Suspicion

by Zebra 3 and Me

Hutch accused of a brutal assault.

SUSPICION

By TLR

XXXXXXXXXXXX

It was hard for me to keep up with Hutch when we pushed our way into the emergency room at Memorial.

"Kiko," Hutch said to one of the doctors. "Somebody said he's here."

As usual, the emergency room was a chaos of activity. Hutch's head turned this way and that trying to catch a glimpse of the little kid he spent time with in the Big Brother program. Panic was building in him like a pressure cooker. One of us had to keep our cool.

One of the nurses tried to close a curtain around the gurney the kid was lying on, but before it closed completely I got a glimpse of a dark face, black hair, and a bloodied face. A doctor came over to us.

"Looks bad," he said to me instead of Hutch, like he knew I was the calmest one at the moment. "Beaten. Sodomized. Won't answer any of our questions, so we don't know who's responsible. His parents are in the waiting room."

Hutch sank like putty next to me. I took his arm and steadied him.

"Oh my God," he said in a thin-thread voice. "I just saw him this morning. Took him to the library. He . . . " He slowly raised his eyes to the doctor. "What do you mean, 'parents'? His father is in prison."

The doctor shrugged. "Not anymore," he said, then gave Hutch's arm a pat. "I'll keep all of you informed of his progress."

Hutch started to move around the doctor and the curtain, to get a look at Kiko, but I pulled him back.

"Why didn't Kiko or his mother tell me he was getting out of jail, Starsk? I could have prepared him."

"Maybe they didn't know he was gettin' out."

The doctor walked back to the hustle of the emergency room, and Hutch turned to me with a broken look on his face. "We have to find out who hurt that little boy."

"I know, Hutch."

"Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Without a word about where we were going, we both walked in the direction of the waiting room. Kiko's parents would need all the help they could get.

Before we got there, Hutch visibly pulled himself together. Control. I admired him for the

way he could do that. Me, I'd be throwing a chair through the wall.

Kiko's parents were despondent, not talking at all; she sat crunched up in the corner of the couch; he stood brooding out the window into the city night. I'd never seen the man before, but I could see a strong resemblance between he and his son.

"I'm sorry, Bonita," Hutch said as soon as he saw her. "I can't believe this happened. We were just together this morning at the library. I let him out at your place afterward. He was fine."

She jumped up to hug him, bursting into tears, but a dark look from Kiko's father stopped her and she backed away, left to wring her hands on the hem of her sweater.

Hutch gave the man a look back, but refrained from doing what he really wanted to do, which was slip an arm around her. He didn't want to cause any trouble between the two of them. "Captain Dobey called me," he said gently. "A couple of detectives named Harris and Rosetti are going to investigate. I'd like nothing more than to take it on myself, but I thought it best to make myself available to you and your family."

Juan walked over and pulled his wife a step away from Hutch, putting an arm around her and speaking in a thick accent. "I'll take care of my family now."

Hutch put his hand out. "Sorry to have to meet under these circumstances. My name is-"

"I know who you are," the man answered without taking Hutch's hand. "Savior of the world."

"Do you have any idea who did this?"

"Ask Bonita. Could be any one of her famous boyfriends. Talk is she had plenty while I was away. Huh, Bonita? You have an answer for that? One of your boyfriends have his way with Kiko? Why weren't you watching him closer? Where were you when this happened?"

Whatever sympathy Hutch had for the man hardened into a thin layer of frost across his eyes. "Where did Kiko go today after I dropped him off at home? Who was he playing with?"

"You should know," Juan said. "You spend so much time with him. He was with you this morning, remember?"

"Are you insinuating-"

"I think it's a little sick for a grown man to be spending so much time with a twelve-year-old boy."

Hutch put his finger in Juan's face. "I was doing YOUR job while you were in the pen, you degenerate lowlife."

"Keep away from him!"

"Juan!" Bonita cried as she clutched his red plaid shirt. "Hutch wouldn't do what you're saying! He's a good man! Good to Kiko!"

Juan backhanded her, sending her to the couch, and that's when all hell broke loose. Juan went for Bonita again, Hutch jumped him, and I jumped Hutch.

"Pervert!" Juan shouted after Hutch pulled him away from Bonita. "Keep away from my son!"

I pounced, driving the man back against the wall. "SHUT YOUR DIRTY MOUTH!"

Captain Dobey charged in like a mad bull and pulled me off. "Cool it!" he said panting from Hutch to me. "Both of you!"

