A DARK DAY IN MAY
CHAPTER 2
Did you ever notice how slowly time seems to pass in a hospital? Seconds seem more like hours and hours seem more like days. There just isn't anything to do but wait and drink stale foul tasting crap that they try to pass off as coffee. Or pace the floor. Or stare at the ceiling. Or sneak outside for a smoke. I found myself doing all of those things as I waited. Hutch, he just kept sitting in that chair, looking through that window at Starsky. You could almost see him dying a little bit each minute along with his partner and his friend.
I'm not sure how he managed to do it, but Captain Dobey took over an empty room close to Starsky's room and turned it into a makeshift command center. It looked like he was going to run the show from right there in the hospital. He had already posted a guard on Starsky's door and on the entrance to the ICU unit. Nobody was going to get at Starsky again if he could help it.
I had gone off in search of some decent coffee and returned to find the entire floor in chaos. It turned out that while I was gone, a man masquerading as an intern had tried to get into Starsky's room. Luckily, Blondie had gone to the men's room and found the real intern unconscious in one of the stalls. Captain Dobey related how Hutch came storming out of the restroom like a man possessed and tackled the imposter just as he started to go into Curly's room. Turned out he had a needle in his pocket that was filled with enough morphine to kill ten men. He's damn lucky that Hutch didn't kill him with his bare hands.
I overheard Captain Dobey telling Hutch that he had called Starsky's mom and that she was on her way there from New York. She should arrive sometime early the next morning. I had met Rachel Starsky when I was younger and had always liked the woman. She had the same determination and inner strength that her oldest son had always shown. For a long time Starsky had resented her for sending him away after his father was killed but eventually they had resolved their differences and were closer than ever.
My maw and me had always been close and when he was a kid, Starsky had sort of adopted my mom as his surrogate mother. He hung out at my place almost as much as he did at home. When my mom died, he was the first one at my side, grieving right along with me. I've never forgotten that. He was the only white face at her funeral but that didn't bother him none. And since I already had a reputation for being good with my fists, nobody dared say anything to him because he was with me.
It's funny the things you remember about somebody when you're sitting in a hospital waiting to see if they're going to live or die. Even though the doctors were still convinced that Starsky wasn't going to make it, I tried to keep the faith. When it comes right down to it, faith and hope are all we have left in situations like this. Hutch was trying but I could tell that he was terrified at the thought of losing Starsky.
I can still remember the first time Starsky introduced me to the tall, awkward blond who seemed to have two left feet sometimes. They had just been assigned as roommates at the Police Academy and were already fast becoming the best of friends. I have to admit that I was a little jealous at first because up until then I had filled that role in Starsky's life. But when I saw the two of them together, the way they interacted, I knew it was meant to be. Over the years, they had developed almost a psychic bond between them and they could communicate without even speaking. It was unnerving to see them together sometimes, especially when they carried on an entire conversation right in front of you without saying a word. But, that is one of the things that made them such a great crime fighting team out there on the streets.
Sometimes it seemed like they were joined at the hip. You hardly ever saw one of them without the other one right there by his side. I used to tease them about being 'an old married couple' and often referred to the other half of the duo as 'their better half'.
I never meant anything by it, not like some of the men they worked with who liked to spread the rumor that they were more than just friends if you catch my drift. That always made my blood boil. I've never been able to understand why two men couldn't show how they felt about each other, that they really cared about each other the way those two did, without being labeled something they weren't.
I knew from experience that Starsky had always been a 'touchy feely' kind of guy who wasn't afraid to show you how he felt about you but he never swung that way. When I first met Hutch, he was a real uptight, rigidly controlled kind of dude but the years with Starsky had mellowed him out quite a bit. But, he was never as openly affectionate with anyone else the way he was with Starsky. But, I knew they were both straight as they come. Hell, you should have seen some of the ladies those two have hooked up with over the years. Me on the other hand, well let's just say that I've been known to walk on the wild side from time to time. Maybe that's why I can be a bit more liberal when it comes to what they call "alternative' lifestyles.
I turned my attention back to the conversation going on between Captain Dobey and Hutch. They seemed to be arguing about the security surrounding Starsky.
"These guys are pros, Captain!" Hutch said his voice strong with barely concealed rage. "They're gonna try again and they're not gonna stop until they finish the job!"
"I know what's going on out there as well as you do!" Dobey snapped back in irritation.
"I'm not gonna stand around here and wait for them to make another move!" Hutch snapped, his patience worn thin. I could see that he was torn between his desperate need to be there in case Starsky didn't make it and his equally desperate need to find the man who had shot his best friend.
"At this point, we don't have much choice!" Dobey bellowed in his usual gruff tone.
"Yes, we do! We take the offense and get out there and find the fuckers who are behind this!"
"How? Who? Where?" Dobey demanded "We don't even know who they are?"
