Chapter 5

Starsky stayed very still for a while after the woman had left him, not wanting to instigate any more attacks on him. Finally he admitted to himself that he'd been scared to move in case she was still there and she was going to hurt him again. In his time, the brunet had suffered a lot of abuse at the hands of a lot of Bay City's flakes, but none of them scared him quite so much as this one female. In his sightless state, he conjured up images of an ugly woman built like a sumo wrestler and with muscles to rival Mohammed Ali's.

Eventually, after a long while with no further noises in the room, the brunet relaxed marginally and started to snake himself slowly across the ground. He managed to get himself into a corner of his cell and lever himself upright. With the cold stone at his back, he felt marginally safer. Now the only way for her to get to him was from the front and somehow, that made him feel better.

The curly haired cop must have dozed for a while, his dreams being of Hutch and the good times they'd had together. It made him feel warmer and more comfortable to think about his partner and he vowed that he'd get back to Hutch if it was the last thing he did. Starsky's wet and naked body cooled in the frigid air of the place, his boxers still being tangled around his ankles. With his arms still bound behind his back, however, he had no way to pull them up and cover himself and so he took his mind away, considering all his options. Thinking was good. Thinking stopped him from panicking and maybe he'd come up with a way to escape. But thinking also posed problems. Thinking made him face his current position head on, and each time, the same questions arose. Who was the woman? Why was she keeping him here? She said he should know her, but try as he might, Starsky's dehydrated mind couldn't place her voice.

Eventually, a small noise shook him awake from his doze. He heard movements outside the door, and braced himself as the door opened. There was the incongruous sound of wheels squeaking along the floor of his prison and then footsteps coming towards him. Starsky braced himself and he felt hands on him, pulling him up to his feet and holding his arms down by the side of him. His blindfolded head quested this way and that and he grunted as the hands grabbed a hold of him and kept him still with bruising efficiency.

'What the fuck are ya doin' now?' he spat as he felt his hands untied. The circulation returned in a fiery tide and he immediately tried to reach for his blindfold. The brunet's hands were slapped down, making him jump and amazingly he felt someone hand him his jeans, slapping the soft material into his hands.

'For God's sake, get dressed. I'm tired of laughing at your pathetic body' the woman's voice said as the hands at his back allowed him sufficient movement to pull up his boxers and step blindly into his pants.

'What's up sweetheart? Can't bear to look at what you'll never have?' Starsky snapped. With the snug material once more covering his body, the brunet felt emotionally better and he stood waiting, knowing that more was to come but feeling more in control now that he was semi dressed.

As he stood up, the unseen hands took a hold of his arms again and Starsky heard a snap of toggles accompanied by a bright light from the spotlight they'd wheeled into the room shining even through the material of his blindfold. He hissed softly and turned his head away from the light as one of the woman's heavies whipped his blindfold off. The brunet stood placidly, blinking in the bright light knowing now was not the time to make his move. Instead he conserved his energy and waited. The light shone straight into his face and nothing in front of him was clear, the beams piercing painfully into his eyes.

'Clever….and cocky. But don't get too cocky Davey. I can bring you down with one finger if I have to.'

'Yeah? By tellin' me how my partner is doin'? Hutch'll work this out. He'll still find me' Starsky snarled, although it sounded as though he was convincing himself as much as his captors.

'Oh, you want to talk about Hutch some more? How touching. He's in a bad way, you know. He sleeps a lot and in his dreams he calls for you. His friends are scared that he's hurting so much that he'll try to do something crazy…..maybe even kill himself, if he's left alone too long.'

Starsky kicked out at the black shape embedded in the bright light. 'You're lyin. 'Hutch would never do that. He's too strong for that.'

'Are you sure?' she asked

'Yeah, I'm sure. You don't know him like I do' the brunet yelled.

'Funny that. I thought I knew him pretty well' the woman's voice said smugly. 'He seems to like me, when he sees me. He's so cute when he's hurtin'. All that lovely blond hair mussed…..and the hurt, pained look in those puppy dog eyes as he…'

'Shuddup…. just shut the fuck up and let me go, ya crazy bitch' Starsky yelled as she kept up her relentless description of how Hutch was dealing with the news of his partner'' "death"'

The woman stood back and watched the brunet's misery for a couple of minutes. Starsky was beside himself, pulling and struggling in the grip of her two henchmen, yelling and almost sobbing in frustration but finally she tired of the show. She picked up the blindfold from the floor and holding it up at the height of Starsky's eyes, she insinuated herself between him and the light. For a split second, the brunet had a view of blue eyes and a feminine, sweet face before the cloth came towards him.

