Thank you for all the reviews! as you know - they drive me on

10

Starsky had been carried back to his cell and left on the floor. After the last injection, which had now worn off he felt too weary even to stand and he crawled a little way further into the cell and collapsed on his back, staring up at the white ceiling feeling as though his entire body was on fire. With the last vestiges of the drug, his mind once again became a tabula rasa; a blank and empty canvass. The past hour or so, after the suckers had come at him with the needle gun again had been a blank and he couldn't remember how he'd gotten blood down the white bandages around his middle – couldn't even remember why he was bandaged, although he knew his side hurt and as he sat back on the ground, another pain lanced up through the very core of his body making him gasp softly. What was that all about?.

Very slowly and painfully he dragged himself to the front of the cell and looked at his reflection in the big glass window, the almost stranger staring back at him like a ghostly presence in another world. He groaned, touching with growing horror the gaping wound on his forehead and the equally painful and bloody one on his cheek. He had no recollection of getting them and no idea how he could have gotten into a position to hurt himself so badly.

Blue closed his eyes and groaned again softly, the sound of his own voice startling him. The terrified man curled himself into a ball on the floor and cushioned the pain free side of his head on his arm as weariness overtook him and the lids drooped over his rapidly glazing indigo eyes, the eyelashes becoming dark smudges against his flushed cheeks.

Maybe when he woke up things would begin to make sense. Maybe he'd stop hurting and maybe his head would stop hurting long enough for him to remember who he was and what he was supposed to be doing.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Mary, too had had a sleepless night and was up at the crack of dawn. Carefully she dressed. Not her usual flamboyant skirt and blouse. No, today she wanted to be take seriously and she found a plain black skirt and a red blouse. She added black stockings and her only pair of dressy high heeled shoes. Checking herself in the mirror, she added her good black jacket. She smiled at the reflection, seeing a strange grown up type of Mary looking back at her. Picking up her purse, she closed the front door behind her nad hailed a passing cab.

The cabbie looked at her and smiled. 'Yeah?'

'Bay City Police Department please' she said as she got in. She closed the door and the cab set off.

'Ya goin' for an interview love?' the driver asked, making polite conversation.

Mary would have giggled if the situation had not been so grave. 'What? Um…no….no, just some erm…business I need to deal with' she said thoughtfully.

'You look like a lawyer' he continued taking in the suit and stockings. 'You a DA or somethin?'

That brought a smile to her face. 'Nah, just a law abiding citizen' she mumbled and turned her head to look out of the car window, watching the passing traffic and signalling she didn't want to talk. The driver shrugged his shoulders and concentrated on the morning traffic. Some wanted to talk, some didn't. No skin off his nose!

Finally he pulled up outside the big stone building and turned for his fare. $1.30 he said, holding out his hand for the money. Mary rummaged in her purse and handed him $2.

'Keep the change'.

The driver stared at the two notes in disgust. 'Yeah, right' he said adding under his breath 'Last of the big spenders!'

Mary got out of the taxi and looked up at the building. Was she doing the right thing? Would she get into trouble? Worse, would she get the cops into trouble?

She heaved a calming breath. She'd know soon enough. Last night she'd remembered the name of Starsky's boss and now she made her way into the reception area, heading for the lady on the front desk.

Trying to keep the trembling from her voice, she cleared her throat.

'I'd like to see Captain Dobey please?'

Mary paced the small reception area, her heart hammering in her chest as she waited for Captain Dobey to appear. She'd never met the man. Hell, her only other involvement with the police in her entire life had been being moved on at a peace rally in down town LA and then the time she'd met the handsome curly headed cop and his blond counterpart in her front room those two summers ago. She felt vaguely ill at ease about being actually in the police building and the sight of all the uniforms and the men and women casually walking around with chunks of heavy weight metal casually slung under their arms were unnerving to say the least.

A voice startled her from her thoughts and she jumped, looking around with a nervous laugh.

'Ms Armstrong?' the woman in the black uniform said. Mary nodded. 'Come with me please. I'll take you to Captain Dobey's office'.

