The Stakeout
by
Chapter 1.
“Psst, Psst! Hutch, Hutch Can you hear me,” whispered Starsky into the walkie-talkie.
They had been staking out the warehouse for the last three nights running now; it was dark, damp and cold. Hutch was hidden behind 3 or 4 crates near the entrance of the building; Starsky on the other hand was guarding the rear.
“I’m here Buddy, anything going down your end?” replied Hutch
“Nah I’m just bored, cold and stiff,” Starsky said as he tried to make himself more comfortable. He stood up and tried to move his legs a bit, they were becoming very numb. At times like these he wondered why he didn’t have a different job, a nice 9-5 job where after work he would go home, eat and watch a bit of TV. But in his heart he knew he would have it no other way.
“Hutch, have you got anything to eat? I’m hungry” Starsky asked his partner.
Hutch smiled to himself, it wasn’t very often that Starsky wasn’t hungry. He never seemed to put weight on though. Maybe it was all that energy he had, he probably burned it all off. Anyway, most of the time when they bought his massive hotdogs with about 10 different fillings on them, they were called out and he never got to eat them.
“I’ve got some gum, but that’s all Buddy” said Hutch. He himself had to agree with Starsky, these stakeouts were tedious, it was just the waiting, often nothing happening at all. The sheer boredom, but he often used his time waiting trying out word games to keep himself alert. Hutch was currently dating an English teacher named Louise, they had met at Captain Dobeys, she was tutoring Dobey´s son and was there finishing a lesson one day when Starsky and Hutch rolled up for a barbecue, Hutch was smitten at once. He loved her accent and they could talk for hours. They both loved the theatre and spent a lot of time wandering around art galleries just enjoying each others company. Hutch was enjoying showing Louise around; she had only been in the States for a few months and it was a big difference from the English village where she spent her childhood in the south of England. But Louise was not maybe the typical English rose, she had thick, wavy black hair which most of the time she kept in a plait down her back, Hutch loved the way that this would work loose during the day and there would be wisps of hair hanging down the side of her face. She would constantly be tucking it behind her ears in an attempt to keep her hair neat. She had the most dazzling green eyes that he had ever seen and she had an amazing sense of humor. They spent as much time as they could together, which was difficult due to Hutch’s work load, and her teaching at the local High School. These last 3 nights had meant that they hadn’t seen each other at all, but to ease his boredom in his stakeouts Louise had set him a few word games to keep him alert. Hutches enjoyed doing crosswords, but obviously they were not very practical on a stake out in a dark dingy warehouse so she had given him an anagram to solve as best he could, the anagram was “The Morse Code” and he had been racking his brain for a while now and had almost got it, or so he thought.
Suddenly Hutch was aware of car lights around the front entrance.
“Starsk, we’ve got company” he whispered, he then maneuvered himself into a better position. He had just begun to wonder whether this tip off was just waste of time. Huggy Bear had heard on the street that something big was going down at the docks. Drugs were somehow coming into the warehouse and hitting the streets. It was 4 am and now it looked as though they were maybe going to get some action, but they needed to bide their time. Suddenly the door opened and in came two men; Hutch could see them silhouetted in the moonlight, the clouds clearing now and again. It was hard to make out any other detail; he could only see that they were both wearing baseball caps.
“Sonny, where’s the stuff?” the taller one asked.
“It’s supposed to be in a crate marked TVE 2534” Sonny replied. They were standing very close to Hutch, but so far they were totally unaware of his presence. He held his breath and listened.
“Hell, there must be hundreds of crates here, have you got a smoke?” He asked
The one named Sonny reached into his pocket and brought out a packet of Malboro´s, he passed one on to the taller guy; he got the matches out of his pocket, in doing so Hutch could see a gun tucked in his belt. Sonny lit a match for them both, and threw the match on the floor and stubbed it out. Hutch was that close that he could’ve easily have blown the match out himself. The two men moved further in, and the taller one switched on a flashlight and they began to read the codes on the crates.
