Gutters and Alleys
Chapter five
Code 6 Out of Vehicle for Investigation
I'd radioed us 10-38, letting dispatch know our destination. Ten minutes later, we pulled up to the warehouse, parked near the docks, and exited the car, guns drawn. I was fairly confident Cornflake sent us on another wild goose hunt, statistics told me that, but we proceeded to investigate anyway. It was the dead of night and a wayward breeze drifted in off the bay. The scene was an old warehouse with a large empty weed-infested parking lot near a dilapidated dock. A long-forgotten wood-sided, empty old boat, still tied to a post, rocked lazily back and forth. Most of its white and blue striped paint had flaked away, and half the hull's planks were missing and the other half rotted. However, she must have been one hell of a ship in her day. I bet with a little…
"Forget it, Starsk, stick to the smaller scales. String and model glue are more in your budget," Hutch said, doing that creepy mind reading thing again.
"Spoil sport," I sniffled. "And stop that."
"Stop what?"
"Reading my mind."
"Is that what you're calling the empty space between your ears these days, buddy," Hutch snickered.
"That the best you can come up with, Hutchinson." I sent my not so amusing partner a scowl as we walked closer to the warehouse.
Hutch was right about one thing. The reality of this job isn't always as exciting and glamorous as the media likes to make it, and it certainly doesn't pay for luxury items like boats. Policing the community is a lot of the work. It's not often you get solid leads -- most times you just gotta piece the parts together. Sort of like building a house made out of tongue depressors and held together by false hope. All it'll take to crumble your hard work is a single puff of smoke or some shyster lawyer.
"This is completely against doctor's orders," I complained.
"What? Being out in the dampness?"
"No, being out in the dark."
"Let's go check it out." Hutch patted my stomach for reassurance.
The warehouse door was wide-open, hanging off its hinges. Hutch and I paused at the entrance, and he cast his flashlight's beam in a wide circle. It was a place like any other place we'd been in a thousand other times before, but I felt uncomfortable this time – okay, so it was spooky.
We walked inside and I blinked, adjusting to the light from the flashlight. Place looked like a dark, wet, cave. Strands of cobwebs hung from the rafters. The floor was cement and felt slimy beneath my feet. Above us, I could hear the fluttering of wings.
"Pigeons," Hutch causally informed.
"Or bats," I quietly said, as we continued slowly.
"You're a weird guy, Starsky."
"I like you too, Hutch."
The building was square, one huge room with nothing in it. Our footfalls seemed to boom, like someone beating with a stick against a hollow barrel, adding to the ghostly feel of the place. This must have been some sort of storage facility at one time, although for what, I didn't know. I walked stiffly next to Hutch, noting the colorfully painted graffiti streaked walls and thinking this wouldn't make a great hiding place. There were no doors, no rooms, no crevices.
Suddenly, a large white blur with wings fluttered in a frenzied way in front of my eyes. "Shit!" I startled and flattened myself against a nearby wall.
"Moth," Hutch scoffed.
"You sure?"
"Come to think of it -- no." Hutch smiled. "Just when you thought it was safe to go poking around in the big dark warehouse again, looking for sleazy characters, moths and vam--"
"Hutch!"
"Okay. Okay, buddy," Hutch snickered.
"Smart ass," I sighed, he was really enjoying this adventure.
The air swirled damp and moldy, it made my eyes tear and my nose itch. A breeze blew through the building and a thin cottony wisp tickled my already itchy nose.
"Ewww." I tried to brush the strand away but it stuck to my face.
"Starsky, what is it now?"
"Spider we--we -- Aaaaah…Aaaaah…Aaaaah…"
A steady finger was swiftly placed right under my nose and my sneeze was held back.
"Hey, thanks, Hutch. You really have the magic touch," I said.
"One tries one's best," Hutch flatly replied.
We walked further into the wide expanses of the building, Hutch's flashlight beaming all around.
"Looks like Cornflake flaked out on us again. No surprise there." Hutch's voice was low, but bounced loudly off every wall. "Nothing in here but big rats."
"Yeah," I grumbled. "With our luck we'll get fanged to death by one of them."
"Oh, Starsky, you have got to be kidding. You watch way too many movies. You're more likely to be fanged to death by a vampire before we ever even see one vampire rat." Hutch chuckled, and poked a finger into my rib cage -- I jumped, the hair on the back of my neck rising like porcupine needles.
"Funny, Hutch." I edged closer. "Really funny."
He knew damn well rats were a dime a dozen and vampires only came out during a full moon.
"Relax, Starsk."
I couldn't relax, keeping my eyes peeled through the darkness for a sign of anything. But there was nothing. No vampires, no rats, no giant man-eating cockroaches, no bad guys. Even the pigeons or bats, whichever, hid from our sight.
"Starsky, it's all clear," Hutch finally concluded what we both knew to be true. "Nothing's going on here. Not now, anyway. We'll tell dispatch to send a patrol car over here every couple of hours to keep watch. Let's go see if we can get out the back."
"Let's not, Hutch. We can just go back the way we came."
"Don't worry, buddy. I see a door." Hutch swiftly moved a few steps ahead of me and disappeared into the gloom.
"Hutch. Hutch!" I called, my heart fluttering with panic, and feet tingling with fear. "Wait!" I hurried to catch up to him and edged close to his side.
Hutch chuckled, "Still afraid of the dark, huh, buddy boy?"
"No." I pasted a smile on my face. "Just don't want you to fall prey to any -- any --"
All of a sudden, a rat skittered across the floor in front of us.
"Big rats?" Hutch laughed.
"Hutch, would you look at the size of that thing," I gulped, just as we exited the building. "That's got to be the largest rat I've ever seen."
"Uh, Starsk," Hutch said pointing the beam of the flashlight off to his right. "Second largest."
"Let's get out of here."
TBC