Chapter 21

Hutch walked with Beth to the door or Starsky's hospital room and out into the corridor.

'You did good Honey. We're making progress. Now I need to call Dobey and tell him to get an APB out on Fisher. Jeez, that slimy weasel! I had no idea that someone could by hypnotised so thoroughly without every having met his hypnotist.'

Beth nodded. 'Don't underestimate Mr Fisher. It takes an expert in his field to be able to do that and I have to warn you that Dave isn't out of the woods yet. There must have been a trigger word that Fisher implanted in Dave's subconscious to be able to get him to do what he did. We have to find that trigger word before we can start to work on slackening Fisher's hold on Dave.'

'You mean he's still under Edgar's influence? Even now?' Hutch asked incredulously.

'Uh huh. I would say it's gonna take a lot of sessions before I can manage to break that. Only Edgar Fisher himself could release Dave right now. And he could do it with one word, but somehow, I get the impression that even if you catch him, he isn't going to want to co-operate.'

The blond cop looked pensive. 'You know how Starsky was when I mentioned Fisher's name? How he came across aggressive and, well…. kinda protective?'

'Yes.'

'You don't think he could have put all the kids at the children's home under the same sort of influence do you? I mean, each and every one of them that we interviewed all said they didn't really like Fisher, but when we asked them about him, they all get defensive. Is that possible? Could he have hypnotised them too, to protect himself?'

Beth nodded slowly. 'It's possible. It would mean a lot of hard work, but I guess if he did kill those poor kids…… and we've see the pull he has over Dave. Well, anything is possible. I need to get back, but I'll come by again tomorrow and work some more with him if you like?'

Hutch smiled fondly at her. 'I'd like that a lot. And maybe when Starsky's a little better, we could get to know each other better too?'

Mesmerised by crystal blue eyes, Beth nodded. 'I think I'd like that' she breathed. With difficulty she pulled herself away from the handsome cop's gaze and walked quickly back down the corridor as Hutch went to the payphone by the nurses' station to call Dobey.

Meanwhile, in the small hospital room, Starsky had been quietly sleeping, his session with Beth having left him tired, exhausted even, but at the same time relaxed. So it was with a start that he woke when the telephone by the side of the bed jangled into life. The brunet's eyes shot open and for a moment he looked around, hoping that Hutch would answer the telephone and he could go back to his warm and comfortable dreams. Seeing that his buddy had slipped out, however, Starsky managed to roll himself over in the bed and snagged the receiver.

'H'llo' he mumbled sleepily into the telephone.

A familiar, low voice sounded down the phone to him. 'Good evening David. How are you? Have your visitors gone? I know they were with you.'

Starsky's eyelids slid half shut as the voice he knew so well took over his consciousness. Again, he felt as though speaking was too much effort, but at the same time, the voice compelled him to listen…..and to obey.

'They've gone' he managed to breathe.

'Well that's good. They're meddling. Remember our secret David. I need you to remember what I told you. This is our secret. Yours and mine.'

'Yeah…..secret' Starsky mumbled with difficulty.

The voice continued. 'Can you remember what you need to do David? Tell me what I told you. Tell me now.'

The brunet's eyes closed, his grip on the telephone slackened as he leaned the side of his head against the receiver. With a great effort, he tried to form the words. He was tired. Very tired. But the voice had commanded him and he knew he couldn't disobey. 'Remember' he mumbled 'No talking, no telling tales. Our secret.'

'That's excellent David. Very good. Now, you're going to go to sleep and when you wake up, you'll remember nothing of this conversation, but you won't want to talk to anyone about us. You won't want to get Edgar into trouble, will you? If you do….if you start to think about Edgar, it will hurt. It will hurt your head. You'll start with small pains, but as you struggle to remember, those pains will get worse. They'll consume you. They'll stop you thinking of anything to do with me, or the case, or the children's home. Do you have that David? Do you understand?'

'Yeah….understand. Sleepy'

'Good. Now sleep David. Sleep…..and remember.' The line went dead and automatically, Starsky replaced the receiver on the hook and drifted off into another deep sleep, his head cushioned on his right arm, his left dangling over the side of the bed.

But his dreams were not the comfortable warm dreams that he'd had at the end of the session with Beth. Instead, pains assaulted his senses as his mind subconsciously tried to battle the programming Edgar was forcing onto him. The more he tried to think about Edgar Fisher, the worse they became and at the same time, his dreams turned from uncomfortable to out and out nightmares.

Starsky was standing in the middle of a field of ripe golden corn. The ears of corn stood as tall as his waist and as he looked, the wind blew waves across the acres of grain crop making it look like a warm golden sea. In the distance, he saw a familiar figure and slowly he started to walk towards his partner, his legs impeded in their progress by the corn around his ankles. The plants seemed to grab at his ankles and Hutch turned to look at him and then started to walk away.

'Hutch! HUUUUUTCH wait! Wait for me' the brunet shouted, although the breeze took his words and ripped them from his mouth flinging them over his shoulder. Hutch put his hand to his ear as though straining to hear Starsky's call, but then he turned and started to walk away.

