Chapter 5

'I don't need a lawyer. There's nunthin to say. I shot him, I aimed to kill. What else am I supposed to tell ya?' Starsky's dull, listless eyes focused on the woman for the first time since he'd entered the room and Liz got her first good look at her ex boyfriend.

It had been a couple of years since they'd dated and they had been close for a quite a while. Starsky had always been easy going and a caring, considerate lover and try as she might, the beautiful lawyer couldn't imagine him turning a gun on anyone in pure anger, let alone trying to kill his partner in cold blood. Starsky and Hutch were like night and day or salt and pepper. They went together and in the end it had been the closeness of the two men that had broken up her and the brunet's relationship. She couldn't handle the fact that Hutch was always there in the background. When Starsky had been poisoned by Bellamy's injection, she had taken it badly that it had been Hutch that Starsky had telephone for help first. In fact she had known nothing about her boyfriend's flirtation with death until the day after when she got a weary phone call from the blond and had visited a pale, weak but very much alive Starsky in the hospital. There was nothing on earth would make Liz Abraham believe that Starsky would try to kill Hutch. It was like saying that Romeo would dump Juliet or Elizabeth Taylor could live without Richard Burton.

'I'm not buying that Dave. There must be something that happened before the shooting. I want you to think carefully.'

'I don't wanna think about it. Just leave it Liz. It's too raw, too painful. I did it and I'm fucked. What more do you want me to say?' There was such a look of hopelessness in those familiar indigo eyes that for a moment Liz looked away, unable to trust her voice.

'I can help you….if you'll let me. I can't believe that you'd do that to him. Not without provocation or something. Had you argued? Was there someone else involved?'

'No to both questions. We were investigating a case, nothing more.'

'What sort of case? Was it difficult or upsetting?' Liz pushed on.

'Difficult, no. Upsetting? I dunno. It got to me I guess. I started having nightmares.'

'Tell me about them. Tell me about the case.'

'It's useless, Liz. Why should I bother? If I hadn't been such a rotten shot, he'd be dead by now. How'm I supposed to live with that huh? I deserve to be in here. I deserve everythin' that's thrown at me an' I aint gonna complain'

'Everything that's…. Dave, are they treating you ok? How did you get the bruises?' Liz asked, searching the curly haired man's face for answers. Indigo eyes slid sideways and refused to meet her gaze.

'M'fine.'

'No, you're not fine. Have they hurt you?'

'No more'n I deserve.'

Liz's temper rose. 'Dave, for God's sake! Stop that. This isn't the Starsky I knew. That man would never give up and just accept what was happening.'

'That Starsky wouldn't shoot Hutch would he?' Starsky yelled bitterly. 'I don't know what happened. I don't know and I don't care. All I know is I hurt him and I need to be punished and if that means….' He clamped his mouth shut and studied the manacles around his wrists.

'Means what? What are they doing to you? Dave, please. Let me in. Tell me and I can stop it.' Liz wished the screen in the interview room wasn't there. She wished she could gather up her ex boyfriend and hug him to her. She'd never seen him look so small, so alone and frankly, so scared.

'It doesn't matter.'

'Do they beat you?' she asked.

'When I deserve it.'

'That's not it, is it? Have they…. Oh my God, Dave have they….That's it, isn't it? They….'

'Shuddup. You wanted to know about the case, fine. Settle down and take notes. I'm only gonna say it once.'

Liz sighed heavily. 'Fine, you always were stubborn. Have it your way.' She clicked the cartridge on her ballpoint pen and poised it above her pad. 'Go on.'

Starsky started to tell her about the case. And the instructions they had from Dobey to go to the children's home. He told her about the 3 skeletons and the journey back to the Metro.

'We got back from the home by the middle of the afternoon and Hutch started doin' some diggin' into who'd owned it, and the residents who'd been there since the place was opened. He was lookin' for any of 'em who we might have known, any that we might have come across professionally, ya know. There were one or two of the boys who'd grown up and left the home and gone on to become petty burglars. One of them had been put away for arson, but none of them had done anything worse. By the end of the afternoon, we'd gone through dozens of files, but there had been hundreds of kids passed through that place in its time, and we couldn't be expected to find everyone.'

'So did you follow up on the ones convicted of petty crime?' Liz asked, glad that Starsky was finally talking.

'Yeah, we had records pull their files and spent a merry day the next day lookin' through them. Look where is this leading? The case has nuthin to do with what I did. Nuthin! Why do I have to tell you about it?' Starsky's voice rose as his face flushed with anger.

'Because I'm your lawyer, and I want to hear it? Why are you getting so riled up about it Dave?'

'I'm not' Starsky muttered defensively, although he felt antsy and wanted to jump up and run out of the room. He took a deep breath, trying to calm the rapid beating of his heart. Why did he feel so bad? Why did thinking about that last case get him so bent over? The answers weren't apparent and he sighed, concentrating on the beautiful girl across the desk from him instead.

'Sorry. It's this place. It gets to me and I miss Hu…. I miss bein' able to get out.'

'Well tell me more and I can maybe rectify that. Work with me Dave. Throw me a line here huh? You were saying that you pulled the files and didn't find anything. What did you do then?'

Starsky bent his head down so that he could scratch the side of his nose with one manacled hand. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and thought. What did they do? Nothing out of the ordinary. 'We went out and visited a couple of the boys who'd left the home. They didn't know nuthin but they did say that while they'd been there had been a guy – one of the teachers that everyone hated. They didn't think he'd done nuthin, but he was creepy.'