'I think you've had enough light for a while' she smirked as her arms reached round behind his head. Starsky saw her arms coming towards him. He couldn't make out her features properly but as she started to tie the blindfold over his eyes and behind his head, he saw his chance and snapped his head sideways. Like a rattler striking, the brunet sunk his teeth into the flesh of the woman's arm and held on.

She screamed loudly, trying to pull her arm away from him, but Starsky wouldn't let go and desperately she slapped at his face with her other hand. The brunet grunted but his teeth remained firmly embedded in her arm and she screamed for the two men with her to get him.

The man still holding Starsky's arms behind his back took a firmer hold while the second man produced, as if from nowhere, a bat. As the woman continued to scream he started beating at Starsky with the hard wood, settling into the blows as they connected. The brunet's teeth remained fastened to the woman as the bat hit again and again down the length of his side, across his legs and finally one blow landed on his collar bone. With a sickening crack, the bone broke and Starsky's mouth opened as his breath caught in his throat and then he screamed.

He let go of the woman's arm and she slapped his face again as she stepped back and saw the bruises appearing over her captives body. As the man with the bat stopped for a moment, she grabbed a handful of soaking chocolate curls and pulled Starsky's head back.

'You're going to so regret that you ever did that, you no good piece of shit cop' she snarled. She gazed into his face for a moment as pained indigo eyes blazed back and Starsky's face registered shock.

'You' he gasped.

'Hey honey' she grinned and dug her fingers into the broken bone by the brunet's neck. Starsky screamed again and he collapsed to the ground where he remained as the woman stepped over him.

'Have some fun' she told the two heavies 'but leave him alive, and make sure he drinks the water. There's more enjoyment to be had yet.'

As the woman walked calmly out of the room, holding her bleeding arm, she heard the sounds of fists and feet hitting into soft flesh and grinned. This was so perfect! Her father would be so proud.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

'Starsk…. Starsky….. STARSKYYYYYYY' Hutch shook himself awake from his recurrent nightmare yelling his dead partner's name into the dimness of his bedroom. He sat bolt upright in his bed, sweat trickling down the sides of his face as he shook, his hands unsteady as they brushed through his mussed hair. Panting heavily, he looked around and reached for the cup of herbal tea that Sue had left. It was cold, marking the fact that he'd been on his own for some time, but the drink had a pleasant aniseed flavour with a tang of fennel and it soothed his parched throat.

Laying himself back down, the blond stared at the ceiling disconsolately. The pills the doctor had given him were still in a bottle by the side of his bed and he reached for them to read the name on the small white label.

Patient: Kenneth Hutchinson. Valium 100 tabs. Dosage 1BD

With a tremulous breath, Hutch swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat upright, making a grab for the bedside cabinet as the room took a dip to his left. He felt odd – spacey and dizzy and he had a feeling of heaviness in his stomach that left him nauseous and with a bad taste in his mouth. Hutch finished the rest of the herbal drink and sighed. He could hardly raise his head and had the gut feeling that something was most definitely wrong. He shouldn't feel like this surely. OK he'd had the most horrible shock and he felt raw and empty, but he'd never expected it to make him feel so sick.

As the room started to take another dip, the blond forced himself up and staggered to the door of his bedroom, leaning heavily on the sill until he could get his stomach under control. Hutch's vision seemed to have altered somehow and he appeared to be looking at everything through a haze and down a tunnel. Desperately, he put his hand up to his face, but his fingers seemed fat and stubby and grotesquely misshapen. For a moment he studied them intently as though he'd never seen them before and a tiny voice at the back of his mind sounded an alarm. This wasn't just grief, he was sick and he needed help.

'Sue' he croaked through a dry throat. 'Sue, honey….'

Hutch collapsed onto the chair by the door, head hanging as he tried to make some sense of what was going on. Sue was obviously working again, and being realistic, he couldn't expect his girlfriend to drop everything to be with him just because Starsky had died.

Starsky had died; Starsky had died; Starsky had died. The words echoed round and round in his head, hollow and without meaning. Starsky had died. With a strangled sob, Hutch made an uncoordinated grab for the telephone and snagged the receiver on the second attempt. Peering myopically at the buttons, he jabbed at them, successfully completing the dialing sequence as he jammed the phone to his ear. A moment later, a familiar male voice answered.

'If the venue fits, then you're at the Pits. Here's Huggy Bear so don't be square.'

'Hug?' Hutch could hardly form the words as he breathed into the telephone.

'Hutch? Is that you my man? I just read the newspaper an' I was comin' right over.'