The curly haired man tried to run to catch up with his buddy, but his feet seemed to be sinking into the mud and he could hardly raise one foot in front of the other. He tried to grab hold of the tall grasses around him to haul himself forward, but the more he tried to make progress, the slower and more difficult it became until he seemed to be rooted in one spot.

Starsky could feel himself getting angrier by the moment. He felt the cold metal of his gun in his hand and as Hutch started to walk back towards him, he raised his weapon and aimed at the blond's heart. The gun kicked in his hand and a bright bloom of red appeared on Hutch's shirt as the flaxen haired cop fell to his knees.

On his bed, Starsky's sweat soaked body curled into a ball, subconsciously trying to hide itself from the terrifying nightmare he was locked into. He moaned Hutch's name, while back in his dream world he yelled for his partner.

'HUUUUTCH!'

Amazingly, the blond staggered to his feet, reaching for Starsky with one blood soaked hand as again, the brunet felt the hot metal buck in his hand and another slug pierced his partner's body. Again Hutch went down and again Starsky felt as though his heart was being ripped from his own body by the shock and the feelings of complete helplessness. He didn't want to shoot. God knows he didn't want to hurt Hutch and yet something was forcing him – making his finger twitch against the trigger time and again.

Once more, the blood soaked figure of his buddy staggered to its feet, a look of pain fear and disbelief registering on the golden features and once again a shot rang out as Starsky sobbed Hutch's name into the heavy hot air of the corn field.

'Hutch….no, oh please God no. Hutch!' he moaned, managing to pull himself closer to the body on the ground. As he reached it, and fell to his knees by Hutch's side, he rolled the body over and saw not the blond's familiar face, but a thinner, greying man whose watery blue eyes stared unwaveringly at him.

'Remember David. Remember our secret. Don't tell…..don't tell.'

The face once more morphed into Hutch's and Starsky stared down at the bullet holes pock marking his partner's body. So many and all oozing blood. Desperately, Starsky tried to put his hands over the one at a time to try to stem the bleeding. 'Don't leave me Hutch. Don't go. I'm sorry buddy….so sorry. I didn't mean to. Honest, I didn't mean to….don't die Hutch, please don't leave me' he mumbled.

The brunet looked down at his hands. They were soaked in blood – Hutch's blood and his partner's face was pale beneath him, eyelids open and sightless crystal blue eyes staring accusingly at him. The blond gave a final ragged breath and Starsky screamed his defiance out at the world.

'HUUUUUUUTCH!'

In the quiet of the hospital room, the scream was translated to a moan caught just as Hutch returned to the room. Immediately, the blond rushed over to the bed. Starsky looked as though he'd been trying to get out of the bed, his face and body beaded in perspiration and his curls matted damply against his forehead. The brunet's breath whistled through his throat as though he'd run a marathon and he struggled weakly in Hutch's grip.

'Didn't mean it…..don't go…..Hutch……don't die, Nooooooo.'

Gently, the blond took a hold of his partner's body and held it to him, rocking backwards and forwards soothingly.

'Sssh Starsk, Sssh partner. I'm right here, right here. I'm ok. See. I'm ok, I'm fine. Wake up buddy. Wake up for me huh? Starsk?'

Very slowly, the tremors in the brunet's body ceased and Starsky's eyes opened, focusing a moment later on Hutch's face.

'Ut….ch?' he mumbled thickly.

'Yeah. That was quite a nightmare you were having buddy. S'ok. You're back now. Wanna share?'

Carefully, Starsky pushed himself away from Hutch's grip and rested back on the damp pillow. He sighed, trying to get his breathing under control as he rubbed a hand over his face. Relief flooded his being at seeing his partner sitting on his bed, alive and well. Only the sling protecting the blond's left arm reminded Starsky that the nightmare had been a vague echo of a reality he'd sooner forget.

'You were hurt. I shot ya…..an' you kept getting up, so I shot you again. It was so real…..so…. Shit Hutch! I can't live through that again. I can't live through thinkin' I killed you.'

'Hey, I'm here. You didn't kill me. I'm right here an' I'm not goin' anywhere. It was a nightmare. It's over. We're gonna deal with this buddy. Together, like always. Sound good?'

A small shy smile crossed Starsky's face. 'Yeah….. like the sound of that.' The brunet's eyes drifted closed. 'M'sleepy….can hardly keep my eyes open. Tired.'

'Well sleep buddy. I'm right here. Tomorrow's another day and tomorrow we start looking for Fish….'

The word wasn't half out of his mouth before Starsky's eyes flashed open angrily. 'Leave him alone! He aint done nothin.'

Hutch nodded swiftly. 'Fine, yeah, not a problem Starsk. It's fine. Just sleep huh. Just sleep.'

As the blond watched Starsky's body relax and his breathing assumed the quiet regularity of sleep, he bowed his head in defeat. Guess we're not out of the woods yet, like the lady said. But we'll get there Gordo, we'll get there. I'm not letting you out of my sight.