Chapter Seven

Halloween. Just past midnight. The streets were deserted, homes decorated with orange and black décor with ghosts, witches, goblins, all proclaiming a season where the supernatural was welcome in every home.

This was a neighborhood of the rich, but the homes were modest in size, mostly ranch types, proclaiming their summer usage. Starsky was sure their actual homes were much larger.

Then there was the house they sought. It was much larger than the other homes, a three-level brick mansion, gothic, ornate. He worried that he would have a hard time finding his partner in the monstrous structure.

It had been four hours since they left Route 66. He'd slept and told Red the crazy tale of the doppelganger, as the man with his partner's face had become known.

Red had stared straight ahead, keeping his eyes on the road as they made their way there. He never said a single word. It was a lot to take in. It sounded like something that had happened in a sci-fi movie or a soap opera. Not real life. But it was real, as tangible as the car he was sitting in now.

Hutch had a twin. A twin that even his partner didn't know about. He didn't have to wonder at the motivation; his partner was rich. Super rich. And yet he'd walked away from all that money, all that influence. He'd thrown it back in his father's face and became a cop.

Hutch's old man would be happy to have his son back, Starsky thought. He wouldn't stick around long enough to notice that it was a different man.

Starsky stretched, grateful that he'd finally been able to sleep. They were parked beneath a tree, near a crosswalk, well out of view of anyone looking out from Hutch's house. The house was pushed back from the road. No one looking would notice that it held a prisoner. This was the first time he'd seen it, Hutch had described it as elaborate, but he'd never gone into detail.

"You got a pen or something and some paper?" Starsky asked, looking at Red.

Red rummaged around the glove compartment and came out with a pen and a piece of paper. Starsky took it and wrote down the names of Huggy and Dobey along with their telephone numbers. Then he handed it to Red.

"You wait no more than thirty minutes. Then you hightail it out of here and find someplace to call those numbers."

Red looked like he was about to argue. "I'm going in, too."

"Then we both could end up prisoners in that castle they call a summer home."

Red settled back, rubbing his face.

"I'm about to break and enter. I got no right to enter without a search warrant. I'm picking a lock and walking in because my partner is in there. You don't owe me anything. Never did."

"I don't see it that way," Red said simply.

"But it is that way. What if I'm crazy, and this whole thing is in my head," Starsky cried. "Then what. I break in, the cops find out, then both of us are in jail."

"But you're not crazy," Red said, enunciating each word.

"You believe my partner has an evil twin who replaced him?"

"Yes."

Starsky was flabbergasted. "Why?"

"Because you wouldn't make it up. Now, what do you want me to do. And don't say drive off somewhere 'cause it's not happening."

Starsky didn't have time to argue. He needed to be inside, not out here arguing with a man he hadn't seen in decades.

"You could end up dead. Those guys in there might have guns."

"You've got a gun."

Starsky thought about it. He had his usual gun and a spare strapped to his leg for Hutch. "You carrying?"

Red looked puzzled. "Carrying what?"

Later, Starsky figured he would look back and laugh. This whole thing was crazy.

"A gun."

Red blushed. "Oh. No, and I don't know how to use one, anyhow."

Well, that settled that. No point in handing a gun to a man who'd never used one.

Starsky checked his gun.

"How did ya figure this location?" Red asked.

"Friend I know did some checking for me. He saw the doppelganger, that's the name I call the imposter, with a girl that had been following me. She took a trip to Chicago and came out here. I put two and two together because this is Hutch's parents' home."

Red whistle. "Some joint. Must have set them back a million or two."

"Try five million. I checked." Starsky looked at Red. He seemed anxious, trembling a little. He could see the determination in his eyes.

"If I don't come out of there, consider me dead. If that happens, you don't know me. Just call that number I gave you and walk away."

He could already see Red wasn't going to do that.

Starsky opened the door and got out.

The house was surrounded by trees, orange leaves falling to the ground. It was like something out of one of those old movies, where the heroin comes with her new husband, and meets a dour housekeeper who is keeping secrets.

"How are you going to figure out where he is?" Red asked.

Starsky looked around. It was late enough for most people to be asleep. Starsky could see only one room on the bottom floor had the lights on. Probably the guards. The rest of the house was dark. But he hadn't gone around back yet.

"I'm going to go around back and see if I can find some breadcrumbs," Starsky said, before closing the door.

Starsky put himself in his partner's shoes. Hutch was leaving breadcrumbs, he just had to be ready to see them. It would have to be something subtle.

Starsky ran down the road between the two houses. The house opposite the Hutchinson's had spider webs weaved throughout the tall oak tree in front of their home. Dracula stood on the roof, arms outstretched, his cape billowing in the wind, as if he were about to take flight.

It was cold, making Starsky move faster. He reached the house and looked up at one particular window, the only one with the light on, the only one with plants.

Breadcrumbs.

His partner was leaving him a message with the plants in his window. Hutch loved plants. And he knew that Starsky was aware of that.

Starsky smiled. Hutch had been leaving clues for almost a year. They had been so subtle that he thought he was losing his mind. But the thing was, breadcrumbs added up. They added up to one big fact. The doppelganger didn't know that.

He looked like Hutch, except for the mustache. Hutch hated facial hair. He didn't even like a five o'clock shadow. That had been a major clue. The personality was different too. Starsky and his partner liked to tease each other, but never cruelly. The doppelganger took pleasure in demeaning him, making him feel stupid.

The doppelganger also didn't know that the two partners spent a lot of time together outside work. He was anxious to leave work, spending weekends away. Never even offered an explanation. Probably coming here for lessons, Starsky thought.

How to Become Hutch, 101.

Starsky was sure his partner was instrumental in the Kira fiasco. The doppelganger didn't know that Hutch would have never touched Kira. He would have backed off the minute Starsky told him he was getting serious.

Starsky still felt bad about using Kira. But it had been necessary. Before that happened, Starsky wondered if he was imagining the whole thing. He even considered that Hutch was going through some major depressive episode and was acting out as a cry for help.

Starsky had even suggested a shrink.

But Kira set him straight. The minute the blond slept with her, Starsky was on his way. He just had to do it so nobody would figure out where he was going.

Starsky ran quickly. He was wearing dark clothing, blending into the darkness. Hopefully a neighbor wouldn't see him before he broke in.

He reached the back door, dropped to his knees, and retrieved the small instrument from his back pocket. He hadn't picked a lock since his mother packed him off to New York. He was rusty.

But he was also determined.

TBC