Returning to the station had not been Hutch's first decision, but Starsky had convinced him that he needed to speak with his temporary partner to get things straight.
Hutch had reluctantly agreed, but he had spent an hour driving around the city, in an attempt to get his mind sorted and hopefully find the energy to by pleasant to Alan upon his return.
Alan was waiting at Starsky's desk when Hutch entered the squad room. He was looking over a case file that lay open on the desk. Hutch approached him with the best smile he could manage which was barely noticeable under his moustache.
"Hey" Hutch said in a friendly manner. Alan jumped in his chair, almost falling off it.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you" Alan composed himself and stood up.
"No need to say s-sorry" Alan stuttered. Hutch nodded and made his way round the desk to his chair.
"I just want to apologize for earlier. I wasn't really prepared for getting a temporary partner and I just needed to get away for a second, but now that I'm back, let's get to work" Alan picked up the file on the desk and fiddled with the corners.
"Right, w-well, unless you have any o-objections I have a case w-we can work on" Hutch raised an eyebrow, but waited for the man to continue.
"A male body washed up on sea view beach last night. The initial b-belief was that he'd drowned during a late night s-skinny dip, since he was found with no clothes on, but I just picked up the coroners report and it a-appears he was strangled to death" Hutch nodded and took the file from Alan to look over.
"Our first step is to find out who that man was, with no identification on the body we'll need a photo" He flipped through the file "Which this report doesn't have"
Alan took a picture from the little pocket on his shirt and handed it to Hutch. The picture showed a white male around the ages of thirty to forty with short black hair and a tattoo on his neck.
"Our next step is to hit the streets" Hutch said as he pocketed the picture. Alan frowned.
"Um...hit the streets?" Hutch smiled.
"You're British right?" Alan nodded.
"Yes...I've only been in this c-country a few months" Hutch nodded and picked up the file.
"We need to get this picture on the streets, so we can get some information. We'll start with going to Sea View, show the picture around the area he was killed"
"Sounds good to m-me" Alan said as he put his jacket on. Hutch nodded and without waiting for Alan to finish getting ready walked out of the squad room.
Usually when Hutch worked on a case he welcomed a bit of silence in the car. He didn't usually get it what with Starsky's fondness for talking and humming, but right that second he would have done anything for a bit of banter.
There were a number of questions he had thought to ask the young officer, but judging by the uneasy look on Alan's face he wondered if he'd get an answer that would take hours to finish. After a while he gave up thinking of anything to say and just stared at the blue plush Llama that hung from his mirror. It swayed as the car went a long and at one point Hutch swore the Llama had he same smile as Starsky. He shook that thought off; putting it down to the fact he missed his partner.
"Bay City seems to be a nice p-place" Alan said, taking Hutch completely by surprise.
"It's all right I guess" Hutch replied.
"I was a little n-nervous about moving over here" Alan continued "I heard a lot of stories about the type of things that happen in big c-cities such as this. I m-moved here three weeks ago and on the day I arrived I heard about a cop being g-gunned down in the police garage. At the very prescient I p-planned to work at. I never even found out if the guy lived, but the f-fact that such a thing could happen in a place filled with cops almost scared me r-right back to England"
Hutch had to take a moment to compose himself or else he might have just yelled at Alan the next time he opened his mouth. He glanced once more at the Llama and felt his anger melt away slightly, at least enough to keep his voice civil.
"You might like to know that was my partner"
The look on Alan's face would have made Hutch laugh under normal circumstances, but he kept his eyes on the road. Alan's eyes were as wide as he could get them and his mouth hung open as if he was a Looney Toon character.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't m-mean to...I shouldn't h-have...I mean I-I..."
"It's all right" Hutch said calmly "You weren't to know" Alan fell silent and turned his head to stare out the window.
"Did he...s-survive" Hutch almost didn't hear the quietly asked question.
"Yeah" Was all Hutch was willing to say. He did not feel comfortable talking about it with a stranger.
The rest of the journey was in silence; Alan stared out the window while Hutch watched the road.
They reached sea view point mid afternoon and immediately got to work showing the photos around. They started off knocking on doors and asking if anyone knew the man.
The sun was beginning to set by the time Alan and Hutch caught a break.
"Yeah I know the guy" A tall female who lived in the smallest house by the beach said the moment she saw the picture.
"Can you tell us anything about him?" Hutch asked while taking out his notepad.
"He moved into the house next door just the other day. Only met him once while he was moving his stuff in. He didn't say much" Hutch jotted her words down in short hand.
"Did you get a name?" Alan asked.
"Yeah, Briggs...um, Michael Briggs" Hutch jotted it down. Alan waited as he had run out of questions.
"Anything else you can tell us about him?" Hutch asked. The woman shrugged.
"I figured he was a professor of some kind, he had a lot of equipment, Bunsen burners, test tubes and such stuff" Hutch nodded.
"Thank you very much, you've been a real help" He gave the young lady a smile before turning to walk down the driveway.
"What's the p-plan now?" Alan asked. Hutch looked over at the house next door.
"I'm going to check out Michael Brigg's apartment, you call the station and report what we got so far" Alan nodded and headed back to the car.
Hutch watched the young man and a brief thought entered his head.
"He's obeying my orders, no question" He frowned. "Makes a change I suppose" He said out loud.
The front door was slightly ajar Hutch noticed when he raised his hand to knock. He pushed the door open and peered inside. The room was dark, with only a small ray of light slipping in through the gap in the curtains. An odd smell lingered in the air; it was a cross between spices and something that reminded Hutch of a chemistry lab.
He pushed open the door and searched the wall for a light switch. The lights came on and Hutch got a better look at the room. There were boxes everywhere and the odd bit of furniture. On the whole, everything looked...neat. If the man had been taken from his home there was no evidence of force, except the door had been opened.
Hutch made his way across the room to the mantle piece. There were a row of photos, most of them of a young blond woman with a sweet smile. At the end of the mantle there was a picture of the dead man standing next to the blond. Hutch picked up the picture and studied it,
"I called the s-station" Hutch almost dropped the picture as he whirled around to face Alan.
"What...oh good"
"They're sending the crime lab down to c-check out the place" Alan said from his place at the door. Hutch took the picture off the mantle and placed it in his pocket, then turned back to his temporary partner.
"Good" He said and leaned against the wall.
"Better prepare yourself for a bit of a wait" He said with a sigh.
"Evidence ain't going anywhere, why hurry. I r-recon that's there motto" Alan said with a smile which invoked Hutch to smile too, but only slightly.
"Yeah, something like that" Alan gave a nod and left, leaving Hutch to stare at the blank wall in front of him.
"Give the new guy a mark for having a sense of humor"