We all froze, panting for breath.

I looked at Juan. Dobey's hand on my chest was the only thing keeping me from going at him again. "One more word out of your mouth about my partner," I warned him, "I'll kill you."

Dobey had two uniforms with him. They came in for reinforcements for what he had to say.

"Kiko regained consciousness," Cap said to the room that had grown still and attentive, but his grim expression settled on Hutch last. "He said you're the one who hurt him, Hutch."

Hutch stepped back, his face white, eyes glassy, his head shaking no over and over. Juan was growling like a Neanderthal and trying to lunge at him. That's where the uniforms came in. One held him back, while the other came to stand by Hutch and me, like one of us was about to go off again.

But we didn't have it in us. All out of fight. Bonita started to cry, Hutch started to sink down to his knees, and it was a miracle I could even catch his arm and pull him back up, because I was suddenly sapped of physical and emotional strength.

"Come with me to the station, Hutch," Cap said taking his other arm. "We need to talk. Harris is waiting for you. Rosetti's staying here at the hospital to question Kiko when he's

up to it."

I couldn't say anything. My whole body felt like petrified wood, so I couldn't begin to imagine how Hutch was feeling.

"I TOLD YOU!" Juan was bellowing and straining at our backs. "I TOLD YOU, CHILD RAPIST!"

Doctors and nurses in the hall were looking.

The uniforms were restraining him, and Hutch shuffled between us like a zombie. I think I'd have preferred him tearing the walls apart.

"I didn't hurt him," he said woodenly. "He must be delirious. Confused. Let me talk to him."

"No contact," Cap said. I could almost feel him biting down hard on his lip as he said it. He had a job to do, and he couldn't let it look like he was handling Hutch with kid gloves. "Were you with him at the library this morning like he said?"

"Of course. The librarian can verify that. She'll tell you he was fine then."

"Good. How about after?"

"I took him home and let him out of the car, then I drove home."

"Anybody at his house when you let him out?"

"I don't know."

"Did you go inside his home?"

"No."

"What did you do after you let him out?"

"I went home and read a book."

"Anybody see you that can vouch for that?"

"I was reading alone at home. Why would there be anybody to vouch for that?"

"Can anybody confirm that you dropped him off and drove away?"

"Yeah, Kiko. Ask him."

Dobey shook his head. "The boy's almost catatonic. All he would say was that you hurt him."

Hutch sighed heavily and shook his head.

"Do you want an attorney present when Harris questions you?"

For an absurd second I wanted to laugh, even though there was nothing funny about it.

"No," Hutch answered calmly. "I didn't do anything. I'll answer any questions you have. In the meantime, the person who really did this is out there . . . " He gave Cap a reluctant look, and swallowed hard. "He wasn't really molested, was he?"

Cap's silence was his answer.

Hutch closed his eyes. "Oh God. That poor baby."

"Hutch, I know you didn't do this, but we have to do this by the book. You need to cooperate with Harris and Rosetti."

"Anything. I'll do anything. I'll take a polygraph."

Again I wanted to laugh. Hutch knew as well as I did that polygraphs weren't reliable or admissible evidence-more of a tool to use for making a suspect sweat during an interrogation, hopefully to evoke a confession or spill out more information-but he was willing to do anything to clear his name.

"In the meantime," Dobey finished. "I'll see what kind of physical evidence they have. Something that will exclude you, hopefully."

But Hutch had stopped listening to him. "Why, Starsk?" he said as he looked at me. "Why would Kiko say that?"

"Don't worry," I said, trying to sound as reassuring as I could. "We'll get to the bottom of this."

But we both knew that with Kiko saying Hutch was the one who molested him, even when we knew it couldn't be true and Hutch would cut his arm off before hurting that kid, Hutch was in deep trouble.

We walked Hutch out the front doors of the hospital and across the parking lot to Cap's car. Me and Hutch exchanged a look. As much as I wanted to be with Hutch while they questioned him, I knew he could handle himself, and right now it seemed more important that I stay at the hospital to see if I could question Kiko myself.

XXXXXXXXX

"He's heavily sedated for the night," Kiko's doctor said. "If I were you, I'd go home and come back in the morning."

But I couldn't. Not with Hutch sitting in an interrogation room at our very own police station. I paced the halls and waited, tried again and again to think of why Kiko would say Hutch hurt him.