'Hug…..help' the blond managed to force himself to say.

'Hutch? Yo, Blondie. Wassup?'

'Don't feel s'good…..need help.' The words were no sooner out than the effort of holding the receiver to his ear became too great and Hutch's hand dropped to his lap as his chin sunk to his chest. From a distance, he heard a tinny voice yelling down the phone and then the line went dead.

For the next however long it took, Hutch remained where he was. He had neither the strength nor the inclination to move from the chair, all his concentration going on breathing and trying to keep his eyes open. Colours flowed before him, coalescing into vague shapes before floating away to be replaced by other shapes. In the distance he heard the siren of some emergency vehicle, and the noise set off a red blaze of colour swirling across his field of vision to be chased moments later by violet and blue splodges. As though disconnected from the world, the blond watched their progression without any attempt to stop them and it was only when he heard the door to his apartment open that he made some effort to raise his head.

Huggy rushed over to the flaxen haired cop, dismayed at what he saw. The bartender was surprised how bad Hutch was. The tall blond seemed to be having difficulty in keeping awake and as he forced his head up he managed to slur 'Huuuug' once, before his eyes closed again.

Suspicious at what was happening, Huggy sniffed, testing for the smell of alcohol on Hutch's breath, but there was nothing there and he put his fingers under the golden chin and raised up his friend's face until he could see the clouded, befuddled crystal blue eyes.

'Hey Hutch. Tell me what's up my man.'

'Huuug. Don't….feel so good. Ssssick' the blond managed to gasp. 'Colours….pretty colours an'……an'……help me.'

'Sure thing Pal. C'mon, lets get you back to bed huh?' Huggy put his arms around Hutch's waist and hauled the tall man to his feet. Staggering slightly under the weight, he managed to steer them into the bedroom and gently placed the blond on the bed. Looking around, he saw the bottle of pills from the doctor and scrutinised the label.

'When was the last time you took any of these?'

Hutch squinted at the bottle. 'Huh? Dunno…..what …what time is it?'

'Its time for some more honey' Sue said brightly as she walked into the room. She smiled at Huggy and came to sit on the edge of the bed. Gently she smoothed her hand over her man's forehead, feeling the residual tremors running through his body.

'You shouldn't be out of bed honey. What were you thinking?'

'Felt funny…..sick…..needed someone' Hutch gasped. 'M'sorry.'

'That's ok honey. Here, let me get you something to make you feel better.' Swiftly she got up, took the Valium and headed for the kitchen, ignoring the black man in the bedroom. Huggy could hear her humming to herself in the kitchen and he took her place by the blond's side.

Hutch's eyes seemed a little clearer and he rested his hand on Huggy's as though the contact grounded him some way.

'She's a good woman. She'll look after you' Huggy heard himself say.

'I can't believe ….. he's ggone. It's …..not right' Hutch whispered. 'Hug I can…can feel him. Like he's still here.'

The bar tender smiled sadly. 'We all miss him. You're gonna feel like that for a while. It's a tough thing to deal with.'

'No….no….don't understand. It's like….I dream about him all the time. He's always shoutin' for me to come get him, but it's …..Jeez, I dunno Hug….I…'

'Hey, Hutch my man! You need to rest an' let things take their course huh? You two were so close…..'

'He's not dddead till someone proves it to me.'

Huggy sighed. 'You know how it was. The body was so…' he swallowed hard, not able to say the words as they conjured up nightmare images.

'But it's not him…..I know it isn't him' Hutch said desperately. 'I know ….ya think I'm cccrazy but….'

Huggy smiled. 'I know you aint crazy, an' I can dig how you're hurtin' but Hutch, ya have to accept it sooner or later.'

'I will…..when they show me his watch….his rings. They'd still bbbe on the bbbody. Check for me Hug. Tell Dobey huh? Tell him to ask…. to ask the coroner to check?'

At the door to the bedroom, Sue paused with a mug of more herbal tea in her hand. She frowned, seeing the flush on her boyfriend's face. 'I think you should go' she told Huggy angrily. 'He needs rest, not excitement like this. You can call again in a week or so, we can handle this.' She rushed to Hutch's bedside, raising the blond's head as she deposited three white tablets on his tongue and held the cup to his lips for him to drink.

Huggy walked to the door. 'Okay' he said uncertainly. 'I'll….um….I'll be back later. If ya want anythin'….'

'We're fine' Sue snapped.

But Hutch raised his head again and with a final show of defiance locked eyes with his buddy. 'Ask Dobey huh?…..Just ask.'