All usual disclaimers apply, I don't own the rights, I don't get money and this is for entertainment only. Please excuse any errors, they are entirely mine. The prison in this story does not exist. This one is for Wuemsel for all her (nudges) and nice reviews and for Bill, my honorary 4th brother.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right." Isaac Asimov
Chain Gang
By Starsky's Strut
The first killing was an accident in the sense that he had not started out with the idea of killing someone. He had been trying to stop an escape, one thing had lead to another and now two men were dead. The dead men were the dregs of society. Lowest of the low. They had been convicted pedophiles, child pornographers and now they were dead.
No one would mourn their passing. No one would know were the bodies were. No one would even be looking. The man placed the bodies in a ravine at the base of a rock slide. He loosened the pile of rocks and soon the bodies were buried under several feet of rocks and dirt. Satisfied, he brushed out his foot prints with a branch and headed back to the van. He carefully removed the magnetic signs from the white van's doors and threw them in the back. He would need them again later. He drove back to the road and carefully brushed out the tire tracks. He then headed back the fifty miles to Las Vegas. He needed to find two live men to replace the dead ones.
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Starsky and Hutch had flown to Las Vegas for a much needed vacation. Two weeks of nothing but fun, gambling, women and more fun. They had checked into their rooms to drop their bags off and were now out on the town for a night of gambling."Craps. Hutsch, how can you posshibly play a game called craps?" Starsky yawned and looked at his watch, 2:43 a.m. 'Man! Where did the time go?'
"Easy, just watsch me! Here, blow on thesh for luck" Hutch shoved the dice under Starsky's nose.
"Hutsch, yer drunk" Starsky shook his head, feeling a little woozy himself. "Ya gotta get shum lady to blow on 'em" He reconsidered, "Then again, whish your luck whish women, or maybe lack of luck whish women..." He hiccupped and lost his train of thought.
"Just throw the damn dice already" The man on the other side of Hutch hollered.
"Yeah, come on, we ain't got all night" Another player chimed in.
"Alright, here goesh nothshing" Hutch rolled the dice after Starsky blew on them.
"Lucky seven, we have a winner!" The stickman said. "Three hundred dollars is the pay out" He pushed the pile of chips over to Hutch.
"Lesh, go Hutsch!" Starsky grabbed Hutch's arm. "Come on! I think we should shop... uh, stop, for the night (hiccup) this is only our first day (hic) h-here (cup) we gotta pace ourshelves or we wont have anyshing left for th' ladies" (hiccup)
Hutch looked longingly at the craps table but collected his chips and pocketed them. He snagged his drink and followed his friend through the crowd.
Hutch bumped into Starsky's back when he stopped suddenly. (hiccup)
"Well, fancy meeting you two here!" Said the man that had stepped into Starsky's path "You do remember me? Don't you?"
The pair looked at the man through alcohol blurred eyes. They looked at each other then back at the man. (hiccup)
"I'm Roy, Roy Palmer" He supplied helpfully. Roy stuck out his hand and he smiled broadly at the pair.
Hutch returned the smile and automatically shook the proffered hand. "Helloo Ray! Nice ta see ya again" He gave Starsky a 'who is this guy?' look. Starsky shrugged back.
"Roy. You two smell much better this time around! Heh, Heh" Roy laughed. He grabbed Starsky's hand and shook it, too. "So, how've you boys been?"
"Can't (hiccup) complain (hiccup)" Starsky squinted at Roy. Palmer... Palmer... why did that name sound familiar? His alcohol addled brain wasn't functioning (hiccup) as it should.
"Hey, can I buy you two a drink?" Roy grinned at them.
Hutch lifted his glass and found nothing but ice. 'One more for the road, at someone else's expense? Why not?' The guy seemed nice enough and he did seem to know them. He looked at Starsky and nodded.
Starsky shrugged and nodded back at Hutch (hiccup) 'another drink should get rid of these (hiccup) hiccups.' He thought "Sshure (hiccup) Ray"
"Roy" The man corrected.
(hiccup) "Roy" Starsky smiled amiably at Roy, still not quite placing the man.
It was crowed at the bar, it being Saturday night, well, technically Sunday morning now. They elbowed their way up to the crowed bar. Roy edged in and ordered the drinks. After paying for them, he handed the drinks to Starsky and Hutch. Talking was impossible over the din so they drank up without talking. Starsky gulped his down to stop his hiccupping.
If possible, Roy's smile widened. "Well, guys I just wanted to apologize to you both" Roy hollered above the din.
"HUH?" Hutch put his hand to his ear and looked at Roy. Voices and music were drowning out what Roy was saying to them.
"WHAT?" Starsky tilted his head towards Roy trying to catch what the man was saying.
"I said, I wanted to apologize to you two" Roy said it louder.
"Sorry! We can't hear you!" Hutch hollered back.
Roy waved his hand to indicate that they should just finish their drinks.
"Hey, let's go outside!" Roy shouted after the glasses were emptied and he motioned towards an exit.
