Ken Hutchinson rubbed the back of his neck, frowning. He slammed the notebook down, standing up and pacing back and forth in Ingrid's home.

Dave Starsky watched for a few minutes but stood up as he saw his partner slam his fist into the wall. "Hey, hey, there, breaking your hand isn't gonna help any." He grabbed Hutch's arm, but Hutch jerked away.

"Nothing is helping now. We need more facts! Where is the most recent notebook? I've looked everywhere in the house twice and I can't find it! I know the way Mickey thinks, the places she would use, the places we both used!"

Starsky frowned. "Maybe Jed has it. He came back from Bay City and was happy and excited. That doesn't sound like the Jed she described. Maybe Jed wrote down the information and he hid it – or put it in his locker. Maybe Mickey didn't have a chance to write the information down. She had lost her partner," Starsky stopped, looking at his partner and wondering what he would feel if he lost Hutch, "and she was worried about you being shot and your illness."

"Mickey said she had been undercover. She was working on something."

"Whatever it was, Red didn't know. You know Dobey will send us on assignment with only him and us knowing about the assignment if there is a possibility of a leak. Maybe the same was true of Jed and Mickey."

Hutch stopped pacing. "Jed went to Bay City. Jed lived in California for several years. He was an officer briefly in Bay City. He could have discovered the leak in our department."

"If the Bay City snitch told the Duluth PD snitch . . . ."

"Do you think Huggy would know something?"

"Or Big Ben. He worked with Mickey for several months."

Hutch gestured to the phone. "Call Huggy. Give him the timeline of Jed's vacation in Bay City. And Dobey. He may know if Jed approached any particular officer."

"And then what?"

"I'm going to talk with Big Ben."

Starsky once again grabbed his determined partner's arm. "Not alone. Do what you do best. Walk. Think. I'll handle the calls."

Hutch smiled briefly. "Thanks, Buddy. I don't know what I would do without you." Hutch grabbed the black leather jacket and black cap.

"Hey!" Starsky called. "That is my jacket and cap!"

"Yeah, thanks Partner!" Hutch called as the door shut.

Starsky sighed and went back to the phone. "Huggy?"

SHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH

Hutch loved walking through the snow, breathing the cold air. He found Starsky's gloves in the jacket and put them on. Starsky's hands were smaller than Hutch's, but the gloves would suffice. He turned up the collar of the jacket to protect his neck. Though Hutch was taller than Starsky, the difference in height was mostly due to Hutch's longer legs, so the jacket worked for him. And because Starsky was stockier, the jacket fit looser on Hutch and fit with Hutch's yellow sweater. "It's all those cheeseburgers with fries he eats," Hutch sniffed. "And donuts and candy bars . . .," and he smiled indulgently as he thought of his partner.

The yellow sweater reminded him of an ongoing argument with little sister Mickey. 'Blondes can't wear yellow,' Mickey had argued again and again. Ken had worn yellow obstinately. Neither one had given up the argument. Ken picked out a lovely yellow silk dress for Mickey to wear and she did under protest. Only Ken liked Mickey in yellow; but for some strange reason, yellow worked for him. Mickey had a similar aversion to orange but again it worked for her brother. Mickey had concluded everything would look good on her handsome Kenny. Ken was smiling thinking of his and Mickey's rare disagreements. Ken could not see that although both Ingrid and Lena were beautiful in a classic, stylish and elegant way; lookalike sister Mickey never reached that. She never attracted the attention both Ingrid and Lena did and very few described her as pretty. Only her Nordic blonde curls and blue eyes were admired universally.

Very little traffic was on the road at this time of the early evening, so Hutch kept walking. Exercise always cleared his mind, and he began to process the information the partners had learned. He had walked about two miles and decided to turn back. It was getting darker, though he would be able to spot the headlights on any car approaching in front or behind him, although in most spots there was a shear drop off on both sides of the road, so he would need to be careful. One car drove past slowly, spraying him with the snow. Another passed him, giving him a wide berth. Ten minutes later, he heard another car behind him. He moved over to the side of the road. The car was approaching slowly, headlights dimmed, and he glanced back once, to see the car staying over to the right of him. There was only one mile left and Hutch's thoughts turned to the case before him, mulling over the leaks in Bay City. He hoped Huggy and Dobey would have some information, then he would find the address of Big Ben . . .

Suddenly, he became aware of the car behind him speeding up and swerving and he began to run, trying to get out of the way, but with nowhere else to go, he felt a bump, went flying into the snowbank and then he blacked out.

The car stopped. "You sure this is him?"

"He always wears the same jacket and cap." The second man reached Hutch, who was lying facedown in the snow and turned him over as he shined a flashlight on the pale face and blond hair escaping from the black cap. "It's the blond!"

"What do we do?" The other man exclaimed.

"Get out of here! I hear a siren coming! Let's move!"

The two men jumped in their car, spinning the wheels in their hurry and driving off.

Hutch lay to the side of the road, partially covered in the snow and not moving.

TBC