Chapter 14

Hutch levered himself off the narrow bunk bed and padded over to the washstand, wincing as he took his arm out of the sling and started to flex it. The doctor, a man Lilly found who'd been struck off for malpractice, but was happy to continue practicing in the shady underworld, had fixed him up competently, if a little painfully. Being struck off meant no access to Lidocane, and so the twelve stitches inserted into the wound on his arm had been competent, but had stung like fury. Now, three days later, his arm was healing well, but remained stiff and sore. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and smiled grimly at the black shadows under each eye and the slightly unkempt look of his hair. He'd had no time to look after himself in these last four months, but today was going to put an end to all that. Today, he was going to have to try to get out to warm Dobey. The heist was taking place tonight.

Walking out into the restaurant for breakfast, he skirted the table where Bo and Ramp were sitting, got himself a coffee and sat down next to Mel. Since the fight, relations between the four men had been strained to say the least and despite Lilly having given them all a pep talk, they were still not up to civilised conversation, especially not first thing in the morning.

Last night had been another heavy one for Hutch. After Lilly had seen him get hurt, she seemed to have taken even more of a liking to the big blond and had invited him to her bed twice. The first time, he'd managed to refuse, blaming the pain in his arm for his lack of enthusiasm. Last night, however she'd not taken no for an answer and once again, she'd used Hutch purely for her own pleasure, sending him away the minutes she'd come down from her climax. Last night, Hutch had had no pleasure in the proceedings at all. Last night all the blond wanted was to get out of her bed, out of her sight and back to his partner.

But last night also, Lilly had got the four men together and had sworn them to secrecy. She'd told them that on the next day – Friday, late in the afternoon, a large shipment of Mexican Brown would be coming into pier 16 and that they would all be required to get down there and stand point, while the shipment was unloaded and stowed away. When they'd asked her how large the shipment was, Hutch had been absolutely staggered at her answer. 300 kilos of the drug were due to be offloaded. Millions of dollars worth of Heroin, right there, destined for the dealers and pushers on the streets of Bay City.

He stared into his coffee cup now, his thoughts dark and uncomfortable. Since he'd had the phone call with Dobey, he felt slightly better about his partner, although he was still no wiser as to how the brunet was recovering. He needed to find out and didn't know if he could last 'till tomorrow when this would all be over and he could finally be reunited with Starsky. He looked up as Madame Lilly came into the room and looked around.

'I need one of you to deliver this' she said, waving an envelope vaguely in the air. 'Address across town. Do you think any of you idiots would be up to it?

Hutch seized his chance and stood up. 'I'll do it'.

The woman turned her lavender eyes on him and beamed. 'Thanks Cal. I can always count on you!' she handed him the envelope. 1725 West Chesterfield. They're expecting it' she said. 'And Cal. Don't waste any time huh?'

Hutch forced a smile onto his face and nodded. 'Sure thing. In and out like a duck mating. Be right back'. He headed for the door and out to the car, getting in with a lighter heart. At least this way, he had the perfect opportunity to contact Dobey and let him know about the bust tomorrow. For the first time he started to sing as he drove, enjoying the freedom of being on his own for a while, safe in the knowledge that Starsky was still alive and he'd be with him by this time tomorrow.

With the sun streaming down on the car and the lunchtime traffic being heavy, the blond didn't notice the dark green Pontiac three cars back. The one that seemed to keep up with him, making the same turns and corners that he did. Until the last one, when he ducked down a side street and disappeared. The driver of the Pontiac hit the steering wheel in frustration and cursed.

'We lost him'.

'Don't matter, just head across town. We can surprise him when he gets there. No problem. He wouldn't dare not turn up'.

'Fine, just don't tell Lilly we lost him huh?'

Down the quiet side street, he pulled over to the side of the road, still singing as he got out and trotted over to the telephone booth on the grass verge. Fishing a dime out of his back pocket, he dropped it into the slot and punched numbers, waiting till he heard the click of the pickup at the other end of the line.

'Cap'n?'

'Yeah, this is Dobey. That you Hutchinson?'

'Uh huh. How's Starsky?'

'He's gonna make it. He's weak, but he's getting' there. Simmonetti and Jiminez are guarding him. He's at the house'.

'Ya got those two goons with him? Oh jeez Cap!'

'Shudup Hutchinson. He's safe. Leave it there. Have you got something for me?'

'Yeah, the bust is going down at Pier 16 this evening, late. Be there. I can't stay, don't have a lot of time'.

'Keep cool Hutch, we'll be there. Stay put and take care. Where are ya goin' now?'

