Same disclaimers – S&H don't belong to me and no profit is being made.

Same warnings – violence and bad language and deals with bigotry.

Sorry for the delay! Computer problems plague me at present.

CHAPTER 4

For the next week, life went on fairly normally, although Starsky couldn't get rid of the feeling of dread he had. It was even harder when he noticed Ben showing definite signs of strain. At the end of their shift, Starsky decided to tackle Ben.

"Hey, Ben, we're going to Huggys for a bear. Wanna join us?" Starsky kept his voice light in an attempt to hide his concern.

Ben just looked at him sadly. "Sorry, Starsky. I've gotta get home."

"Is everything okay?" Hutch asked quietly.

Ben nodded but it didn't convince either of his friends and Starsky and Hutch exchanged worried glances. Ben noticed and tried a little harder.

"Honestly, guys, it's fine. Just really miss Pete…you know…" His voice broke. Starsky was now extremely worried but he understood that talking in the precinct wasn't the right venue to pursue this line of conversation.

"Okay, Ben, but you call me any time, any day, if you need to talk," Starsky didn't want to let it go but he also didn't want to push too hard. He could at least keep lines of communication open.

Ben looked at him sadly. "You just watch your back, Starsky." and he looked at Hutch "You watch it too." and he walked away, leaving the two men confused about his warning to Hutch. Did he mean he should watch Starsky's back too, or his own? Hutch felt a shiver of dread.

Things started to happen then over the next couple of days, with Starsky finding his belongings in odd places and in some cases broken. At first he didn't think anything was amiss and convinced himself that he was getting clumsy. That was until he found a brochure on the Nazi doctrine in his drawer. He jumped back from the ugly picture as if he'd been shot. Glancing around for Hutch who wasn't there, he picked it up gingerly before tearing it up and throwing it away. He figured if the person he suspected had left it there, then there wouldn't be any fingerprints and he just wanted to get rid of it. However, it wasn't as easy to get rid of the sick feeling which the pamphlet had engendered. He was rather surprised at just how unnerved he was feeling but there was no question that he was unsettled. The sight of the swastika was not something he could easily dismiss. Pull yourself together, Starsky. He told himself sternly, but he was only partly successful. After getting rid of the offensive material, he made the decision not to tell his partner. Thinking about what Hutch's reaction would be cheered him slightly but he decided it was better to let it go. He saw no sense in inflaming an already inflammable situation. Pulling an unfinished report towards him, he tried to concentrate and to put the unfortunate incident out of his mind.

Hutch returned to his desk and noticed immediately that Starsky seemed to be very distracted and he attributed it to worrying about Ben. It was a feeling he shared, but he was somewhat surprised at Starsky's reluctance to talk.

"Hey, Starsk, do you think we should call on Ben tonight?"

Starsky shook his head.

"Nah, I think we should let things be. He knows where we are." He didn't even look up at Hutch as he replied.

"There's obviously something going on, Starsk…"

"Leave it, Hutch! He'll talk when he wants to!" Starsky snapped but almost immediately apologized as he saw Hutch's startled look. "Sorry, blintz, just trying to finish this darn report. But Ben'll talk when he's ready, there's no point in pushing him."

"Is everything okay, Starsk?" Hutch sensed something was going on. Starsky very rarely put finishing a report before talking to him and was usually only too happy to be distracted from the onerous chore of writing a report.

Starsky just nodded and grinned. Hutch noticed it was not his usual grin but decided he'd tackle him later if his mood continued.

--

Starsky's mood hadn't improved too much by the end of the day. Hutch wasn't sure what was going on although he was aware that report writing could often put his volatile partner in a bad mood. But somehow he sensed it was more. Starsky wasn't talking though and they walked out to the garage in silence, Starsky still disturbed by the pamphlet and Hutch disturbed by Starsky's mood although he wasn't sure why he was worried.

As they approached the Torino, Starsky felt his heart starting to thump as he saw something stuck under the windscreen wiper. A piece of paper…They'd be no hiding this from his partner and sure enough Hutch reached the car first and grabbed it.

The paper contained a picture of Starsky with a swastika drawn through him. Hutch was sick to his heart at the ugly image.

"What the!" Hutch started to swear but Starsky's silence stopped him and he turned to look at his strangely quiet partner. "Starsk?" An uncomfortable suspicion was growing. "What the hell is going on?"

Starsky looked at the angry face of his partner. Angry yes, but there was also an underlying concern showing through and Starsky sighed.

"Dunno, Hutch. Got a pamphlet left in my desk this morning…."

Hutch started to explode. "Why didn't you tell me!" But his anger abated as he realized he was showing anger towards the wrong person and Starsky was looking so miserable it was impossible to rail against him.

"Thought it was a one-off, Hutch, and didn't see any sense in causing more aggravation," Starsky couldn't continue. Hutch reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

"Okay. Whatever, but you've gotta tell me in future if you get anything else like this." Hutch spoke firmly.

"Hopefully won't get any more!" Starsky tried to speak lightly.

"We gotta get him!" Hutch grew angry again as he looked at the photo of his partner so defiled.

"How? You don't suppose he left prints, do ya?" Starsky didn't try to pretend not to understand who they were talking about.

"He can't get away with this, Starsk." Hutch remained angry.

"Unfortunately he can. We've no grounds to challenge him and we could make it worse." Starsky was determined to remain calm but he nearly had to physically restrain the increasingly incensed Hutch. "Hutch, we've gotta do this right to get him. Forget it--at least for the time being."

Hutch knew he was right and they needed proof but he was furious, and the sight of Starsky's picture on the brochure made him feel physically ill.

Without consulting Hutch, Starsky had decided to try to provoke Rayner into making a mistake. However, something then happened to make them forget the brochures. Dobey disappeared.