Next chapter. Just to recap what I said last time, remember I'm posting two chapters at a time, don't miss one!
I still don't own Starsky or Hutch or Kolchak, or anyone or anything else.
Chapter Nine - The Dominion of Eris
Hutch was glad he had decided on spaghetti for dinner, because it stretched easily to feed whoever it was that Starsky had invited. Steve stopped while he quickly ran into a grocery to get what he needed, and then they headed for the cottage.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Hutch asked.
"What, come in for awhile? Sure, I have some extra time. And Starsky wanted me to, right?"
"Yeah, asked me specifically to ask you."
"So, what's the problem? What's up?"
Hutch sighed. "I wish I knew." Starsky had a bee in his bonnet this time. Hutch didn't know what was in his mind. Still, Starsky was just as good a detective as he'd ever been, so Hutch knew he should give him the benefit of the doubt. "It might have something to do with the drug case," he added cautiously.
They pulled up at the curb. The Torino was, as always, in the place of honor in the driveway, and Hutch's current junker was, as always, pulled up in front of the house. But there was another car pulled in to the driveway behind the Torino that Hutch wasn't familiar with, a bright yellow convertible.
"Hey, nice car," Steve said appreciatively. "Wonder where that came from?"
"One of Starsky's guests I suppose. Come on, let's go in."
Inside, Starsky met them at the door. "Hi Barlow, glad ya' could make it, even for a few minutes. Come in and have a beer."
It was when they got to the living room that Hutch saw who was sitting on the couch. The shabby seersucker suit, the straw skimmer...
"You... What the hell are you doing here?" he snapped.
"Hutch?" Starsky asked. "Why are you yelling at our guest?"
"He was spying on us at Huggy's today..." Hutch growled.
"I was NOT spying on you!" the stranger broke in. "I was simply there to..."
But Hutch was on a roll, and not listening. "Starsky, don't you see, this has to be some kind of set up? He was there listening to us, now he's here..."
"Detective Hutchinson?" The tentative tone made Hutch finally notice the other person in the room. The sight of Madam Yram on the loveseat did not mollify him.
"You! What are you trying to pull on us anyway?"
"I'm not pulling anything; I just had these visions…"
"Stop picking on her, Hutch! I told you, she has to be legit, she saw things I didn't even tell YOU, Hutch. Not even you."
"Yeah? Well, did you know this, this, reporter…" Hutch pointed dramatically in the direction of the rumpled little man, "Has been asked to leave not one, not two, but THREE major US cities by their local law enforcement? He left LA just ahead of a rap for murder one!"
"It was NOT murder!" the reporter bellowed. "If they'd had a murder rap, they would have prosecuted. But they knew they couldn't bring me up on what they had because it would PROVE that there was a vampire running around LA!"
"You hear that, Starsk? A vampire!"
"And I told YOU, Hutch, the Nadasy case didn't prove nuthin' about the existence of vampires."
"Detective Hutchinson? I really don't think the vision I had was anything to do with vampires."
"There! You hear that? This isn't even about vampires anyway!" the reporter added triumphantly.
"I don't give a damn if it's about vampires or NOT, I want him OUT of this house!"
Starsky's face darkened dangerously, and Hutch had a brief premonition that he was playing with fire. But he was too angry to care.
"I mean it, Starsk, RIGHT NOW!"
"You got no right to tell me who I can and can't have here." Starsky snarled.
"You know what?" Hutch stormed, "You're right. But you can't make me stay here with them either. Come on, Barlow, let's get out of here."
"No! Detective Hutchinson, we need you!" Mary wailed, jumping to her feet.
"Yeah? I just bet you do." Hutch whirled towards her and paused in his march to the door.
"The least you could do is listen," Starsky snapped.
The situation was rapidly descending to chaos, with everybody shouting at the same time.
Suddenly a different voice cut above the commotion. "All right, enough! Everybody quiet down!" It was Steve.
There was silence. Even Hutch stopped in mid-word, out of sheer shock. He'd never seen his normally reticent younger partner like this.
"OK, good. That's better," Steve said in a more normal tone. "Now, Mister... Kolchak was it?" The scruffy little man nodded sharply and grunted. "OK, Mr. Kolchak, what were you doing at The Pits this afternoon when we were there?"