'So, you had a guy. Did you get his name?' Liz asked.

'They called him Edgar. Edgar…. Edgar……fuck Liz, why are ya askin' me this? Just beat it huh? He aint got nuthin to do with any of this. He didn't do nuthin! He didn't….' Starsky's voice rose again and this time, he got up out of his seat, his face inches from the glass screen separating them. If it hadn't been for the barrier, Liz felt sure he would have tried to get at her, and in her surprise, she rocked backwards on her chair, almost overbalancing.

In an instant, two guards came bursting into the room on Starsky's side. It was evident they'd been stationed outside the door and as Liz watched in horror, one of them took hold of the brunet's arms while the other put an arm across Starsky's throat, cutting off his airway. The curly haired prisoner sputtered, his face turning red as he continued to yell at Liz. 'Edgar didn't do nuthin. It was nuthin to do with him. He wasn't there. He didn't see nuthin'

The lawyer tried to knock on the glass screen, to tell the guards to leave the manacled man alone, but Starsky was fighting them all the way and despite the belt and chains, he was making it tough for them to hang onto him. As Liz looked on in horror, one of the big men drew his baton and clubbed Starsky over the back of the head with it, before driving the point of it into the brunet's stomach. Poleaxed, the smaller man went down without another word, his knees crumpling so that his body hung limply between the two guards.

'Dave! Dave…. Leave him alone. He wasn't gonna hurt anyone. He was….Dave!' Liz shouted through the screen.

'We'll be taking him back to his cell, Miss' Guard#1 grunted as they dragged the inert body between them through the doors. Liz stood still, watching the empty space long after the brunet had been taken away. Slowly, she gathered her belongings together and pushed them into her document case, turned on her heel, wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket and rapped on the door to be let out of the interview room.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Hutch opened the door to see Liz Abraham waiting for him. He smiled at her and invited her in, watching the flash of chestnut hair as she walked past him and sat down on the sofa, arranging her documents around her. He sat down besides her while Traff took the chair and both men waited expectantly for the woman to start.

'He's adamant that he's guilty' she said without preamble. 'He wouldn't even talk to me about the possibility of a trial. He says he's gonna plead guilty and he hopes he gets the longest sentence the Judge can throw at him. That's 20 years, I checked.'

Hutch shuddered. 'What's he playin' at? What the hell? He can't do that! What exactly did he say?'

'I don't know Hutch. All I know is he isn't doing too well in there. He needs help and he needs someone to talk to.'

'I tried, but he flatly refused to see me. I don't know what to do. Tell me what I can do' the blond said helplessly.

'I don't know. He did tell me a little about the case you were investigating. What do you recall about it?' Liz asked. She'd been appalled when she'd seen Hutch that morning. His usual smooth good looks had been replaced by weary eyes that were surrounded by dark circles and a haunted, hunted look to his face. His body, usually muscular and toned was thin and he still held his injured left arm in a sling. Pain narrowed his eyes and several times while they'd been speaking earlier, he'd looked as though he was fighting to remain upright.

Liz had never met the solider who was with Hutch. Traff introduced himself in his usual easy manner. He reminded the lawyer so much of Starsky, the only difference being that Traff's eyes were emerald green while her ex's were sapphire blue.

'What are ya doin' Starsk? What the hell are ya doin?' the blond muttered to himself. Since Liz had gone to see his partner, Traff had seen a marked worsening in Hutch's condition. The blond paced himself ragged waiting for news of Liz's encounter with Starsky and despite the soldier's attempts to get him to rest and take things easy, the blond had been relentless in his restlessness.

'Hutch buddy, just try an' relax huh? Liz love, don't push him. Its too early for him to be thinking about anything right now' Traff admonished. He rose and went to get a glass of water from the kitchen.

I'm sorry. It's just that Dave seemed to get so agitated when I mentioned this one guy, um…..Edgar. I just wondered if you remembered him.'

Hutch leaned back heavily against the back of the sofa, his eyes closed. He had knifing pains in his chest and his mouth had gone inexplicably dry. He tried to concentrate past the elephant that had taken up lodgings on his diaphragm but it was becoming difficult. Breathing was turning into a real issue and suddenly he heard Traff's voice as though from a long way away.

'Hutch? Hutch Pal, are you ok?'

The blond struggled to open his eyes. He looked at the curly haired soldier down a tunnel of darkness, his left arm and hand now tingling and heavy.

'Trrrraffff. Don't ffffeeeel s'good' he managed to gasp before the world winked out. Instantly the soldier was all action. He snapped at Liz, 'Call for the ambulance and then use the phone number by the side of the phone. It's the number for Captain Dobey. I think Blondie is having a relapse. C'mon love, snap to it' he said gently as Liz froze in horror.

Snapping herself out of the shock, the woman hurried to the telephone and started to dial the numbers as behind her she could hear Traff talking low and calm to the now unconscious blond. She managed to summon the ambulance and left a message for Dobey to ring back and turned to see Traff had loosened Hutch's shirt, baring a surgical scar turned red and angry standing out livid against his lightly tanned golden skin. The flaxen haired cop was breathing fast and shallow and his eyes were closed, beads of perspiration running down the side of his face and pooling in the hollow of his neck.

Traff looked up and tried to smile reassuringly. 'You did good honey. All we can do now is wait for 'em to get here….and pray its quick. Damn, I told him it was too early for him to be running around after Curly.'