about it?" Starsky asked.

"Well, I don't want you to think I'm some judgemental old lady but the people that come in and out of that house…they just look wrong…They're not a family. It's a lot of different young men and an older man I've seen once…Penny growled at him and he tried to kick her. That's why we stopped going round there. Penny was quite frightened by him."

Starsky and Hutch exchanged looks.

Starsky asked, "Could you tell us the number of the house?"

"Well, let me see, it's about the fourth one along on the right but I'm not sure exactly. It's got an ugly looking fence, all spiky, the garden's in a terrible state, and I think the front door is green. I hope that helps."

"Yes, thank you, that helps us a lot, "Hutch said. "Thank you for your time, Ma'am."

"You're welcome, gentlemen," Mrs Brown said as she saw them to the door. "I hope you find out who hurt poor Mr Grant."

"We'll do our best, Ma'am," Starsky promised.

"Yes, I'm sure you will. I can see you're on the side of the angels," she added.

Starsky looked a bit taken aback but recovered. "Well, thank you, Ma'am, we do try."

"And you do a good job, young man, I can tell. In my experience good will usually triumph in the end. Bye then."

As the door closed, Hutch exchanged a bemused look with his friend. "Nice lady."

Starsky agreed. "Think we should check the results of the canvas. I wonder if it went as far as the next street?"

"Let's go find out."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The units doing canvasses had reported back and the coroner had already left with the body by the time Starsky and Hutch left Mrs Brown's. The canvass had taken in Western Avenue, and the first ten houses on both Oak and Elm Street but nobody had come up with anything suspicious and the full reports were being written up and sent to the Metro Division for Starsky and Hutch to look over later.

"How'd you get on with Mrs Brown," Lutz wanted to know.

"All right. Mrs Brown had something interesting to say about a house round the corner. Might be something or nothing. We're just going to follow the blood trail. See Grant's route for ourselves. Catch you later."

The two detectives followed the blood trail, such as it was to the corner of Western Avenue and Oak Street. There was nothing conclusive to say whether Grant had come from Oak Street and then turned onto his own road or had walked from lower down on the Avenue or had crossed from Elm Street on the opposite sidewalk.

As they walked back towards Grant's house and Starsky's car, they deliberated whether to go back to the office and read the canvass reports first or go and have a quick look at the house Mrs Brown had been concerned about. Other than her feelings of unease they had no reason to look at the house and certainly no reason to re-canvass.

Lutz and his partner were just being relieved of duty and nodded to the pair as they walked past them.

"Why don't we park a little way down Oak Street and watch it for a while," Starsky suggested.

Hutch nodded. "Yeah, maybe just for an hour then we'd better go read the canvass reports and get the official report from the coroner and see where we go from there. We'll need to get started on a dive into his life, work and friends tomorrow morning."

"Not too early though. I doubt we'll get home much before midnight tonight."

The two of them hopped in Starsky's car and drove it slowly round on to Oak Street. They spotted the house that Mrs Brown had described. They could see metal fencing with a spiky top to it which would discourage anyone from wanting to enter. At present, the metal entry gate hung open with a chain hanging loosely around the locking mechanism. There was a dirty dark blue van parked on the left-hand side of the building and a wooden gate on the right-hand side blocking the way in to the backyard. Starsky drove on by the property and parked discreetly a few hundred yards down the street. Dusk was just starting to fall and people were heading back from work and kids were heading home in time for dinner.

They sat for a while in silence until Starsky commented: "Nice lady, that Mrs Brown."

"Yeah, very nice," Hutch agreed.

"Do you think she was right about what she said?"

Hutch gave his partner a quizzical look. "About what? Us being on the side of angels?"

Starsky snorted. "That goes without saying, partner…No, I meant about good usually triumphing over evil."

Hutch sighed. "I'd like to say yes but in my experience it doesn't always work out like that."

"You know what popped into my head when she said that?"