The media had already gotten wind of it, and they followed me around like a pack of hungry wolves:

-"Is it true, Detective Starsky?"

-"Your partner is suspected of sexual assault on a child?"

-"How long has he known this boy?"

-"What evidence do they have?"

-"What do the boy's parents say?"

-"Is your partner denying the allegations?"

-"Were there any signs that Detective Hutchinson was capable of-"

"My partner's innocent," was my answer to every question.

I couldn't take their questions anymore. Unable to stay at the hospital a second longer, I got in the Torino and left. When I drove by my house and saw two TV news vans, I decided to go to Huggy's for the night. It was after midnight so he'd closed up, so I climbed the outside steps up to his apartment.

"Man," he said when he let me in. "Hutchie's all over the news. What gives?"

"Not sure," I sighed as I dropped tiredly into his overstuffed easy chair. "Kiko's words are gonna bury him."

"Why would the kid make up somethin' like that?"

"Don't know, Hug. Somebody molested him, that's for sure, but it wasn't Hutch. And everybody's quick to want to believe that he did."

When Huggy gave me a wounded look, I said, "Everybody except you and Cap, that is."

"Tough luck," he said plopping down on the side of his bed. "You gonna sleep in that chair?"

"Guess so."

With an exasperated sigh, he went to the closet and pulled out a fold-up cot.

"Here," he said unfolding it and tossing a pillow and blanket on top of it. "Don't say I never did you no favors."

But even as I lay there, I couldn't drift off to sleep. Not with Hutch's situation on my mind.

It was sometime after three a.m. that I got back up, slipped past a snoring Huggy, and drove over to the police station. Crazy. I knew my presence wouldn't make a difference to the questioning, but I wanted to be close should things take a turn for the worse.

Harris was still questioning him inside the interrogation room, so I sat down on the floor just outside the door with my back against the wall and leaning my head back.

I heard snatches of Harris' questioning through the door . . .

"How long have you known the boy?"..."What's this Big Brother program all about?"..."What is your relationship like with his mother?"..."What kind of things do you and the boy do when you're together?"..."Why would he say something like this if it weren't true?"

I was almost dozing when Harris came out for a break. He knew Hutch wouldn't leave, so he left the door open and smiled down at me on his way to the men's room.

"Hey," Hutch said coming out in the hall to stretch his legs and get a drink of water at the fountain. "What are you doing down there?"

He put his hand down and pulled me up.

"How's it goin'?" I asked him.

"Good, I think."

"Still don't want a lawyer?"

"Nope. How you doin'?"

"Tryin' to keep the reporters at bay."

He smiled. "Yeah. Know what you mean. They came here for the scoop, but Dobey sent them packing." He kneaded the back of his neck. "Kiko say anything else?"

"No. Under medication. Gonna try to talk to him in the morning."

"Thanks."

Harris came back down the hall with two cups of coffee, giving Hutch one. Hutch followed him back inside, then sat down across from him while I stood in the open doorway. "Why don't you go home and get some sleep, Starsk? No need in both of us being up all night."

"I'll try," I winked as I closed the door.

But again sleep escaped me. I just gave up and drove around till daylight, trying unsuccessfully to block out the bits of news bulletins all over the radio-"allegations"- "young boy accuses"-"father convinced"-""Detective Hutchinson"-"unmarried"-"fond of the boy"-"trusted family friend"-

XXXXXXXXX

The next morning I sat in one of the waiting rooms at the hospital and stared at a blank TV screen. I was tired of hearing and seeing it on the news wherever I turned. Juan had wasted no time slamming Hutch to any reporter who'd listen. Bonita was noncommittal, thanks to her husband's own brand of a gag order. But I could see it in her eyes. She didn't think Hutch was guilty of what Kiko said.

Right before breakfast, Kiko's doctor told me that the boy was awake and resting in a recovery room. I took the elevator up to the third floor to find Detective Mark Rosetti talking with Bonita and Juan in the hall.

Rosetti was questioning both of them and making notes.

"No way," Juan said when he saw me approaching. "You get the hell out of here."

I ignored him and looked at Rosetti. "Hutch didn't do this, Mark. You know him."

Rosetti looked a little embarrassed, like he really DID think Hutch did it but was too uncomfortable to say so to my face. "I just questioned the boy again, and he says the same thing."

I wanted to punch the wall, but knew it would get nowhere. Showing my anger wasn't going to get me in to see Kiko. I had to keep my temper down.

