Chapter 10

Captain Dobey put down the telephone with a shaky hand and looked into Huggy's deep brown eyes. 'There was no jewellery on the body' he said quietly.

Huggy's face registered shock and a small flicker of hope lit up behind the soulful eyes. 'What? Nothing? Not even his rings?'

'Nothin'. Rodriguez said he'd looked over the whole body and there was definitely no jewellery of any description on it.'

'Could anyone else have taken them?' Huggy asked.

'No, they took the body straight from his house to the morgue. No one but Rodriguez has seen it.'

'But Starsk never took his rings off. His Dad gave them to him an' he always wore 'em. Even in the shower. And what about that crummy necklace he wore? And his watch….. Well, maybe not his watch. Maybe he took that off in bed, but he never took the necklace or his rings off. Dammit he even wore them in the hospital, even though the nurses kept tryin' to take it off of him because they said it was an infection hazard.' Huggy started to pace the small office.

'Well hold your horses. This don't mean anythin' does it? I mean there could be all sorts of explanations as to why he didn't have his rings on' Dobey said, refusing to let the glimmer of hope flare into a flame in his heart.

'Yeah? Lots of reasons huh? Can you think of one?' the bar tender asked softly.

'Well he might have…. He could have…..' Dobey stammered over the words. '….no. I can't think of any reason, but this still don't prove anythin'.

'It proves to me that there's somethin' not right Captain' Huggy urged. 'It proves to me that maybe Hutch aint quite so nutso as we think he is.'

'What? You think he's somehow in touch with Starsky? You're crazy!'

The lanky black man sighed heavily. 'No, I don't think he's on the 'phone to him or anythin'. An' I don't think he's getting' messages from "the other side". But you know what they're both like. You've seen 'em. If Starsk is alive….if for some crazy reason that body wasn't him, then Hutch above all people would know.'

Dobey nodded slightly but still looked dubious. 'But Hutch aint firin' with all thrusters. You were the one who told me that he could hardly string two words together. What do you want me to do? I don't wanna go startin' a full scale enquiry over a feelin' that some barkeep has, an' the feverish dreams of an injured cop.'

'Well that's the thing. My man Hutch aint injured is he? You've seen him when he's been hurtin', or worried about Starsky. An' he aint never acted like this before.' Huggy looked pleadingly at his Captain.

'What are ya sayin'?'

'I'm askin' ya to think about this. When Starsk was in the hospital after he'd been shot, Hutch was like…..well he was numb to begin with an' there was a period when it was like he'd given up on Starsky survivin' but then he got his head together an' he was like a whirlwind. He aint never been like this before. I think something's wrong.'

'Wrong like he's sick?' Dobey asked.

'Maybe. Or wrong like there's somethin' wrong. Forgive me for sayin' this oh great one, but for a police Captain you aint exactly getting' with the plan here.'

'Huggy!' Dobey's voice rose in line with his temper.

'Just hear me out, ya dig? Think on it. Starsky's body….or what we thought was Starsky's body was found in a fire which everyone was sayin' was a wildfire. But his is the only house on the street that's burned. And it aint just singed around the edges, it's burned down to the ground. Then we find that the body didn't have none of Starsky's jewellery on it an' was so badly burned that it can't be identified until they do an autopsy.'

'And right at that time, Hutch falls suspiciously sick?' Dobey asked, his eyebrows raising higher up his head.

'Now you're getting' with it!' Huggy said appreciatively.

'I'm not getting' with nothin', I'm just listenin' the Captain grunted.

'Aww c'mon Cap'n. What other explanation is there? That body – for whatever reason – aint Starsky.'

'And if it isn't. What then? An' who the hell was it? And, how did it get into Starsky's bed'

Huggy sighed. 'If it isn't, then more to the point, where is Starsky, an' what the hell is the matter with Hutch?'

The lanky black man watched as Dobey got up from behind his desk and shouldered into his jacket. He picked up his gun from his desk drawer and checked the clip, checked he had his shield in the breast pocket of his jacket and straightened up.

'All good questions Huggy. It seems to me that the only one who might be able to answer 'em would be Hutchinson. Wanna come for a ride?'

OOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Hutch sat on the sofa with the Chinese coin still clutched in his hand as though it were some kind of lifeline back to his partner. Feeling stupidly sentimental, he rubbed his fingers softly over the shiny surface, the leather thong that usually tied it round Starsky's neck now broken and frayed at the ends. He closed his eyes and rested his head back on the sofa, for a few moments resisting the pains that still roiled around his guts.

Never had the blond felt so exhausted, or so lost, or so much in pain. And never, in all his life had he felt so confused. The Valium in his system stopped him thinking clearly. Even a normal dose would have left him feeling woolly and spacey, but with the double and sometimes triple doses that Sue had been feeding him without his knowledge, it was a wonder that the blond could remain upright.

The flaxen haired cop tried to get his thoughts together. It was so tough to think past the pains in his guts and the fuzziness in his head and he banged his knuckles against his forehead in frustration. Why would his girlfriend have his partner's jewellery in her purse? Was it Starsky's? Could it be another coin just like his? Hutch brought the coin up to his eyes again, the leather thong hanging limply from his fingers and there it was….. the smallest whiff of Starsky's aftershave still clinging to the leather. The blond swallowed down the lump in his throat, trying hard to think of a reason why something so personal should be in Sue's possession. He held it to his cheek as he closed his eyes and thought about his partner.

