Chapter 2

Hutch opened his eyes and reached out to silence the alarm on his nightstand before it awoke his companion. Lizzie cuddled up against him and murmured something unintelligible but she remained asleep. Hutch carefully eased out of bed and pulled a sweat suit out of his dresser. Quickly donning the work out clothes, he left his apartment and went for his usual early morning run.

Unlike his partner who could eat anything and never seemed to gain any extra weight, Hutch had work at keeping trim and fit. He jogged two miles every morning and worked out at a local gym two mornings a week. He had tried to convince Starsky to join him in a structured exercise routine but the brunet wasn't interested in working out on a regular basis. Starsky had a naturally high metabolism that kept him trim without much effort.

Twenty minutes later, Hutch returned from his run. After a quick shower and shave, he brushed his teeth and ran a brush through his tousled blond hair. Finally, he dressed for the day in a pair of brown cords and a tan pullover before stepping back into his bedroom.

"Are you leaving?" Lizzie muttered from beneath the comforter, opening one eye to peer up at him sleepily. A strand of long blonde hair hung in her face partially obstructing her vision.

"Time to go to work," Hutch reminded her with an affectionate smile. "And it's my turn to drive so I have to pick up Starsky." He leaned down and gave her a long, lingering kiss. "I should be home around five," He told her as he reluctantly broke off the kiss and straightened up.

"I'll expect you when you walk through that door," Lizzie told him with a slight smile. After dating him for a few months she was accustomed to his erratic hours and unpredictable schedule. She settled back down beneath the covers and closed her eyes. She didn't have to get up for another two hours and she intended to take advantage of the extra sleep.

Hutch smiled as he walked into the other room and opened the closet taking out his leather shoulder holster with his 357 magnum. He slipped his arms through the loops and adjusted the harness making sure that the holster with the gun rested comfortably under his left armpit. Grabbing his keys and wallet, he headed for the front door and hurried down the steps from his second floor apartment.

Hutch climbed into his car which was parked in its usual spot at the curb in front of his building. He put the key in the ignition and twisted it. The engine sputtered for a minute before finally catching with a huff of black smoke billowing from the tailpipe. Hutch eased into the early morning traffic and headed across town towards his partner's apartment. Hutch loved this time of day another difference between him and his dark haired counterpart. He was an early riser even on his days off where Starsky wouldn't crawl out of bed until ten in the morning if he had a choice.

Half an hour later, Hutch pulled up behind Starsky's Torino and climbed out of his car. He hurried up the steps to the deck and reached out for the doorknob, noticing at the last minute that the door was slightly ajar. Automatically falling into 'cop mode' he carefully drew his gun from his holster and moved to stand to one side of the door. "Starsky?" He called out loudly "Are you ready?" He paused and listened intently but there was no answer. Moving quickly, he burst through the front door, falling into a crouch and sweeping the living room with his gun. The apartment was empty and silent.

As he slowly straightened up, still alert for any unexpected danger, his foot brushed against something lying on the floor. Hutch glanced down and felt his stomach knot up when he saw Starsky's keys lying on the floor at his feet. Keeping his emotions tightly under control he quickly searched the rest of the apartment to make sure nobody was hiding in the bathroom or the single bedroom. As he expected, the apartment was empty. With a heavy heart, he reached for the phone to call in his partner's apparent disappearance.

"This is Hutchinson. Give me Captain Dobey," he barked when the switchboard operator answered his call to headquarters. A few minutes later, Dobey's gruff voice growled in his ear.

"Dobey."

"Captain, its Hutch. I came by Starsky's place to pick him up and he isn't here." He paused and then added, "It looks like somebody may have been waiting for him when he got home last night."

"What do you wanna do?"

"Missing person."

"That's a missing officer," Dobey reminded him with a grunt. "Alright, I'll put out an APB on Starsky and send a crime lab team over to his place right away."

"Thanks, Cap." Hutch said gratefully. The necessary call completed, he sank down on the sofa to wait for backup to arrive. He struggled to keep his fears at bay. This wasn't the first time that one of them had been abducted leaving it to the other one to find them before it was too late. Still, each time Starsky was in danger, Hutch's protective nature went into overdrive.

