The second of the two latest chapters. Again, sorry for being late.

Still don't own anyone or anything.

Chapter Sixteen- Eclipse

Kolchak turned his recorder on again:

"The morning after my visit with Marie Edmonds, I was driving to get myself some breakfast when I heard reports on my police band radio of an officer kidnapped. It was when I heard Officers Starsky and Barlow mentioned as being on the scene that I guessed who was missing."

When Kolchak pulled up to the location, the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse, there was a tight cluster of cops and crime scene investigators around a white van. He pulled out his camera and took a few pictures. He spotted Starsky yelling at a heavy-set black man, and pushed his way through the crowd to him.

"Who the hell are you?" the black man snarled, switching his attention to Kolchak.

"Carl Kolchak, INS," Kolchak said automatically, pulling out his ID. "Detective Starsky, what's going on?"

"Starsky, you know this guy?"

Starsky gave Kolchak a distracted glance. "Yeah Cap'n, I know him. Kolchak, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I heard there was a kidnapping. Was it...?

"Yeah. It was Hutch."

Kolchak reached for his recorder. "Well, how did it happen?"

"Starsky!" the captain broke in, a surprising note of gentleness in his brusque voice. "Get out of here. You know you can't do anything to help, so go home, and take Barlow with you. He looks like he's been hung out to dry." He turned to Kolchak. "And as for you, no comment, and get the hell out of here. And no pictures!"

Starsky gave the captain a venomous look, but obeyed. "Barlow!" he called. "Come on. Dobey wants us out of here."

Kolchak made a rapid decision. It didn't seem he'd get anything here. He turned and followed Starsky, waving his recorder.

"Detective? Detective Starsky? What happened? Did it have anything to do with the drug case?"

"Yeah... no... I don't know. It was those guys that've been watching our place. Come on, let's get out of here. Barlow!"

Officer Barlow joined them. He looked like he'd been beaten. "Starsky?"

"Cap'n Dobey wants me to go home and take you. Says there's nothing more we can do here."

"You aren't just giving up?"

"Hell no! But the captain's right, there's nuthin' here for us. Let's go. Minnie'll let me know anything the forensic guys come up with."

Barlow glanced at Kolchak. "What about him?"

"He comes with us. Maybe he can help."

"So what's the story?" Kolchak broke in.

Barlow filled him in on their abduction the night before.

"They found the van abandoned here this morning," Starsky added when Barlow was done.

"And you're sure it was the same guys who've been watching your house?"

"Sure looked like the guy Hutch and I chased the other night. Fast like he was, too." Barlow shuddered.

"Dobey has officers watching the place now, but none of 'em have been back," Starsky put in.

"What are you going to do?"

Starsky shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. None of this makes any sense." For a moment he looked totally dejected and hopeless. Then he pulled himself up and eyed Kolchak fiercely. "What have you found out?"

By this time they had made their way through the crowd to Starsky's car.

"Why don't we go somewhere and I'll fill you in?" Kolchak suggested. "This isn't the best place for a private conversation."

Starsky looked around the parking lot. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Our place. Barlow, you coming?"

"Yeah, of course," the younger officer replied, with a sideways glance at Kolchak.

"I have my car, I'll meet you there," Kolchak said, and headed for where he'd parked the convertible. He hoped that Barlow wouldn't have the chance to prejudice Starsky too badly before they could talk.

The drive was uneventful. Starsky and Barlow were already waiting when he got there. Starsky looked more concerned than before, if that was possible. He pulled Kolchak in as soon as he walked to the door.

"OK, what the hell is this that Barlow's telling me?" he asked roughly. "Something about undersea creatures trying to take over the world?"

"Not exactly," Kolchak started to explain. "The Deep Ones just serve the Old Ones... but that's not important now. I found some stuff out."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"I went to see a Voodoo bokor that Mary told me about. She had a lot to say. She said that the brains behind this is the same guy that was behind whatever happened to you and Hutch on that island, wherever it was. Papa... something. Theodore, I think."

Starsky stared at him. "Where did you hear that name? Barlow, did you guys tell him that at Huggy's yesterday?"

Barlow shook his head in bewilderment. "No. Who the hell is Papa Theodore? Does he have something to do with that voodoo stuff Hutch was talking about? But he never said the name, I'm sure of that."

"I'm telling you, Marie Edmonds told me about him. After I left Huggy Bear's yesterday," Kolchak insisted.

"What else did she say?" Starsky paced back and forth in agitation.

"She said that this Papa Theodore is willing to destroy the world to get his revenge on you and your partner. He's turned to the Old Ones, and I think he's using a drug that the Deep Ones provide to manipulate his followers into waking up Cthulhu and opening a way for the Old Ones to return to earth."

Starsky threw up his hands. "The Deep Ones, who the hell are they?"

"They're creatures that live underwater that worship the Old Ones. They look... they look, well, they look kind of like the guy who was watching your house the other night."

Barlow frowned. "Starsky... the guys who kidnapped us... they were talking about 'The Sea-mother', and 'Dry-landers', and they said stuff like 'what was ours will be ours again'. It makes sense, sort of. Well, at least it makes sense that those guys are some sort of cult that believes it. Hutch was saying they looked like they had some sort of weird inbred genetic problem."

Starsky's restless pacing paused. "What was it Mary said the other night?" He looked thoughtful. "'A tall black man'? With a 'really creepy laugh'? That fits Papa Theodore, all right."

"Look, we have to find Hutch before their 'Great Sacrifice', whenever the hell that is," Barlow broke in.

"May first," Kolchak said. "Beltane, also called Walpurgisnacht. That's their big spring holiday."

"That's in two days," Starsky snarled. "We only have that long. But you've been after this drug ring for months now without finding them. There's no time." He slammed his hands down on the coffee table in frustration. Kolchak winced at the sound.

"Look, maybe we have something now we didn't before," Barlow put in. "This woman, whatever her name was, that Kolchak went to see yesterday. She seems to know something. Kolchak couldn't get her to talk, maybe we can."

"Marie Edmonds?" Kolchak shook his head. "No, no. She's stood up to police interrogations before. She won't say anything she doesn't want to." He was certain of that.

"It's worth a try, anyway. Come on, Kolchak, you have to show us where she is." Starsky was out the door, practically dragging Kolchak, before he'd even finished his sentence.

They piled into the Torino, leaving Kolchak's convertible behind. Kolchak directed them to the seedy little shop.

But when they arrived it was closed and dark. None of the neighbors could tell them anything about where Marie Edmonds, otherwise known as Céline Des Champs, might have gone, or where she lived.

Starsky kicked over a garbage can while Barlow looked helplessly on. "Damn it!" Barlow almost wailed. "There must be someone who can tell us something."

Starsky looked up, hope suddenly showing on his face. "Maybe there is," he muttered. "Mary Polanski. She's the one who got us into this. Come on!"

"Well, I wouldn't say she got us into it..." Kolchak started, but his words were lost as they ran, following Starsky back to the car.

"I have to admit, I wasn't very optimistic. Mary Polanski didn't seem to have the right sort of power to find a missing person. But I agreed with Starsky; what else could we do? We had to find Detective Hutchinson. The safety of the world depended on it, and time was running out."

Kolchak put his recorder away again.