Hutch started to say something, then stopped, his anger draining away. He saw now what Steve was doing, and doing almost as well as Starsky would have, too. He backed off to give him room. His eyes met Starsky's, and there was that old, silent communication between them. Apology made and accepted.
Kolchak glared at the young officer. "I was there on my own business," he blustered. "Which is none of yours. We don't live in a police state yet, you know."
"Well, your business is starting to look like our business. So maybe you should explain."
The disheveled reporter looked as though he was starting to protest again, then shrugged. "I was given his name as a potential source of information here in Bay City. Then when I saw you and Detective Hutchinson come in I stayed because a woman named Kathy Marshall gave me his name, and I wanted to know more before I approached him."
"Kathy Marshall? She'll vouch for you?" Hutch broke in, at the exact same moment as Starsky added "You know Kathy?" Hutch knew they were both thinking the same thing. Kathy Marshall was an old friend. If she trusted him...
"Yeah, she gave me both your names, and this phone number." The little man started digging through his jacket pockets, finally coming up triumphantly with a scrap of paper. "There, there, you see?" He shook the paper in Hutch's direction.
Hutch managed to snag it out of his hand and looked it over. On it was written "Starsky, Hutchinson", their phone number, and the notation "Mention Kathy M."
"Starsky, Barlow. A moment?" Hutch gestured towards the kitchen. Starsky nodded, and headed in, followed by Barlow. Hutch went to join them, then turned to Kolchak. He pointed emphatically. "Just wait here. I mean it. Don't go anywhere."
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," the reporter muttered sarcastically.
In the kitchen Hutch turned to Starsky. "OK, what the hell is going on?"
"I told you, Hutch. Mary bought him around, and she said he was the other guy she saw in her vision. I don't know nothin' about him being at Huggy's today."
"Hutch?" Steve put in tentatively. "It does make sense that a new reporter in town would go to Huggy for information."
"That's true," Hutch admitted.
"If Kathy really say's he's OK..." Starsky began.
"Do you have her number?"
"Yeah, I think so. Lemme go see."
One phone call later, Hutch was left pondering the information that Kathy, whom he'd always thought of as a very sensible, down-to-earth girl, considered Kolchak a lovely person, and that she'd particularly thought he and Starsky would get along.
"So he wouldn't need to pull any kind of scam with Mary to get to see us, Hutch. Using Kathy's name would be enough for that, and he's gotta' be smart enough to know that," Starsky pointed out.
"The Chicago cops did say he was a pretty good reporter when he wasn't going off on whatever it was they meant by 'that crazy stuff'," Steve reminded Hutch.
"That still doesn't prove that Mary Polanski isn't trying to pull something by bringing him to you," Hutch pointed out stubbornly. "What do we really know about her, Starsk? She was helpful to us in one investigation, that's all."
Starsky sighed. "Give me credit for a little brains, Hutch, will ya? Gunther's boys shot my chest, not my head. I checked her out. This morning I asked the Bunko squad if they knew anything about her. She comes up clean. No complaints, nothing. In fact, we're not the only ones in the department she's helped with information. She's one of the good guys."
Hutch felt his anger fading, and realized with a sickening shock that Starsky was right. He had been dismissing Starsky's judgment in a way he never would have before the shooting. "I'm sorry, Starsk. I didn't mean to..."
"Forget it." Their eyes met, in a promise of a more thorough reconciliation when they were alone.
"Well, if that's settled now," Steve broke in, "There's still two people and a crystal ball out in your living room, and the question of why they're here. And why you wanted me here with them. And I hate to bring it up, but I'm due to meet Angelina in an hour and a half, so if we can get to it quickly, I'd appreciate it. Hutch, I know you guys have seen some crazy shit in your careers, but psychic visions?"
Hutch nodded. "Just go with it, Barlow. We saw stuff with Joe Collandra... if Mary really is legit, we may actually get something. It's worth trying, anyway. My only question is how legit she is. This still all seems awfully coincidental to be on the up and up."
Starsky glared at him. "Are you going to start again?"
Hutch sighed. "No, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. For now. But I'm not convinced."
"A fair try is all I'm asking for, Hutch." Starsky pulled himself together. "OK, guys, come on."
He led them back to the living room. "See, here's the thing. Mary, here has been having these visions. And I think it's got something to do with this drug case you're working on. So I thought that, since she was seeing us three," his gesture indicated Hutch and Kolchak, "but that she's too scared to see the whole vision while she's alone, it would make sense for her to try here, with us to support her. And Barlow, even though he's not in the vision, because he's in the drug case. Make sense?"