"Mark, he must be confused. Maybe it's the heat, or a concussion, or amnesia or something. Maybe if you just ask the right questions-"

"Telling me how to do my job, Starsky? I've been at this longer than you."

"Hey, look. I didn't mean that. I mean . . . he knows me, okay? Let me have a shot at it. One shot." I looked at Bonita for backup. "You said yourself Hutch wouldn't hurt Kiko. If my questions upset him, I'll leave. But I gotta try it one time, for Hutch's sake."

Juan was shaking his head no, while Bonita was shaking her head yes.

"Please, Juan," she said holding to his shirtsleeve. "Just a few minutes. We don't want the wrong person to be accused."

"Are you calling our son a liar?"

"No, no, that is out of the question. But it's like Dave says. Maybe Kiko is mixed up."

"Dave, huh? He Kiko's Big Brother too? Or maybe yours?"

"Juan-"

He pulled away from his wife and walked down the hall.

"Three minutes," Rosetti said to me, holding up three fingers. "That's it."

Bonita followed after her husband, while I stepped into Kiko's room. Rosetti waited just outside the door, for two reasons: One, to hear me question the boy, to make sure I didn't intimidate him, put words in his mouth, or coerce him. And two: to give me and Kiko some space to talk.

In a way I was glad Hutch hadn't seen him yet. The bruises on his face and tormented look in his eyes were hard to process.

"Hey, kiddo," I said patting his forearm.

Somebody had beaten the hell out of this boy, and it sure wasn't Hutch. Nobody had to tell me he was lying on his side to ease the soreness of his bottom. I'd talked to male victims before.

I had to tread lightly. Couldn't spook him into more silence.

"You know," I said as I pulled a chair over and sat down. "Hutch came to the hospital as soon as Captain Dobey called us. Worried sick about you."

His eyes found a spot on the speckled floor tiles and stayed there.

"Your ma's worried about you too. And your papa."

I waited for some kind of reaction. He still looked at the floor, but there was a slight wetness in his eyes.

"Hutch and me were surprised to hear your father was out of jail. Shoulda told us about it, then we coulda met with him, maybe even had some kinda surprise party for him or somethin'."

I waited some more, and still got silence in return.

"Sorry about what happened to you, Kiko. No kid should ever have to go through somethin' like that. It was brutal, and it was terrible, and I know, like you know, that Hutch didn't do it. If you didn't see your attacker, that's okay, that happens, but you need to tell us. If he has blond hair, blue eyes, same build, okay. If there's some reason why you're saying Hutch did it when he really didn't . . . "

He was sniffing, and I couldn't figure out which of my words were making him cry, but at least it was better than nothing. I pulled a tissue from a box on the dresser and put it in his hand.

"I'm scared," he finally whispered as he wiped his nose with the tissue.

"Of what?"

He clammed up again.

"Kiko, if it's some gang member in your neighborhood, then tell me. I'll arrest him. I'll protect you. If it's some bigshot in town, somebody no one would suspect, I'll believe you. I just need the truth."

His eyes closed this time, and a small mewling sound passed his lips, and he cried like he was five instead of twelve. Clearly he was in turmoil. Scared. Hurting. I wanted to get through so badly. I wish Hutch were here. I couldn't think of any Hutch things to say.

I leaned forward in my chair, my voice low. "Kiko, Hutch is at the police station right now being questioned. If something doesn't break in the case soon, they're gonna arrest him and he's goin' to jail for somethin' he didn't do."

He broke down in loud sobs now, clutching the tissue and hugging his pillow tight. Rosetti stuck his head in to make sure I wasn't harassing the kid, and I held my hand up to back him out.

"He threatened me," Kiko whispered around the tissue. "Said he'd kill me and my mom if I told who really did it. I said it was Hutch because . . . because . . . I knew he wouldn't hurt me if I said it. He wouldn't hurt me no matter what I said. But I can't let him go to jail, Starsky. It's not fair. He's my Big Brother."

I leaned closer to him, my hand on his head. "Who's 'he', Kiko? I gotta know. Tell me now and I'll go get him, stop him, and put him in jail."

His eyes sneaked toward mine, and I knew I'd gotten through. "He'll go to jail, right?"

"Right."

"Where he can't hurt me again, right?"

"Right."

His eyes wandered toward the door, then darted back to me. "My father," he whispered, and new tears started again. "He took me into the bathroom. Said I wasn't his kid, I should belong to Hutch. Kept saying that over and over while he was . . . hurting me. I don't understand."

