CHAPTER FOUR
Starsky apprehensively unlocked the door to his apartment and went inside, already fairly certain of what he would find. He wasn't disappointed. The living room was in disarray, with the morning newspaper scattered on the floor, dirty glasses and dishes on the coffee table, and a new stain on the carpet that hadn't been there that morning. A quick glance through the open bedroom door revealed Jessica sprawled out on the bed, fast asleep.
Starsky sighed as he began to straighten up the mess. He and Jessica had only been married for a week, and he was already beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake. Jessica was acting like a completely different person. She refused to clean or cook, leaving Starsky to his own devices. The only difference in his usual routine was the fact that they shared the same bed at night. He was beginning to wonder about Jessica's ability to be any better mother than she was a wife. He was starting to suspect that she had trapped him into this marriage by deliberately getting pregnant, but he wasn't sure why. She didn't seem any happier than he was.
He had just put a pan of stew on the stove to heat up for supper when Jessica came out of the bedroom, stifling a yawn. She looked as sexy as hell in one of his old tee shirts, but Starsky was quickly losing interest in his new bride. She didn't even seem to want him touching her anymore now that they were married. The swell of her pregnant belly was becoming evident. Starsky was beginning to feel as if he were sharing his living space with an irresponsible roommate instead of the woman he had made his wife.
"I made some stew. Do you want some?" he asked politely.
"Naw," Jessica's Brooklyn was accent more noticeable when she first woke up. "Everything I eat comes right back up, so why bother?"
"You still need to eat. For the baby." Starsky scolded her gently.
"The baby…the baby," Jessica sneered. "That's all you care about anyway. You sure don't care about me."
"If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't have married you." Starsky tried to reason with her even though, down deep, he knew that her words had a ring of truth to them.
"You just married me because I threatened to leave and never let you see the baby if you didn't," Jessica reminded him.
"You got what you wanted," he said in a weary voice, too tired for another argument. "What more do you want from me?"
"Maybe a little respect. After all, I am your wife."
"That works both ways." Starsky mumbled under his breath. He dished up a bowl of the stew and sat down at the table to eat his meal alone. He glanced through a stack of mail lying on the table as he ate. He felt his temper flare when he found an overdraft notice from his bank. His checking account was overdrawn by almost a hundred dollars. "What's this all about?" he demanded, showing the bank statement to an uninterested Jessica.
"I needed some new clothes. Nothing I have fits anymore," she said without any remorse. "What's the big deal? You got enough money in your savings account to cover it. We wouldn't have this problem if you'd just let me use one of your credit cards."
"I gave you that check to buy groceries with!" Starsky reminded her angrily. "Not to go out and buy new clothes!"
"Well, this wouldn't have happened if you'd just put my name on the account. I am your wife, after all."
"And if I did that, you'd have us bankrupt before the baby even gets here." He sighed heavily. "I'll take care of this tomorrow and on my next day off we'll go to the bank and open a checking account in your name. I'll put a hundred dollars in it each payday and you'll have to make it last for whatever you need between checks."
"What about the baby? I need to start buying stuff for the baby," Jessica wheedled.
"If you need something for the baby, I'll put it on my credit card. Let me know, and we'll go to get it together."
"Yeah, because you don't trust me," Jessica snorted.
"For once, you're right. You already proved that you can't be trusted to budget money."
"What about the doctor? I need money for the doctor."
"I put you on my insurance. That will cover any of your visits to the doctor and the hospital bill."
"Fine," Jessica said, realizing that she had been beaten. For now. She narrowed her eyes as she glared at her handsome new husband. When she married Starsky, she had been convinced that she could wrap him around her little finger but had quickly discovered that David Starsky was no pushover. He could be generous and loving to a fault, but he could also be just as hardnosed and tough when he was pushed too far. Jessica knew that the only hold she had over him was the baby, and she would continue to use that to her advantage for as long as she could. She wouldn't let him use her and then toss her aside the way her last lover had.
Starsky finished his solitary meal and put the bowl into the sink to wash later with the rest of the dishes. He missed the relaxing evenings spent with Hutch after work, hanging out and drinking or just watching TV. But, since his marriage, any time off duty that he spent with Hutch was sure to start another fight. Hutch was right about one thing, Jessica seemed to want Starsky all to herself, even if she acted as if she could barely tolerate his company at times. The baby had changed everything.
Jessica went back into the bedroom and shut the door, leaving Starsky alone to watch TV. On an impulse, he grabbed his jacket and left the apartment. He needed to spend some time with Hutch. That was his only salvation these days. He stopped on his way to Hutch's apartment to buy a twelve pack of beer and some potato chips. Parking his car in front of Venice Place, he locked the doors and climbed the enclosed stairway to Hutch's second floor apartment. He turned the knob and opened the door, startled to find Hutch in a passionate embrace with a pretty blonde bombshell.
The couple broke apart and the girl scurried into the tiny alcove where Hutch had his bed. Hutch grinned at his equally embarrassed partner and said, "Did I ever tell you that you have lousy timing?"