"Clear as mud," Kolchak muttered. More loudly he added, "Look, I'm new in town, remember? I haven't even checked in at the office yet. What is this drug case, anyway?" He pulled a small, hand-held recorder out of his pocket. "On the record, please?"
The three officers exchanged glances. Still, most of this was public record anyway. Hutch took a breath. "On the record, there's a new drug in town that's been responsible for at least ten deaths that we know of in the last month. It's called Sea Dreams, or Big-C. The lab boys have only recently been able to get any kind of information about its composition. So far we don't have any leads to where it's coming from. That's it in a nutshell."
"So are the police turning to less orthodox methods of solving their cases now?" Kolchak gestured to Mary and the crystal ball.
"That's off the record," Hutch said sharply. "This whole evening has to be off the record." Damn it, Starsky, you should have made sure of that before you brought him here.
Starsky nodded. "Yeah, Kolchak, Hutch's right. I got carried away. Shouldn't have invited you here without making that plain... we don't read any of this in the papers tomorrow, or ever. Got it?" The look he turned on the reporter was one of his most feral.
Kolchak hunched in on himself but didn't back off. "Yeah? Then what do I get out of it?"
Hutch had to admit to himself he was impressed. The little reporter didn't cave easily, even though Starsky obviously had him scared.
"You get a story when we say you get a story," Starsky growled. "A scoop over your rivals, but not until we say so. And the rest of the time you're here in Bay City is a whole lot more comfortable than if we put the word around that you can't be trusted."
Kolchak nodded. "OK. That's fair. As long as I get the story first when you're ready to release it."
Starsky nodded. "All right. Then let's get started."
"Just a minute. Off the record, you still haven't explained why you think whatever Madam Yram's visions have to do with the drug."
Hutch wanted to know that, himself.
"Call me Mary," the little psychic, who had been listening quietly to the whole exchange, put in.
"I think it has to do with the drug case because of the hallucinations the victims that we know of have had," Starsky explained. "Supposedly they've seen underwater scenes, and some of them have had a sunken city, like the one that Mary's seen in her vision. And what we know about the drug, and this is still off the record, is that it's composed of several parts, two of which are compounds similar to ones that come from toads, and sea fish or octopuses, and the city Mary saw is carved with octopuses or something like them."
"Oh, is that why they call it Sea Dreams?" Kolchak asked. Starsky nodded. "And Big Sea? Is that because they see the ocean, too?" Starsky nodded again, but Hutch shook his head, wanting to get everything straight.
"No," he explained. "That's 'Big-C', like the letter 'C'. Because supposedly another thing that some of the users have said is that if they get really high on it they'll 'see Big C'. But we don't know who or what Big C is."
"I didn't realize that," Starsky said crossly. Hutch shrugged apologetically.
"So what are you hoping to find out by doing this?"
Starsky shrugged. "Some lead on where this stuff is coming from."
"What about him?" Kolchak pointed at Barlow. "You said he wasn't in your vision, Mary. Should he be here?"
"Oh sure," Mary said. "See, sometimes that's the best way to change the outcome of something you've seen, you know? Throw in a random element. If it's going to come out one way without it, and that isn't the way you want it to come out, you throw in something different, and it changes. 'Course you can't predict how it's going to change, but it changes things. Like, how a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can make a storm in Nebraska, or whatever. Little changes make big ones. Whatta' they call that?"
"Chaos theory," Hutch said, impressed despite himself.
"Yeah, that," Mary agreed.
"OK, I think I have it." Kolchak took a blank tape for his recorder out of his pocket. "Mary, you mind if I record this?"
"No, go right ahead. It might be kinda' interesting, I never heard myself when I'm in a trance."
Kolchak turned to the detectives. "You gentlemen mind?" There was a suspiciously sarcastic inflection on the word "gentlemen", but Hutch ignored it. They all shook their heads.
"All right, then let's get started." Hutch said. "Barlow's in a hurry."
"OK, then, everyone sit around the table." Mary settled down in the middle of the couch, and gestured around her. The men sat down.
"Do I need to turn out the lights or anything?" Starsky asked.
"Naw, this isn't a séance or nothing like that, I just need it quiet. So hush, everybody." She turned her attention to the crystal ball on its stand, and the experiment began.