Thank you so much for your reviews. Special recognition and thanks to my online friend Rebelcat and to Jan in VA, Nash Carter and Becki who somehow manage to pull up my work before I can!

Family is invading in the coming weeks. I am afraid this will have to suffice until I can get my life back…hate to keep you hanging…

Chapter 7

"Where is he?" Hutch growled.

"I'll take you to him. I didn't know…I didn't know." The girl looked lost and confused. Hutch knew better than to trust her though. He had no idea how they had gotten to his partner without a fight, but he was determined to find out.

"Hands up. Stay very still or I will shoot you right now." Slowly, his gun trained on her the whole way, Hutch worked his way over to where he could pat her down for concealed weapons. He was not delicate about it. There were very few places that she could hide any type of weapon. He felt a little uncomfortable when he patted down her legs, but he was not in the mood for surprises. He noted her wincing in pain, however he was beyond caring at this point.

"Put your hands behind your back." She looked at him, real fear showing in her face. "Look lady. I will not hurt you if you cooperate, but if you don't you will be witness to a whole new definition of police brutality."

"You're a cop!" She asked in surprise, and relief? She put her hands behind her back. Michele could feel the bite of the cuffs as Hutch tightened them around her thin wrists. "Listen, I will cooperate with whatever you want, just please, don't let him hurt me again."

"Him who?" Hutch asked in his rough interrogation voice. There was no good cop/bad cop here.

"Rob. I don't know his last name. He's my sister's friend." She seemed to spit out the word.

"Yours too, I suspect."

"No! I didn't know who he was. Julie told me she knew someone who needed an actress to play a bit part. I needed some money, I'm in school, and she told me it paid well. She brought me out here and dropped me off with him at our great aunt's old cabin. I thought we were coming out to the place to clean it up before we sold it. I didn't know him." She sped through her words, like a much needed confession. "He beat me and…" She bit her lip. "He kept on me for days. Then two days ago we moved to a cabin not far from the road. He got a phone call, and then he hit me. More than once. He said it was time to take care of the job I was hired to do. He took me out to the road, told me to run, and pushed me out in front of your car. I ran. He told me he would kill Julie if I didn't perform." She looked down and her lifeless red hair fell across her eyes. With a toss of her head, she flipped it back out of her eyes. Hutch noted the tears.

"I cooperated. I had too! She's my sister!" The tears started to flow. "She came and got me and told me where you were hiding. She said I had to get the guy there to follow me or Rob would kill her. He shot him with something and he fell down."

Hutch's heart froze. "Who?"

Misunderstanding the question, the girl forged on. "Your friend. He was alive though. He was drugged. And then Julie helped him carry your friend off. She helped him! She wasn't scared. I followed because I wanted to find a way out. I tried to stay out of the way though. They forgot I was there and I went to look for a way out. I found it, and came back to get Julie. She was kissing Rob!" The tears flowed freely. "She held your friends arm while he injected it with something. I'm so sorry. I didn't know…that's when I came here to find you. He needs your help. I don't care what happens to me now; I just needed to do something to help. I'm so sorry."

Hutch coolly observed the girl sobbing in front of him. He did not know how much he trusted her, but if she was acting, she was doing a flipping good job.

"You know where he is?"

"Yes."

"You will take me there. Any false move and I will shoot you without any regrets." Hutch lied.

"I understand." She said, straightening her shoulders. She wiped her swollen eyes on her shoulder and sniffed. "Do you want to follow me, or do you want me to tell you?"

"I'll follow."

She turned around and walked slowly northwards. While she led him towards a particularly rocky portion section of the cliff, Hutch pondered what the girl had told him. Who was this guy? He realized he had not gotten a good description of either Rob or Julie. They were too much in the open. He decided to wait until the sun went down. If this wasn't a trap, he had finally gained a foothold towards getting out of here. He ruthlessly pushed down any thoughts of what he would do after he got Starsky. He was not looking forward to reliving that particular nightmare.

Hutch needed more information, and he wanted to get out of the open.

"Stop."

"What's wrong?"

"We're going to rest for a minute. But not here. Over there." He pointed to a thicket of conifers. She started walking in the direction he had pointed.

"What's your name?"

Michele sighed. She was exhausted, in pain and wanted nothing more that to go home. She hoped she would live to see a hot tub and a glass of wine. She answered his question. "Michele." She looked around. "May I sit down?" She motioned towards a nearby rock.

"Not yet." Hutch wanted to get a little deeper into the cover of the small trees.

Understanding played over the girls face. She led the way deeper into the shade of the trees. The trunks of the trees were as big around as she was, probably bigger, their branches falling almost to the ground, but they weren't very tall. Not like the Sequoias. It was cooler here, and she could smell the scent of pine as she brushed past the branches. The needles made a dense carpet on the ground. A chipmunk, startled by their presence, made a quick getaway across their path.

When she got to where she thought was the center, she looked at Hutch, the unspoken question written on her face. Hutch nodded. With another sigh she sat down on a rather uneven rock, her hands uncomfortably bound behind her back. Hutch noted that she did not complain about the 'cuffs.

"Tell me about Rob."

"What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with what he looks like?" She described Rob to the best of her ability. She hated him and if there was anything she could do to help the policeman, she would do it. She told him about the guns he carried, the pathway to the clearing he was keeping Starsky in and everything she had heard him say.

Hutch was forming a clearer picture in his mind. He asked many questions, gathering as much information as he could about the terrain, the weapons he would be facing, and the possibility of other people. He then asked for more details about Rob, trying to get a better psychological picture. While she would not come out and say it, he was beginning to suspect that he had raped her, more than once.

"One night, after he had beaten me, he started talking to somebody, but no one was there. He kept saying 'I'll get him Monk, I'll get him.'"

Hutch's intensely blue eyes flared and he leapt up. "Monk? That's what he said? Monk?"

Michele looked at him, shocked. The man looked possessed, violent. She shied back, instinctively trying to bring her hands up, and then realizing they were handcuffed, she hunched her shoulders and braced herself for a blow.

Hutch noticed this protective move, and realized how he scared her. "I'm sorry, I won't hurt you. But are you sure? Was Monk the name?" His face was animated, and angry. Michele was afraid, but she nodded an affirmative.

Hutch looked away. Monk…from her description this Rob was neither Fivells nor Conely. But the other guy. The one who never talked, never had a name, but seemed to take extra enjoyment out of what they were doing to Hutch. He had to be this Rob guy. They had never found him when they dismantled Forest's network of hoods. Conely had said he had been beaten and left for dead because he had let Hutch escape. Forest had wanted a head and he got one.

This explained a lot. So, he finally had a name. And now he was making a plan.