Starsky's thoughts were often quite random and Hutch couldn't always see the connection between them so he didn't even try to guess. "No idea. What?"

"That sci-fi show with what's his name…Spock."

"I think I know the one you mean. What about it?"

Starsky fixed Hutch with his sapphire eyes. They looked about as serious as Hutch ever saw them. "I just got this memory of one line from the Doc on the show. He said something like 'evil usually triumphs unless good is very, very careful.'"

Hutch gave his partner a long look. "Good job, we're always very, very careful then, partner."

Starsky nodded. "Yep, good job."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Fifty minutes later, the two detectives saw a flurry of activity as five youngsters suddenly came hurrying out of the side gate leading to the back yard. They were dragging bicycles, which they quickly mounted, and toting over the shoulder satchels. The blond and brunet exchanged looks, eyebrows raised.

"I think that counts as suspicious activity, don't you, Hutch?"

"Yeah."

Starsky peered after the rapidly disappearing bicycles. "Think those kids are running numbers or drugs?"

"My money's on drugs," Hutch said.

"I'll take the bet on numbers then. Loser buys dinner."

"You're on."

"How d'you want to play it?" Starsky asked. "We calling it in or taking a look around first?"

Just then the front door opened and an unkempt, bearded man walked down the steps and across the garden. He started walking up the road towards the downtown area, presumably going out for the evening.

"Think we should we stop him?"

Starsky shook his head. "Nah, I think we should try to get a look inside first and then get a warrant issued. If he's gone out, hopefully the house is empty."

"We both going to sneak around or is one of us going to knock on the front door, while the other one has a look?"

Starsky got a coin out of his pocket. "Better be on the safe side, I suppose. Do ya want heads or tails for which one of us does the knocking?"

"Heads," Hutch said.

Starsky flipped a dime and caught it smoothly then revealed it was showing Roosevelt's head. "T'rrific. I get to sneak round the back."

Starsky reached into the glove compartment and pulled out the two radios and handed one to Hutch.

"I'll give you a minute head start," Hutch said as Starsky opened the car door. "Remember be very, very careful."

"You too, partner."

Starsky slipped out of the car and crossed the street, walking nonchalantly as if he was just out for an evening stroll. He walked along the sidewalk at a steady pace until he reached the open gate then he quickly jogged across the concrete driveway and lawn and sidled his way down the right hand side of the property and through the gate into the back yard.

After a minute, Hutch got out of the car and crossed the street. Purposefully, he walked up to the front door and knocked. Cover story on the tip of his tongue, he waited for a little while but, when there was no answer, he tried the door, which unsurprisingly was locked and peered in through the front windows. Everything appeared normal, a bit run down but nothing out of the ordinary as far as the living room was concerned. He decided to take a look at the van and then see if he could spot a way to join Starsky round the back.

The van was dusty but the tyres were relatively new and it looked as if they had been used recently. He tried the handles on the side and rear doors but they were all locked. With his hand, he rubbed the dust on the dirty window to try to make a patch to see through. Through a smeary gap, he peered in and could see the interior was empty. He pulled his radio out of his pocket and tried it.

"Hey Starsky, you got anything?"

When there was no reply, he tried again but only heard static in reply. Surely, Starsky couldn't have got himself in trouble in the four minutes they'd been out of contact? Drawing his gun as a precaution, Hutch slipped around the back of the building, keeping under the line of sight of the windows. The only thing that appeared amiss was a pair of cellar doors which were opened wide. Cautiously, Hutch got closer to the opening and peered in. Below him, he saw the still form of his partner, lying on the hard concrete floor. Hutch looked around suspiciously: expecting to hear a noise that would indicate someone had attacked his friend but the house was still silent. Hutch wondered briefly if his partner had actually tripped and fallen down in to the cellar. As he reached for the wooden step ladder to climb down and see to his injured friend, his last coherent thought was that he was supposed to be the klutz of the partnership, not Starsky! Then he felt something hard hit his head and the world went black.

TBC