I leaned over and kissed the top of his head. "It's gonna be okay, Kiko," I told him.

"Hutch'll be here as soon as he can." Then I raced to the door.

"He said it was his father," I said hurriedly to Rosetti on my way out.

Juan was stepping off the elevator at the end of the hall, a fairly smug look on his face. He was so sure he'd terrified his son into silence. But when he saw me running toward him, I think he saw the light, because he turned and tried to get back on the elevator before the doors closed.

"Police!" I shouted as I ran after him. "You're under arrest!"

The elevator doors were closing, but I dove between them and tackled him to the floor just as they did.

My first instinct was to beat his face in for what he did to Kiko, but I couldn't blow the case. I'd let the courts handle him-something else I could hear my partner saying in my head.

I told him what he was being arrested for, read him his rights, then shoved him into the back of my Torino to book him.

When it came right down to it, Rosetti wasn't pissed that I'd collared the man instead of him. We were all just glad to have caught the right guy.

While Juan was being booked, I ran like a crazy man down the hall to the interrogation room Hutch was in.

"Hutch! Hey, Hutch!"

Cops stared at me, but I didn't care. I burst into the room like a tornado, nearly knocking Harris out of his chair to grab my partner by the shoulders.

"Kiko told me," I panted. "It was his father."

Hutch didn't look half as relieved as I thought he would. He looked kind of sad, because of the truth in the words I just told him. The boy's own father had beaten and raped him, stole his innocence and trust, and who knew how long it would be before they could be recovered, if at all.

"Thanks, Starsk," he said quietly, and gripped my hand.

Dobey was in the room with us. He was fuming back and forth across the floor, but looked relieved.

"Well?" I asked as I looked from Dobey to Harris. "He free to go?"

Harris looked at Dobey for confirmation.

"Get the hell out of here," he said nodding to us, and Hutch and me were out of there like a shot and on our way back to the hospital.

When we passed Juan and the booking sergeant, it was me who had to steer Hutch away from him. He wanted to tear the guy's head off.

XXXXXXXXX+

Kiko was crying when we got back to the hospital. Rosetti was trying to calm him down, but it wasn't working. Only Hutch would do. Even when the doctors and nurses stared, Hutch went to the boy's bed and scooped him into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Hutch!"

Hutch patted his back. "It's okay, Kiko. I know what happened."

"Please don't hate me."

"I could never hate you."

"I didn't mean to lie."

"I know. I know why you did it. It's going to be okay now."

XXXXXXXXX+

Juan denied everything, of course, and demanded a lawyer, which we gladly provided. Everybody said Kiko wasn't credible because he'd changed his story about who molested him, and they were right, but we still had to go with it, and use the physical evidence to back it up, which was that there was skin found under Kiko's fingernails where he had scratched his father during the attack.

We tried to get Juan to plead guilty to spare his son the pain of testifying, but he wouldn't. He thought Kiko would back out at the last minute, change the name of his attacker like he'd already done. But with a lot of coaxing from Hutch, he got on the stand and told what happened.

Though the jury found Juan guilty, it really wasn't a happy day for any of us. Justice was served, but Kiko was being abandoned a second time by his father, and his mother cried with heartache over what happened to her son. But just like before, Hutch would step into his Big Brother mode and would be a helping hand to both of them.

It was in the man's blood.

Many were the days I'd find Hutch and Kiko talking quietly together. Hutch's place.

Kiko's. I knew Hutch was helping him sort his feelings out about what happened.

XXXXXXXXX+

When the trial was over, me, Huggy, Cap, Hutch, all of us, made sure the media got the story straight. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, all of it. For once we were happy to have the press involved, and we gave interview after interview trying to help Hutch restore his reputation.

XXXXXXXXX+

A few Saturdays after the trial, Hutch and I took some flowers and plants from Hutch's greenhouse over to Bonita and Kiko and helped them make a flower garden in their backyard. We had a good time cooking out and drinking herbal iced tea. Hutch's secret recipe, of course.

The garden was something to ease their minds. Something for them to do. You know.

Productive. Nurturing. Pretty.

When we were finished, we all stepped back to admire our group project.

"Nice, Hutch," Bonita said as she dusted potting soil from her hands and smiled up at him. "Thank you for everything."

He slipped one arm around her, the other around Kiko. "To new beginnings."

End