The blond cast another look at the address on the white envelope. 1725 West Chesterfield' he read. 'Gotta drop a message off then I'm goin' back to the Restaurant. She wants us all back by 15 hundred'.

'Ok, well. So as you know everything is in place, I'm gonna ring Le Quatre Seasons at 15:30 this afternoon and ask to speak to Cal Gibbons. When you pick up, I'll know everything is cool. From then on, just go with the flow. You've done good Hutchinson, Real good. We're on the home straight now'.

'Yeah, an' it can't come soon enough Cap'n. I want out, soon. Hear from ya this afternoon'. Hutch put the phone down and trotted back to the car feeling better by the moment. Less than 24 hours of this and he'd be back home, in his own apartment with his plants and a cold beer. With a happy smile he got back in the car, switched on the engine and pulled out into the road.

Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up outside the seedy guesthouse at 1725 West Chesterfield. Looking up at the grimy windows, the, grey curtains at the windows and the peeling dark green paint on the door, Hutch didn't understand which one of Lilly's normally classy contacts would be lurking here. With an abundance of caution, he pulled the Glock pistol out of the glove compartment of the car, checked the magazine and stowed it down the waistband at the back of his jeans. He got slowly out of his car and left the door open as he made his way up the steps to the frnt of the building.

The green painted door stood open, swinging slightly on its hinges and for some reason the hairs on the back of the blond's neck started to stand up, his cop senses, finely honed over the years taking over. Taking the Glock from its hiding place, he held its reassuring weight in his hand and pushed open the door as he walked inside. The corridor was bare boarded, the paintwork inside even worse than that on the door. Now convinced that there was something not right about this, he continued up the corridor, coming to a stop at the door at the end. Gently he reached out and pushed as it swung inwards with a creek. The interior was in darkness, the old dirty curtains pulled tight across the window. The only furniture in the room was a large heavy wooden chair standing alone in the middle.

Now convinced that this was not the address Lilly had in mind, Hutch took the envelope out of his jacket pocket and held it up to the light. 1725 West Winchester. Well this was definitely the right address, but what the hell? Suddenly he heard a small noise behind him and spun around. A large black haired man barred the way to the exit, seeming to fill the doorway with his bulk. Hutch licked his lips nervously and held out the envelope. Was this a test or something? Hutch had no idea, but instead of the fight he'd expected, the giant of a man nodded soundlessly, turned on his heel ad left, leaving the blond wondering what it had all been about.

oOoOoOoOoo

Across the city, Starsky woke from his sleep to see O'Rourke sitting at the back of his room. In the three days since he first woke up, he'd managed to get rid of the troublesome catheter, one of the drips and the oxygen cannula. The only think that still really annoyed him was that his right hand remained cuffed to the bed, Simmonetti having convinced the doctor that Starsky was likely to be a danger to himself and maybe others.

'Hey' he greeted the Irishmen weakly 'Your turn for nursemaid huh?.

'Yeah. Can I get you anythin' man?'

Starsky stared at the ceiling for a moment. 'A gun for those two flakes'.

'Join the line man. I never met two more annoyin' turkeys' O'Rourke grinned.

'Yeah' Starsky sighed and tried to move around in the bed, but his strapped up left side and the cuffed right wrist prevented the movements and he groaned softly. 'Pat, d'ya think you could do sumthin about this?' he waggled the metal bracelet and it clanged against the metalwork of the bed.

'Ya promise not to try the Houdini thing again?'

'Do I look like I could escape from a paper sack right now? C'mon man. Aint goin' nowhere. You're the only one tha'll see sense'.

O'Rourke grinned and took a key from his vest pocket inserting it into the lock on the cuffs. A moment later Starsky was free and rotating his wrist luxuriously in the air. Pat took it and started to rub the circulation back into it with a chuckle.

'You really know how to piss Simmonetti off, even when you're looped on meds!'

'Hey, what can I say? It's my goal in life to make his existence a misery' the brunet grinned. His face turned serious. 'Have ya heard from Hutch? Is he ok? He looked rough when I saw him an' this…..this whole thing's been tough on him'.

'Dobey had a call this morning. He managed to get away for a while. Said he had a delivery to make so he'd managed to get to a phone booth. He's fine. The bust goes down tonight and then he'll be back with ya. You miss him, don't ya?'

'More'n I can say' Starsky agreed. 'He looked so lost when we were on the dunes. He didn't want to……' the brunet sighed. 'It's a mess Pat. This whole thing is a screw up. I won't rest easy till it's all done and Hutch is back safe'.

'Well try to rest easy anyhow. Dobey said he sounded good and he knows you're feelin' better. He'll be fine. He's a big boy, he can take care of himself. There's only a few hours left. What can go wrong?'