Starsky and Hutch nodded. All three left the Casino. Once outside Roy walked back towards the well lit parking lot. Starsky and Hutch followed. They had to go outside and cut through the parking lot to get to their hotel anyway.
"Ahh, this is better! I said that I wanted to apologize to you two"
"What for?" Starsky asked. His eyes crossed for a second. He shook his head to uncross them.
"Oh, well, it has been about a year now, hasn't it? Remember, you came to my town smelling of skunk and I mistakenly arrested you for armed robbery?" He smiled encouragingly at them. He then went on to remind them of the story and when he ended it, simply said "I just wanted to say I'm sorry" He gave them a sheepish grin.
"Yeah, ha! Remmember that Starsk?" Hutch tapped Starsky's arm with the back of his hand "Yeah, Roy, appolic, apple, heh, heh, apologee accepted!" Hutch thought 'Man, drunk I so am!'
Starsky's eyes crossed again "Yeah, yeah, I remember... damn skunk" It was getting hard to focus. But on the up side, his hiccups were gone. He offered Roy a woozy smile. "No p-problemmm, Raay" He suddenly felt as if someone tilted the planet on him so he stepped sideways to catch himself.
"Hey, Sstarrsk? You okay?" Hutch reached out a hand to steady his friend. A wave of dizziness hit him. "Wha...? Whash?" Hutch cleared his throat and tried again "What's g-going onnn?" He felt as if he were moving in slow motion.
Starsky fell to the pavement, face first.
Hutch moved towards his friend, he lost his balance and went to his knees. He looked up at Roy and tried to focus "H-help Starskyyy" He implored. Hutch's eyes grew heavy "H-help..." He lifted his hand to Roy, who merely stepped back away from Hutch.
Hutch managed to lift his head and looked into Roy's eyes and was suddenly filled with dread, for Roy's open, friendly smile had turned into something that chilled his blood. Hutch felt massive fear, adrenalin surged through his veins and he nearly made it to his feet before he collapsed, completely unconscious, next to Starsky.
Roy looked carefully about the parking lot. 'Good, no one about'. He opened the van's side door and muscled the limp bodies of Starsky and Hutch inside. What he needed to do next should be done in a much less public area. He climbed into the van and drove off. An unconscious Starsky was lying on top of a magnetic sign that read 'Arizona Corrections Department'.
Roy was happy. Things couldn't have turned out better. He had gone into the casino to find replacements and wonder of wonders he had spotted these two fools. These two had messed up his life and because of them; he had had to resign his post at the police station were he had worked. Now it was payback time. And payback was gonna be hell on both of them.
He glanced over the seat at the rectangular window that separated the driver's compartment from the rest of the van, two of Bay City's 'Finest' lay on the floor of the van. 'Finest, my ass!' Roy thought. It had been ridiculously easy to slip the drug into their drinks. The pair were trusting fools to have accepted those drinks and for following him to the lot. He drove to an alley that he had scouted out earlier and set himself to his tasks.
Roy pulled out the folders of the two now dead convicts and proceeded to make careful alterations to the documents, changing hair and eye color, heights and weights. He found that both officers had their police badges and photo IDs on them. 'That's handy' Roy thought. He removed the photos and affixed them to the spot where the criminals' photos had been.
He then got out some ink and replaced the finger print cards for the criminals' with new cards that had Starsky's and Hutch's prints on them. The badges would be disposed of later. These documents would not hold up to close scrutiny, but once at the prison facility, he would have time to doctor the records so that they would be indistinguishable from the real ones.
Roy then pulled out their wallets and removed the cash, which he kept, along with the chips from the Casino. He took Starsky's pinky rings and watch as well has Hutch's old pocket watch. 'Souvenirs', he thought.
He removed the credit cards from their wallets. He carefully wiped his prints off the credit cards. He then found a homeless bum and without waking him, placed one of Hutchinson's credit cards in his pocket. He found another bum a few blocks away and placed one of Starsky's credit cards in his pocket. Roy grinned widely to himself. Those bums were gonna think it was Christmas when they found those cards.
The rest of the cards he burned. He didn't want any more credit cards out there. Those bums would use those credit cards and if anyone should look at the paper trail, it would appear that Starsky and Hutch were still moving around Las Vegas. That should help to slow up any search for the pair.
He undressed the pair and placed them in prison orange jumpsuits. He then shackled them hand and foot. Roy checked the area around the van. There was no one in sight. He took the magnetic signs and put them back on the doors of the van. He then changed back into his prison guard uniform.
He again took careful stock of his surroundings. More then an hour had gone by since he had drugged the pair. He was going to be several hours late getting back to the facility. He had already called and lied about having van trouble. With the long lonely stretches of road in Nevada, it would be readily believed that it had taken hours for help to arrive.
He pulled out onto the street and pointed the van towards Arizona and while in route, disposed of their clothing and badges. Once those last items were gone, so was any immediate evidence of their former standing in society. No one would believe Starsky and Hutch when they would protest and say that they didn't belong in prison. As a guard, Roy had heard that claim far too many times from some of the inmates. He grinned. 'Yep. Paybacks were most definitely gonna be hell.'
TBC