Chapter 13
Hutch was looking a little pale and Starsky could tell he was hurting again. He took the bottle of pain pills off the counter in the kitchen, "Hutch," he said as he tossed the bottle at him.
Hutch caught the bottle and said, "No. Not now. I need to be fully awake tonight. These make me sleepy."
"What are those?" Singleton asked.
"Nothing," Hutch said as he put the bottle in his pocket. He couldn't help but let out a little moan as he sat down on the couch.
"Hutchinson, are you hurt?" Singleton asked.
"Please, just call me Hutch and yes, I'm hurt a little." He glanced at Starsky as if to ask him if they should let Singleton and the FBI know just how bad Hutch was. Starsky nodded. Hutch lifted up his shirt revealing his badly bruised chest from the broken ribs and the beating he received from Ray.
"Did Monroe do that?" Singleton asked.
"Not directly but he's responsible for it." Hutch said.
"Forgive me for asking this, but are you…" Tillman started to ask but Starsky cut him off.
"He'll be okay."
"I'm just a little sore."
They had about an hour before Starsky and Hutch wanted to take Singleton and the FBI to The Pits. They had all packed a bag and changed into street clothes. Hutch called Huggy and told him there was a change in the plans.
When Farmer and Gary walked into The Pits, Farmer noticed Singleton sitting at the far end of the bar. He suppressed a smile. It felt good to see his partner again and to know that Starsky and Hutch could be trusted. He also felt a little relieved. "Let's sit here and wait for them," Farmer said to Gary taking a seat at a nearby table. They sat so that Farmer was near his partner. In fact, the bar stool Singleton was sitting on was only five feet away from him. Farmer was facing the doorway and Gary's back was toward the door.
"Thanks for not telling Monroe that I fell asleep in the car this afternoon," Gary said as he sat in the chair.
"No problem. We all need to look out for each other in this line of work. Besides, there was no harm done. I was able to get the message to their friend that owns this place that we needed to talk to them tonight. Monroe doesn't have to know everything."
When Singleton saw his partner walk through the door he wanted to jump for joy. He couldn't because Gary was with him, but he managed to give his partner a quick nod and smile. It went unnoticed by Gary. Tillman and Fairbanks were seated at a table near the front door.
It wasn't long before Starsky and Hutch came in. They sat down in the two empty chairs at the same table as Farmer and Gary. "Glad to see you could make it," Farmer said sarcastically. Singleton stood up and went to the restroom. Starsky nodded just slightly.
"Monroe said he'd give us three days, this better be important."
"It is, it is," Gary said.
"Listen to me," Hutch said angrily, as Farmer got up and left the table. He followed Singleton into the bathroom. "We told your boss that we would let him operate. We are not going to be at his beckon and call."
Starsky picked up how nervous Gary was getting now that he was alone at the table and decided to take advantage of it by moving to the vacant seat next to him. Hutch knew what his partner was up to and he scooted his own chair next to Gary's. Now they could play ping-pong. "Hutch's right. We're not going to come running every time Monroe says to."
"You called us here, what does he want?"
"It better be good, 'cause we ain't happy about having to come down here on our day off."
They kept talking and wouldn't give Gary a chance to say a thing. They wanted to give Farmer time to talk to Singleton alone, too. Huggy walked up to the table, "And what will you fine gents be having tonight?"
"I'll take a burger and a beer," Starsky said.
"Me, too," Hutch said.
"And what about you? What is your pleasure this evening?" Huggy asked Gary.
"I don't know. Whatdaya have?"
"Give the man a menu, Huggy," Starsky said.
Gary started to look around. Starsky knew he was probably looking for Farmer. "He's in there," he said as he pointed to the bathroom.
"Your buddy left you all alone with us," Hutch added, leaning in just a little closer to Gary.
"What's the matter? You're not scared of me and Hutch are ya?" Starsky whispered. "Maybe you should be."
"Is that a threat? You can't threaten me! You know what Monroe will do to you if he finds out?"
"You know what Monroe will do to you if he finds out?" Starsky mocked Gary. "What are you going to tell him? The two big bad policemen were mean to you?" Hutch let out a laugh. His partner could be pretty intimidating at times, and he loved it. "Oh, and while we're at it, you can tell him that Ray will be arrested for what he did to Hutch. We can't cover that up without drawing our captain's suspicion. He's going to be out of commission for a while."
"I'll tell him," Gary said, still sounding nervous.
Farmer, now using the name Dalton, came out of the bathroom and Starsky and Hutch went back to their seats allowing Farmer to sit next to Gary. "Okay, so what do you want, Dalton?" Starsky asked.
Huggy came back with two menus and handed one to Gary and one to Farmer. "Just let me look at the menu and place my order then we'll get down to business."
"Oh, sure take your sweet time," Hutch said, sounding impatient. He knew the longer they stayed with Farmer the better. But they couldn't let Gary know anything. Starsky and Hutch knew full well how it felt to be undercover and cut off from the department. And poor Farmer was way out of his area. They also knew they had to stay in character, including calling Farmer by the name Dalton. Singleton came out of the bathroom and sat back down at the bar.
Gary and Farmer placed their dinner order with Huggy. "Monroe has a shipment of goods coming in at the docks in two days. He's expecting the two of you to keep away."
"You didn't need to call us down here for that, Dalton. You could have waited to tell us that," Starsky said.
"I didn't feel like waiting. I've got better things to do than delivering messages when it's convenient for you, Starsky," Farmer said in a threatening manner.
"We got the message. Tell Monroe we'll stay away," Starsky said.
Huggy came back with their dinners and Starsky and Hutch took their plates. Starsky said, "If I sit here with these two, I'll lose my appetite."
"You lose your appetite? I doubt it," Hutch grinned as they moved to another table.
Starsky and Hutch met Singleton and the FBI agents at Hutch's after they left The Pits. Singleton told them that when they were in the bathroom, Farmer said that Monroe was going to be with the shipment coming into the docks because it was so big. He also said that another shipment would be arriving at the train station in a week and that would be an even bigger shipment. A decision had to be made whether or not to make the arrests and pull Farmer out in two days or wait another week.
"We've got enough to arrest Monroe now for murder but if we bust him in two days we can keep some junk off the streets," Hutch said.
"He said he's okay and can wait, but I don't like it. I don't like him staying in any longer. It's too dangerous. I think he's more worried than he wants me to know. I'd like to pull him out," Singleton said.
Starsky and Hutch shared a look. They understood how Singleton felt. His partner was in a bad position and he wanted him out. He'd been under long enough and it was getting more dangerous every day that went by. "Okay, let's make the bust in two days," Starsky said.
"We'd like to stick around a couple of days and help out," Fairbanks said.
"Since Monroe started off in Orlando, we could easily talk our supervisor into it," Tillman added.
Starsky and Hutch shrugged at each other. They usually didn't like involving the Feds, but they liked these two and they trusted them.
"Yeah sure, we sure could use all the help we can get," Hutch replied.
"Is there anything we can do until then? I'm worried about my partner."
"I would be too," Starsky replied.
"We need to wait the two days. If we wait until the shipment comes in, we can get a lot of junk off the streets and bust whoever is bringing it in," Hutch added.
"I know. I'm just sounding off, guys."
"It's okay. Believe me, we understand," Starsky said sympathetically.
The FBI agents made arrangements to stay at a hotel with Singleton. Starsky stayed at Hutch's but went home to check on things and remove the bug in his apartment that Monroe had placed.