'Starsk…..what happened buddy? Why did ya leave me?' he whispered. Very slowly his eyes closed and the drugs and the poison in his system took over. Hutch fell asleep still holding onto the necklace and remained like that until the door to his apartment opened and Sue walked in.

She tutted to herself as she saw the blond on the sofa. He was stubborn, and as strong as an ox. It was inconvenient, but the woman liked a challenge and she'd bought more than enough supplies at the store. If the overdoses of the Valium didn't see the blond off, then surely her herbs would do the trick. Slowly Sue crossed the room and looked down at the sleeping man.

Over the past week, she'd seen a marked deterioration in the blond. He'd lost weight for sure, partly because she'd told him that it wasn't good for him to eat and had fed him only the herbal teas and soup. His cheeks had hollowed and his hair was dull and lifeless. The blond had had barely enough strength to wash and his personal grooming had been low on Sue's agenda. Hutch's face in sleep still showed signs of pain. Lines had formed around eyes that were circled with black rings. Even fast asleep, occasionally his eyes would narrow as another pain assailed his stomach and he shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. Sue smiled. Her plan was going well. While the curly haired cop was safely secreted away and the body of the street bum had been placed on the bed in Ridgeway, she could concentrate on giving Hutch a protracted and painful death. As she'd observed more than once in the past couple of years, it was only what the duo deserved after wrecking her life and all her plans.

The woman bent to check on Hutch and as she reached out to pat his shoulder to wake him, she saw the coin clutched in his hand. She stared at it for a second, hardly believing that Hutch had found his partner's necklace that she'd carefully taken to place somewhere either in the wreckage of Ridgeway or on the body at the morgue before the autopsy.

Temper flared. Sue let out a curse. No! This couldn't be happening. Not after all the planning. Not after grasping the opportunity to put her plans into practice when the wildfires struck. It had been perfect timing and she'd been ready with the place to take Starsky and the drugs to subdue Hutch. Looking around her, Sue looked for something she could use. Anything. It would be a shame not to let this scenario play out longer, but she couldn't risk Hutch finding out her plan and maybe blabbing to someone else. No, she'd have to finish it now. The only question was how.

The woman looked around. Hutch's gun had been taken back to the precinct when he'd been taken sick. The Captain had said it was protocol, but Sue had the sneaking suspicion that it was to stop Hutch doing anything stupid in his grief. She'd welcomed the move at the time because it meant that her plan to prolong the blond's death had a better chance of succeeding. Now that she needed it however, Sue wished it were still here. A gunshot and a quick getaway would be the order of the day, but now she's have to think of something else.

Desperately looking around, she grabbed one of the soft, feather filled cushions on Hutch's sofa. She hefted it in her hand. It was solid and heavy and it would serve her purpose so long as Hutch was well and truly out of it. Carefully she walked around behind the sofa knowing that if she approached from the front the cop would be able to struggle with her. Poising herself over the sleeping man, she took a deep breath, hoisted the cushion above her head and brought it down over the flaxen haired cop's face.

As it approached something must have alerted Hutch to the danger and for one brief moment cloudy crystal blue eyes flashed open and Hutch opened his mouth to say something. Automatically his arms came up to ward off the cushion, but he was too weak and too slow and Sue pressed home her advantage, ignoring the pleading, trusting look in Hutch's eyes.

When Hutch had felt the movement behind him, he looked up into Sue's face, expecting her to bend down to kiss him. He opened his mouth to smile at her and ask her if she was ok, but he could hardly believe it when she pushed the soft cloth down on his face.

'This is it bozo' she hissed into his ear. 'I've waited so long for this. You're partner's gonna die just like you, although he'll probably survive you by a couple of days. He's hurting you know, he's badly injured, or at least he was last time I saw him. He's crying out for you. He moans your name in his sleep. And he yells out for you to come and help him when my friends give him a little attention.'

Hutch heard her words. They stabbed at him like a knife. He gave a strangled moan of frustration and sorrow with the last of his breath. As Sue pushed down on the cushion, she felt the man struggle beneath her. Had Hutch been in the prime of health; had he not been drugged, poisoned and exhausted with grief, the woman would never have been able to hang on. If the blond had even been half way ok, she wouldn't have stood a chance. But Hutch wasn't well. He was so far away from being well that as he tried to push the cushion away from his face, his arms felt like lead and his mind refused to work fast enough to anticipate what Sue would do.

Starsky! Hutch's last thoughts were for the brunet. His partner. His buddy. His soulmate. Starsky was still alive, he knew it!

As the world started to close down around Hutch and his burning lungs tried to draw in sufficient air for one more moment of life, his final thoughts were that he wouldn't be able to say goodbye to his partner, even now.

Sue pressed down harder on the suffocating cushion, feeling the blond's struggles slow. Maybe another minute and she'd be able to avenge her family once and for all. Safe in the knowledge that the two cops would very soon be dead, the woman permitted herself a small giggle as she watched Hutch's death throes.