“Sonny, this is gonna take all night and I promised Mandy I’d meet her tonight for a beer” groaned the taller guy
“Brad, get a grip ok, we’re here to do a job. The sooner we do it the sooner we get the cash, so just get on with it” replied Sonny
Oh well, thought Hutch at least we have two names to go on now.
Starsky could hear the men walking closer towards him, he was aware of the flashlight being shone over the crates, he kept very still and could feel the perspiration on his forehead, suddenly he didn’t feel cold anymore. He could hear them mumbling the code number over and over as they searched the warehouse.
Hutch desperately wanted to follow them but didn’t want to spook them, he also knew that at least one of them was armed and probably the other one too.
But he felt now that they were far enough away to be able to follow them at a good distance; he crept behind the crates and followed the flashlight.
Starsky could sense them getting nearer and nearer, then he just happened to look at the crate he was hiding behind, TVE 2534. Damn, there must be at least 400 crates here and I have to hide behind the one which is the one they’re looking for, he thought. He tried to turn around, it was still pretty dark and he wasn’t quite sure in which direction to go, he headed for the side of the warehouse, the floor was covered in all sorts of trash; broken glass, tape and string. He treaded very carefully and moved away from the crate.
“Hey Sonny, all the ones beginning with TVE are here, so it must be here somewhere.” Whispered Brad, they simultaneously stubbed out their cigarettes.
Hutch had nearly caught up to them he now knew that they were obviously working for someone, so did they bust them? Or take a chance and try to follow them? He decided to play it by ear for a while. He didn’t even know where Starsky was anyway.
“Bingo! TVE 2534, here it is all ready, God I hope it’s not heavy” Said Brad.
Starsky could see them trying to lift the crate, which was way too heavy for them to manhandle.
“Hey there’s no way we’re gonna carry it outta here so maybe we should just open it and take what we need, eh?” Asked Brad
“Hell, I dunno, let’s have a look init then, is there a crowbar here or anything to prise it open?” Sonny asked Brad.
Starsky could see them looking around, suddenly the taller one, answering to the name of Brad picked up a metal rod; they went towards the crate and began to loosen it. After a while they managed to open it and they peered into the crate.
“This can’t be right, no way!” said Sonny
Hutch had now managed to creep up to them and could see them quite clearly; he still had no idea where Starsky was.
Starsky on the other hand could now see Hutch’s blond hair, the clouds had cleared again from the moonlight and the light shone through a small window over the door. Suddenly the warehouse seemed very bright; both detectives felt very vulnerable and tried to crouch down as far as they could.
“Do you think we can eat this?” asked Brad
Hutch couldn’t quite make out what was in the crate, but it was obviously edible.
“Just get the lid on and let’s get outta here,” replied Sonny
“Hell, we must have it wrong, the information can’t be right, we’ll have to come back tomorrow and search some more, come on lets get out of here.” said Sonny suddenly he began to look around almost sensing that they had company.
Come on, let’s get outta here!” said Sonny
Starsky could see the two men very clearly now, he could see the taller one, Brad put what ever it was in his pocket before closing the crate up, the two men then turned out the torch and quietly left the building. Sonny seemed nervous and looked back a couple of times, but after a short while Starsky and Hutch could hear the car driving away,
“Hey Starsk, where are you?” Hutch whispered, even knowing that the warehouse was empty he still didn’t want to call out.
“Here, Blondie” Starsky stood up and walked over to the crate, Hutch joined him and together they prised open the lid of the crate again.
“Hey, I’m in heaven,” said Starsky as the crate revealed loads of small chocolate Easter eggs, all packed and ready for the candy stores.
“So, what do you make of it?” asked Hutch. The two detectives now sat on a couple of nearby crates and tried to work out their next move.