"Then we find out!" Hutch growled. I could see he was close to losing it. When he got like this, Starsky was the only who could keep him under control. "We go out and look for them!"
"And get what? A bullet in the head? It's not just Starsky they want! They want you too!" Dobey reminded him loudly. "If you go out there, it's gonna be like shooting a duck in a barrel. Just calm down. Be calm. Wait until I can find you a new partner."
Bad choice of words, Captain. I thought to myself. The expression on Hutch's face said it all, his eyes turning hard and unforgiving.
"I already have a partner." He said in a cold, flat voice. "I don't need another one." With those parting words, he turned and stalked off down the hallway.
"Well, don't just stand there!" Dobey said, turning to glare at me. "Go catch up with him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid!" He reached into his pocket and tossed me his car keys.
I caught the keys one handed and hurried off after Hutch. I managed to catch up with Blondie as he waited impatiently for the elevator.
"Dobey send you after me?" he growled as I stepped up beside him.
"Keys." I said, jangling the set I held in my hand. "You can't drive a car without keys." The doors to the elevator slid open and we stepped inside. Hutch angrily punched the button for the parking garage.
"Starsky's gonna die, Hug…" Hutch said in a tightly controlled voice, leaning back against the wall of the elevator and staring straight ahead. There was an awkward pause. I didn't know what to say. What do you say to a man who is watching his whole world crumble beneath his feet? "Starsky's going to die and there ain't nothing anybody can do about it." I could hear the defeat in his voice and see the dead look in those ice blue eyes. Hutch sighed heavily. "At least from their end there isn't." His voice turned cold and deadly, a tone that I knew far too well. It was one I heard him use anytime Starsky's life was in danger. At that moment, he was a very dangerous man. "But I'm still here. I'm still alive. They haven't got me yet and until they do…there damn well better be something I can do about it!" The elevator doors slid open and he stepped out, turning back to look at me as he held out his hand. I tossed him the keys. "What's it look like?" he asked as he palmed the keys.
"It looks like Dobey's car." I told him with a faint smile as we exchanged an understanding glance. "Take it easy, huh?" Hutch gave me a mock salute as the doors slid shut between us. I punched the button to go back up to the fourth floor.
The room that Captain Dobey had commandeered as his temporary headquarters was in even more chaos than when I'd left. Phones were ringing, uniformed officers were gathering information, and Dobey was trying to keep some kind of order. An anonymous caller had contacted headquarters with the tip that a local tabloid had offered $10,000 for a picture of Starsky in his hospital room. To avoid every crazy with a camera from trying to get to the critically wounded man, Dobey was posting officers on each floor of the hospital to watch for possible intruders. Needless to say, the hospital administration wasn't happy with that arrangement but Dobey didn't care. He was going to do whatever it took to protect Starsky.
That's another thing I could never understand about people. What makes them want to witness someone else's tragedy up close and personal? Just human nature I guess. The attack on Starsky in broad daylight in the police garage of all places was the big news story for the day. Rumor had it that it was already going out over the wire services to all the major newspapers and television channels in the country.
I found a corner and tried to stay out of the way. It immediately caught my attention when I heard Captain Dobey bellow "Where are you, Hutchinson? What the hell is going on?" My ears perked up. Hutch? I had just left Hutch a few minutes ago. What kind of trouble had he managed to get himself into in that short a time? I moved closer to Captain Dobey so I could hear Hutch's answer.
"I need a patrol car and an ambulance on the third level of the County Hospital garage."
"That's right here!" Dobey yelled in exasperation.
"No kidding." Hutch's voice said dryly. "Brown. Jenny Brown. Feed her name into the computer and let me know everything you can find out about her."
When I heard the name, I couldn't help but lean forward so I could talk into the mike Captain Dobey was holding in his hand. "Hutch, this Huggy. Did you say Jenny Brown?"
"Yeah. What's it to you?" Hutch growled, not in the mood to be pleasant.
"It's gotta be her."
"Who?" Hutch demanded, somewhat impatiently. I ignored the irritation in his voice. I knew he was on the edge.
"It's gotta be her. Jenny Brown." I said "She's one of the top models around. She's been on the cover of Cosmo, Vogue…you name it."
"I just did." Hutch said "She's the one who paid for the hit. I'm on my way there right now to talk to her."
"Hutch, you be careful!" Dobey ordered, shoving me out of the way. "And report back in as soon as you talk to her! That's an order!"
The radio fell silent as Hutch got off the air. Within a few minutes, the mystery was cleared up when two uniformed officers Dobey sent to the parking garage reported back that they'd found two men, one dead and one handcuffed to a badly banged up car, in the garage. Piecing together the story, Dobey was able to determine that the two men had tried to go after Hutch in the garage and they had come out on the losing end. They had learned the hard way that you didn't mess with a pissed off White Knight when his partner was lying in a hospital bed dying from four gunshot wounds to his torso.
