CHAPTER NINE

The day passed slowly, and after work Starsky reluctantly headed for home. The sound of laughter echoed through the house as he opened the door and let himself inside. Jessica and Nicky were standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter as they shared a cup of coffee. They both turned to look at Starsky as if he were an intruder in his own home.

"Hey, bro…" Nicky said smoothly. "Your pretty wife here has been telling me how you didn't want to marry her when you found out that you'd knocked her up. Is that true, Davey boy?"

"If she says so," Starsky said, brushing past Nicky to help himself to a cup of coffee. It was the special blend that Jessica insisted on buying, which Starsky didn't care for. He took two sips and then dumped the cup in the sink.

"David, you know how expensive that is, you shouldn't waste it," Jessica scolded him.

"Damn right I know how expensive it is!" Starsky snapped back in irritation. "It's my money that pays for it!" Although he had managed to curb her excessive spending, it was an on going battle to keep her from cleaning out his bank account entirely with her extravagant taste for gourmet coffee and rich foods.

"Don't mind him," Jessica told Nicky with a snicker. "He always comes home in a cranky mood. He'd rather spent time with that partner of his than he would with his wife."

"At least with Hutch I know where I stand," Starsky growled, his patience worn thin by Jessica's insults.

"Sure ya do," Nicky couldn't resist adding an insult of his own, "Wherever Blondie wants you to stand…doing just what he tells ya to do."

"Shut up, Nicky!" Starsky snapped at his younger brother. "This doesn't concern you."

Both of them knew just how to push his buttons, and he was not in the mood to be ganged-up on in his own home. Frustrated, he turned and headed for the door.

"That's right…" Jessica called after him in a taunting voice. "Run to Hutch just like you always do! You might as well be married to him! You spend more time with him than you do at home!"

Tires squealed as Starsky backed into the street and sped away from his own home. He considered going to Hutch, but felt that he was taking advantage of their friendship by turning to him whenever he had a crisis in his life. Making a decision, he turned left and headed for the only other man he trusted enough to share his problems with.

Twenty minutes later he pulled up behind The Pits. He parked in the sport reserved for 'deliveries' Huggy Bear had put up the sign so that the two detectives would always have a discreet place to park when they wanted to lay low and not advertise their presence in the bar.

Locking the doors to the Torino, Starsky pocketed the keys and entered the bar through the back door which opened into the kitchen area. Huggy's cook and his two assistants ignored the burnet as he walked through the room to the swinging doors that opened into the bar area.

The bar was crowded with two fisted drinkers, businessmen stopping by for a drink on their way home, college kids out slumming, and a few couples out on a date. Huggy was tending the bar while two of his waitresses worked the floor.

Starsky slid onto an empty stool at the end of the bar and waited for Huggy to notice him.

Like any good bartender, he noticed Starsky's presence almost immediately. He poured a cold draft beer and carried to the end of the bar, setting the mug in front of Starsky with a flourish.

"You drinking? Eating? Or just socializing?"

"I guess a little bit of all three," Starsky told him with a thin smile. "How about fixing me a special?"

"You got it." Huggy turned to the window between the bar and the kitchen to give Starsky's order to the cook. Then he turned his attention back to his friend. "So, what do I owe the honor of this visit?"

"Figured it was time to start laying my troubles on somebody else instead of running to Hutch all the time."

"I sincerely doubt that Blondie minds," Huggy told him with a smile. "But, hey, lay it on me. I'm all ears."

"I don't know what to do, Hug. It's bad enough dealing with Jessica all the time, but now Nicky's in town too."

"And I bet he's hitting it off just fine with the little lady."

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I'm a bartender. That makes me an excellent judge of character. Little brother and your ball and chain are just alike. Two of a kind. Stands to reason they'd get along like gangbusters."

"Yeah, the two of them make a better couple then Jessica and I ever did." Starsky sighed heavily. "Right now they're back at my apartment 'getting to know each other'."

"You got what…three more months before that baby's due?"

"Something like that. August 24th to be exact."

"So, what then?"

"Then it's over. I'm getting a divorce and going after joint custody."

"You think Jessica's gonna go along with that?"

"She better, if she knows what good for her."

"The courts usually side with the mother…even bad mothers." Huggy felt the need to remind his friend of a fact of life on the streets.

"I don't want to take the baby away from her entirely, not unless I have to. She's still the mother. Maybe she'll feel different when she has the baby."

"About you or about the baby?"

"Both. Right now she doesn't seem to give a damn about either one of us."

"Take it from me, my friend, there is no way to ever know what is going on in a woman's mind. One minute they're all sweet and loving, and the next thing ya know they're a hell cat on wheels." Huggy grabbed a bar rag and swiped at the bar absently. "Ya know when Jessica worked here, she got hit on right and left, but she never paid any of the guys hanging around her no never mind. Not till she laid eyes on you. Then it was like nothing was going stand in her way of getting to know you."

"Yeah, she came on pretty strong," Starsky said with a smile as he remembered his first few dates with Jessica. Even in the enlightened seventies, some people would still have called her an easy lay. And she was far from inhibited when it came to sex.

"Yeah, once the two of you hooked up, you got tight pretty quick."

"It was like she knew me already. She liked the same things I did, the same movies, the same food…she even liked the Torino." His eyes darkened "And she liked Hutch in the beginning, or at least she pretended too. Now she acts like she hates him too."

"I'm sure there's some resentment there on her part, since she knows that's where you usually go when you need somebody to talk to."

"She was on the pill," Starsky said lost in his own thoughts. "That's what I don't get. Sometimes I think she got pregnant on purpose just so she could force me to marry her."

Huggy turned to the window to retrieve Starsky's food. He sat the plate in front of Starsky. The aroma of the chili and the hamburger reminded Starsky just how hungry he was. He began to eat as Huggy picked up his empty mug and carried it to the opposite end of the bar to refill it.

The door opened and a party of six came in demanding Huggy's immediate attention.

Starsky spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and enjoying good company. He played a few games of pool with one of the regulars and danced with a couple of girls he knew from the neighborhood. He called Hutch and told him where he was but declined Hutch's offer to join him.

Around midnight, Huggy joined him for a beer and said, "You're welcome to crash upstairs for the night if you want to."

Huggy had two furnished rooms upstairs that he kept for friends who needed a place to stay for a few days or just to crash when they'd had too much to drink to drive home. He also rented them out at a reasonable rate to his employees who needed a place to live until they could find something more permanent

"Thanks, Hug," Starsky said with a grateful smile. "I think I'll do that. I am kinda bushed. It's been a long day."

"Don't I know it," Huggy agreed. "Door's unlocked, and you know where everything is."