“Well, it’s either the wrong crate and someone has screwed up or people are getting juiced up on chocolate” Starsky answered
Anyway I’m starving, tired and I wanna go home, lets call it a night and try again tomorrow, we’ll see what Captain Dobey has to say about it then” said Starsky
“Damn, I have date tomorrow, I thought that we could’ve wrapped this up tonight, maybe there’s just nothing to it” said Hutch
“Still brushing up on your English Hutch?” asked Starsky grinning
“Hey, talking of which, what’s an anagram of The Morse Code?” asked Hutch
“What?” replied Starsky now frowning at his friend
“An anagram, you switch the letters around and make new words”
“Why? I mean why would you want to switch the letters around for, I mean what is the point?” Said Starsky
“It’s a word game, it keeps you alert, you know using your little grey cells and all that, you see I told Louise that I had difficulty keeping awake sometimes on these stakeouts so she gave me some word games to keep me thinking and I’ve been racking my brains all night trying to think of a sensible answer” explained Hutch
“Terrific, all that I’ve got to look forward to is an empty apartment and even worse an empty refrigerator grumbled Starsky
“Well what on earth happened to you and Alison down in the garage? I mean I thought she was the one” asked Hutch
“Yeah well, she was hot in those overalls and boy did she know a lot about cars, but she kept teasing me about my car and you know what my car means to me Hutch, I mean its not just a car, its almost a part of me” replied Starsky
“Yeah I know, I know, I don’t understand it, but I know, come on lets hit the road” and with that Hutch put his hand on Starsky´s shoulder and together they began to walk out of the warehouse. Starsky pulled the Easter egg out of his pocket which he had been hiding, unwrapped it and took a bite”
“Starsky, you’re not seriously going to eat that!! You don’t know where it’s been, I mean I don’t think that this is even a very good food storage facility” said Hutch as he tried to take the Easter egg off Starsky.
“This came from the Easter bunny, Hutch and he left it for me and me only!” Replied Starsky as he held tight on to the egg and of course the inevitable happened the egg broke, but something fell on the floor
“Hutch, my egg” whined Starsky “You don’t know how hungry I am, I could eat anything”
Hutch bent down and picked up very small package.
“Hey Starsk, look” Hutch tugged at Starsky´s jacket, Starsky was now licking the melted chocolate on his fingers.
Hutch opened the small package, white powder spilled out into his hand; he dipped the tip of his finger and licked it,
“Hell, would ya believe it, cocaine” Hutch whistled through his breath, Starsky stared at him “Hey Hutch you know what this means?”
“The other guy, I mean, how long is it till the other guy comes to the same conclusion?” said Starsky looking at Hutch
“I’ll go and radio for some back up, those guys will be back before we know it and as dawn is breaking they’ll be in a hurry” said Hutch as he walked towards the door, he got no further than that, he was hit on the back of the head.
“Well Blondie, what about sharing some of that candy?” Sonny growled.
Starsky heard the voices and took his gun out of its holster, he heard Hutch go down and was worried about his partner, he had to tread very carefully, and he guessed that they were armed. He crouched down behind a stack of crates and tried to move forward to check on Hutch.
“Hey Brad, can you smell pig? They always travel in pairs, come on lets go hunting” said Sonny
The two men split up; Sonny went toward the back of the warehouse, creeping slowly. Brad went down the left hand side. Starsky couldn’t see Hutch, he figured he was still unconscious; his priority was to get to his partner and get him the hell out of here, now was not the time for heroics and one-man arrests. He crept slowly towards the door where he figured Hutch was laying. He had lost sight of the one called Sonny, but could hear Brad now moving towards him and he could smell him, he reeked of cigarette smoke, and he was close, very close. Starsky moved forward one step at a time, he now saw the mans shadow in front of him and with one swift move Starsky knocked him on the back of the head with his gun, Brad went down silently. Starsky was breathing heavily now, he disarmed the man and reached in his back pocket for his handcuffs, he turned the man over and handcuffed him. Suddenly he heard a voice
“Oh nice one pig, now there’s only the two of us. Do you wanna join your friend over there? He’s not lookin so good” shouted Sonny out to Starsky.
“I got you well covered so you had better just give me that gun now, drop it!” shouted Sonny again
Starsky couldn’t see him and didn’t know if he was bluffing. Dawn had now broken outside, but it was still dim in the warehouse, suddenly there was a noise to the left of him a scuffling, shots rang out.