"Sorry. I didn't know you had a date tonight," Starsky apologized, holding out the beer as a peace offering.
"I didn't," Hutch said, with a wicked grin. "It doesn't matter. I think your arrival pretty much put an end to any romance tonight." As if to emphasize his words, the pretty blonde reappeared and quickly let herself out of the apartment without a word.
"I didn't mean to interrupt your evening," Starsky said as he slumped down on the sofa.
"It's okay. She wasn't my type anyway. So, what are you doing here? Another fight with Jessica?" Hutch guessed from the expression on Starsky's face.
"She overdrew my checking account," Starsky said. "By a hundred dollars."
"Ouch…" Hutch said sympathetically. He knew that Starsky had to get by on the modest amount he had left over each payday after paying his usual bills and sending his mother money each month. There was little room for extravagances and definitely no room for Jessica's overspending. Hutch remembered too many similar situations with his ex-wife. Vanessa constantly maxed out their credit cards and ran up hundreds of dollars in debt, bills that Hutch had ended up repaying as part of their divorce settlement.
One of the reasons they had divorced was because of Vanessa's excessive lifestyle and her resentment when Hutch turned his back on the Hutchison family fortune to make it on his own. Without his family's money to fall back on, Hutch couldn't give her the lifestyle that she craved.
Starsky looked at his partner with a bitter smile. "Go ahead," he said, "Tell me I told you so. You were right. I should never have agreed to marry her just because she was pregnant."
"Hey, buddy…you just did what you felt was the right thing to do…at least for the baby," Hutch consoled him gently. "Nobody can blame you for that. I'm just sorry that Jessica is making your life so miserable. Is she even trying to make a go of things?"
"No. Most of the time she acts like she doesn't even want me around," Starsky admitted. "It's like I don't even know who she is anymore."
"Has she changed that much since you got married?"
"Oh, yeah. She's turned into a complete stranger lately." Starsky looked at his closest friend and confided his darkest secret. "Hutch, I think she got pregnant on purpose just so I'd marry her…but I'll be damned if I know why. She sure doesn't act like she wants to be married to me."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Stick it out until the baby comes and if things don't change, then I'm going to tell her that I want a divorce," Starsky declared, already feeling like a failure.
"What about the baby?"
"What about the baby? I'm still going to take care of the baby; nothing is going to change that. I'm going to tell her that I want joint custody."
"Do you think she'll go along with that?"
"She'd better if she knows what's good for her, or I'll fight her in court," the brunet said firmly. He sighed heavily. "Sometimes, I don't even think she wants the baby…not the way she acts most of the time."
"She doesn't want the baby. She doesn't want to be married to you. Then why in the hell did she get pregnant in the first place?"
"Maybe it was just an accident like she said," Starsky intoned in a flat voice.
"But, you don't believe that, do you?"
"No, I don't…not anymore."
"What do you really know about her, Starsk?" Hutch asked gently. "Except for the fact that she comes from New York and that she likes a lot of the same things you do?"
"Not much, I guess," Starsky admitted, "She said she was an only child, and that her parents died in a car wreck when she was 14. She spent the next four years in and out of foster homes until she turned 18. She graduated from high school…barely…and supported herself by doing whatever work she could find. Usually as a waitress, sometimes as a barmaid." He frowned as he tried to remember the scant details that Jessica had told him about her life before they met. "She moved to Bay City from New York four months ago after breaking up with an old boyfriend that used to beat her."
"And you just happened to run into her at Huggy's where she was working as a waitress," Hutch said, finishing Starsky thoughts. "Maybe we need to check into her story and see if it all checks out," He suggested, knowing that Starsky might not take that idea very well.
"Why would she want to lie about any of it?" Starsky demanded. Even though he was a tough, streetwise cop and a native New Yorker, the brunet could be so trusting and naïve at times that it baffled Hutch, who was a born cynic.
"Why does anybody lie about their past?" Hutch said. "To hide something. It's worth checking out."
"Do what you want," Starsky said in a weary tone. "But, I don't want any part of it."
"Why? Because you're afraid to find out the truth?" Hutch demanded, knowing full well that he was risking Starsky's volatile temper with his comment.
"Fuck you, Hutchinson. She's still my wife and it's still my baby she's carrying." Starsky rose to his feet, somewhat unsteadily, and made his way to the door.
As he left the apartment, Hutch looked at the closed door and muttered under his breath,
"For your sake, I hope you're right, partner. I hope it is your baby."
After leaving Hutch's apartment, Starsky sat in his car for several long minutes, lost in his own thoughts. The stress of his unhappy marriage, combined with the stress of his job, was beginning to wear on his nerves, and he had taken it out on the one person who wouldn't hate him for it. He felt guilty about snapping at Hutch like that, but he knew the big blond wouldn't take it personally. Sighing heavily, he started the engine and headed back home for another long, lonely night.