Within an hour, the crime lab team arrived followed shortly by Captain Dobey. Dobey and Hutch stood to one side as the crime team got to work, looking for evidence and dusting for fingerprints.

"The door was ajar when I got here," Hutch told Dobey "That's how I knew something was wrong. Then when I came in, I found Starsky's keys lying on the floor just inside the doorway. He must have dropped them when he came in. Somebody had to have been waiting for him."

As if to confirm Hutch's suspicions, one of the crime scene techs came forward to inform them that it looked like someone had jimmied a bedroom window and gained access to the apartment that way. He also told them that a minute trace of blood had been found on the floor in front of the doorway indicating that Starsky had been taken by surprise when he entered the apartment. The news did little to ease Hutch's worried mind.

In the rear of the building, another tech found some faint tire tracks in the soft ground but they were too indistinctive to make a useful impression. That seemed to be all the evidence they could find. It wasn't much to go on but it was all they had.

Securing the apartment, Hutch and Dobey left. Dobey went back to headquarters while Hutch hit the streets to see if he could find out anything about a possible hit on the two detectives. His first stop was the Pits, a local neighborhood bar and grill owned by a good friend of both men.

Huggy Bear was a tall thin black man with hawk-like features and a jive, easy going manner. Only the Internal Revenue Service, the liquor board, and the Department of Motor Vehicles knew his real name. Besides being a good friend to the two detectives, he was also one of their best informants. Very little went down on the streets that Huggy Bear didn't know about.

Since it was still early, the bar hadn't opened for business yet. Hutch knocked loudly on the rear door that opened into the kitchen area. A few minutes passed before the door was opened by Huggy Bear himself.

"Well, if it isn't the white knight. Where's your better half?" he asked peering over Hutch shoulder for Starsky.

"Somebody snatched him from his place sometime last night," Hutch told him grimly. "I need to know if you've heard anything, anything at all, about somebody gunning for us?"

"Nada," Huggy said in a concerned voice "But, I'll do some asking around and see what I can find out."

"Thanks, Hug," Hutch said gratefully. The two friends exchanged a silent look of understanding until Hutch turned and walked away.

Hutch spent the rest of the day tracking down leads and coming up empty. Finally, sometime after midnight, he returned to Starsky's apartment to regroup. That was another common practice when one of them was hurt or missing, the other one tended to stay at his friend's apartment. Somehow, it made them feel closer to their missing or injured partner to be surrounded by their things. Hutch ignored the crime scene tape on the front door and unlocked the door, stepping inside. The apartment was much too quiet without the dark haired half of the team to liven things up. Hutch slumped down on the sofa and leaned his head back against the cushions closing his eyes for a moment. The next thing he knew it was morning and sunshine was streaming through the windows.

"Damn it!" he grumbled as he shoved himself to his feet. He silently cursed his rebellious body for giving into to exhaustion. He had no time for sleep, not until Starsky was found.

A knock at the door made him start. Crossing the room in a few long strides, he opened the door to find Lizzie standing on the deck. She smiled at him shyly and said,

"I heard about David. I figured I'd find you here."

"Lizzie," Hutch said guiltily "I'm so sorry. I forgot all about dinner last night."

"Don't worry about it. I understand. You had more important things on your mind. Have you heard anything? Anything at all?"

"No, nothing." Hutch said with a heavy sigh. His shoulders sagged in despair and his entire posture looked dejected. Lizzie immediately stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. In heels, she was tall enough to look him in the eyes.

"It'll be okay," she said encouragingly "You'll find him. I know you will. In the meantime, I'll be here whenever you need me."

"What have I ever done to deserve someone like you?" Hutch questioned with an affectionate smile as he gently kissed her lush lips. Lizzie was the first one to pull back.

"Go…find David." She told him. "I can wait….forever if I have to." With those words she turned and walked back out the door leaving a stunned Hutch behind. Lizzie was one of the few women in his life that had accepted his relationship with Starsky without feeling threatened by it. That was a rarity that Hutch was grateful for. It made times like this easier to explain.