Starsky crouched down, he moved swiftly forward, the distraction enabled him to get closer to Hutch and as he neared him he noticed the dead cat which had been shot at. That cat had probably saved his life. Sonny had obviously got spooked when he heard the cat and had mistaken it for Starsky.
Sonny now moved forward as well, cursing at himself for losing the chance to get the cop. Hell he should’ve just shot the other one. Well he was definitely going to get this one. At this point Starsky managed to get a good view of Sonny, Starsky aimed his gun
“Ok police! drop your weapon now” shouted Starsky as he aimed at Sonny.
Sonny suddenly realized that he was cornered, he had lost concentration with that damned cat and now the cop had him in his sights. He didn’t have much choice.
“Drop your weapon now!” Starsky shouted as he moved in on Sonny.
Sonny threw the gun onto the floor and put his hands up. Starsky swung him around, read him his rights and dragged him off to where Hutch was laying; he reached for Hutch’s handcuffs and handcuffed Sonny to the wheel of a nearby forklift.
He then turned his attention to Hutch.
“Hey, Buddy, Hutch come on, please don’t do this, come on” Starsky pleaded. His partner was pale and unresponsive. He ran out to the car, Hutch’s car as Hutch told him that his was just too obvious for stakeouts. He radioed in and asked for an ambulance and a black and white. He rushed back to Hutch; Hutch now began to regain consciousness,
“Hey I’m here, are you ok?” asked Starsky, knowing it was a stupid question.
Hutch grimaced and put his hand to the back of his head, his hand was soon covered with blood.
“It’s ok, you’re gonna be fine” said Starsky trying desperately to comfort his friend, hell, why did those ambulances take so long? Hutch closed his eyes again
“Hey pig, he’s gonna die” Laughed Sonny
“Shut up or I’ll take that forklift out of gear and face it towards the harbor and I’m not kiddin! Just shut the hell up, not another word. You’re gonna be sorry for this!” shouted Starsky.
Sonny laughed back, but seeing how wound up Starsky was decided not to push his luck any further.
“Come on Buddy, stay with me, come on you have that date with that gorgeous English teacher tonight and we have to solve the Morse code puzzle yet, hang in there Hutch, please” pleaded Starsky
Hutch opened his eyes and looked into Starsky´s face and tried to manage a smile, but with every movement his head hurt. Suddenly to Starsky´s great relief he could hear the sirens coming.
Starsky held on to Hutch’s hand, the black and white arrived first, swiftly followed by the ambulance. He stood by as the paramedics carefully lifted Hutch into the ambulance.
“Hey Starsk, you ok?” asked Sam. He had been on the force for about 15 years and knew how these detectives worked; he liked being in uniform and no way did he want a bit of what they had but he admired them immensely, during the years he had seen them poisoned, shot and hurt…a lot
“Yeah, Yeah, can you and Bill, book them and I’ll be along later, I’m gonna follow Hutch to the hospital. Tell Captain Dobey I’ll report as soon as I know anything” said Starsky
“Sure no problem” nodded Sam as he went to unfasten Sonny and Brad who had now regained consciousness and was quite happily getting quite verbal, until he was threatened with more charges. Even Sonny told him to pack it in. he was now worried what Foster was going to say when he found out that they had screwed up the job, not only had they been arrested, but they had also lost the drugs.
Starsky started Hutch’s car which he never drove by choice. It always amazed him that Hutch; who had great taste in women (well most of the time, if you don’t count the crazy nurse episode), who was educated, good looking and sophisticated was willing to be seen driving this old thing. What was it with him?
He drove as fast as he could to the hospital; he figured he would phone Dobey from the hospital.
Hutch was still being assessed when he reached the ER; he walked over to the pay phone and called Captain Dobey.