Mary followed behind and up the two flights of steps, her high heels sounding too loud as they clicked along on the floor of the long corridor. She suddenly longed for her flowing skirt and comfortable flat sandals. Tight suits and stilettos were not her at all. She felt conspicuous and ill at ease. The woman stopped outside a wooden door, knocked and at the gruff 'Come in' opened the door and showed Mary into a small office. The large black man behind the desk got up and leaned forward to shake her hand indicating a chair for her to use. He looked enormous and would have been intimidating had it not been for the inviting smile from an albeit tired and almost haggard looking face.

'How can I help?' he asked with a deep voice.

'Yes, I think. Um….I don't know where to start' Mary stammered, her mouth dry and her lips sticking to her teeth. 'I…um…I met two of your officers two years ago when they were investigating a disappearance. One of them…..Detective Starsky he was called….he um. Well….I wouldn't have forgotten him' she blushed and dipped her eyes, suddenly very embarrassed to admitting she had a teenage crush on a man.

'Is this a complaint? Have you got information on them?' Dobey asked, wondering where exactly this conversation was going. He was so worried about his missing officers and the chance to get any information about them was imperative.

'Well yes, I have. It's just that I think I saw them last night and the night before. They….'

'Where were they?' Dobey interrupted, desperate for information. His reaction startled Mary and she shrank back in her seat.

'Are they in trouble?' she asked, already knowing the answer.

Dobey ran his hand through his short wiry hair. 'They've been missing for two weeks. If you have information on their whereabouts, I need it now. Are they ok? Where did ya see them? When?'.

'They were at a fight club' she said, uncomfortable at admitting that she'd been to such a place.

'Fight club? What fight club? There are no fight clubs in Bay City'.

'Um…yes there are, and your two detectives are there. I saw Detective Hutchinson the night before last, and Detective Starsky last night'.

Dobey stared at her open mouthed. 'What were they doing?' he asked, scared of the answer.

Mary looked down at her fingernails, unable to meet the piercing brown gaze. 'They were fighting' she said quietly.

She watched as Dobey reached for the phone, his large hand shaking. 'Williams, can I see you in my office?' he asked, waited and then put down the telephone. A moment later an equally large man appeared at the door, came in and sat down.

'Ms Armstrong, this is Captain Williams, my counterpart on fraud. Henry, I need your help with this one. You know that Starsky and Hutchinson have been missing for two weeks. Ms Armstrong here says she saw them at a fight club for the past two nights. They were fighting! I have no idea what's goin' on, but I intend to find out. There's no way my men would willingly participate in something like this. And I have a horrible suspicion that this may be tied in to those three bodies we've found in the past weeks. You know, the ones that were beaten to a pulp but with no ID and no witnesses. If I'm putting two and two together and not making five, I don't think its not too far a leap to think that the three men were all ex fight club'.

Williams steepled his fingers and stared at the big desk.

'So, what do you want to do Harold? We can get a warrant and bust their asses and get your men out'.

Dobey was shaking his head. 'We go in there with a load of black and whites and shouting "Police come out with your hands up" the bosses are gonna be gone before we know it. If this is a syndicate, the top honchos won't be there anyway. They'll just disappear into the ether and set up somewhere else'.

'My boyfriend said he went to look around the facility to look around' Mary said. 'He said that it was like a hotel with training facilities and that the men were all volunteers. Its just that when I saw your men fight, they looked….dunno….kinda spaced out, like they didn't know where they were'.

Williams sat up straighter looking intensely at Dobey. 'Drugs? Hypnosis?' He turned back to Mary. 'Did your boyfriend give any names?'

Mary shook her head. 'No, none. I'm sorry'.

'You did well to come to us with this' Dobey said kindly. He looked at his colleague. 'We need someone to go in undercover'.

Williams shrugged his shoulders. 'If they're as canny as we think they are, they'll know most of our officers. It's no use giving them a heads up. What do you want to do? Someone from out of town?'

'No, that won't work either, but I think there might be a guy we can use. He isn't BCPD, but he's worked with us before and he knows Starsky and Hutchinson. They've been through a lot together over the years'.

'If he isn't a cop, can you trust him?'

Dobey chuckled. 'If we were in a fight I'd want him on my side for sure'. He reached for the telephone again and made a call, sitting back at the end of it.

'He's on his way. I spoke to his CO and they can release him for a while. Now, so long as he'll do this – and I have no reason to think he won't – how are we gonna play it?'They settled down to review their methods.