“Hey Captain, Starsky here, I’m down here at the emergency department with Hutch, he got a knock on the head, so I’m gonna hang around here for a while to see if he’s ok, then I’ll come down to the precinct and fill you in” Starsky said
“You do that and I want to know the whole story, an you keep me informed on Hutch’s progress, I’ll see you in my office as soon as you get here!!” said Captain Dobey. He always sounded gruff, but he cared about his men and they were always top of his priority list.
Starsky then phoned Louise and told her where Hutch was and what was happening, as usual she was very calm and said that she would be there as soon as she could.
Starsky then walked in to the recovery room and saw Hutch lying in a bed in the corner. He looked asleep, so Starsky looked around for a nurse to ask about his partners injuries.
“Excuse me; my name is Detective David Starsky. My partner came in with a head injury, is there anyone who can tell me how he is?” Starsky asked a nurse at the desk.
She told him that he could wait by his partner and a doctor would be along as soon as possible. Starsky walked over to Hutch who now opened his eyes.
“Hey Starsk, Did I spend all night drinking and having fun or did I get hit?” Hutch asked screwing up his face.
Starsky smiled and replied “Hey Buddy, you got slight knock on that lovely blond head of yours, but I’m sure you’ll be fine and back to your crosswords and word games with the lovely Louise sooner than you know!”
Then the doctor on duty walked over and introduced himself as Dr.Williams, he told them that Hutch would be staying in over night just to keep an eye on him as he was badly concussed, there was no fracture and hopefully would be fine tomorrow, but for today he would have one hell of a headache and would be given some painkillers. They would continue to monitor him up on the ward where they would be taking him shortly, Starsky then spied Louise walking over. As usual her hair was falling loose from her long plait. Starsky found her eyes amazing too and he liked the way she dressed, she was always in jeans, always in her faded denim jacket and wore her white sneakers or trainers as she insisted in calling them. She walked over and kissed Hutch on the forehead, “Hey good lookin, what ever happened to you? She asked
Hutch told her he was going to be fine, Starsky then decided that he was sooner or later going to have to make a start on the report, so he said goodbye to them both and promised to look in later.
The first thing he did then was to take Hutch’s rusty car back to his place and pick up his Ford Torino. There, as he sat in the driver’s seat he felt he was finally home, he breathed a sigh of relief and put his foot on the gas pedal and roared off towards the precinct. On arriving he realized that he still hadn’t eaten and knew that he would be useless to anyone if he didn’t have something to eat now, so he went down to the canteen and bought a couple of sandwiches, some potato chips, some soda, and of course some candy. He took it up to his desk, put his feet up and began to eat. Suddenly the door opened to Captain Dobeys office and he stormed in, “Starsky, get in here now!” he shouted
Starsky who was busily stuffing his face had completely forgotten that he was supposed to report to Dobey as soon as he got there.
“I’m comin Captain” he said and took a sandwich with him; although he could hardly form words as he had his mouth so full of food.
“Sit down Starsky and stop eating in my office, you’re putting crumbs everywhere!” said Captain Dobey pointing to the chair opposite his desk.
“Now Starsky, I want to know what went down last night and why one of my officers is laying in the hospital” he continued, so Starsky swallowed and began to tell the Captain what went down the night before right from the beginning, about the chocolate eggs, the cat getting shot and then the men coming back
“You know what Captain, that cat saved my life, it gave me the chance to make my move,” Starsky said
“Well less about the cat, what about these men, Sonny and Brad they’re not talking and are obviously too scared. Go back and see if you missed anything and don’t forget I need a report on my desk today” said Dobey
Starsky took another bite out of his sandwich, stood up and sauntered back to his desk, he sat down again and put his feet up, now intent on finishing his food, but then, Captain Dobey came in again,
“Hey Starsky, what are you still doing here?” Dobey asked
Starsky´s reply was to point to his food, Captain Dobey looked at him, pointed to the door but said nothing, Starsky got the message, and he stuffed a few potato chips in his mouth, shrugged his shoulders and grabbed his keys. Captain Dobey watched him leave; he then looked around at the other detectives.
“What are you lot staring at?” he shouted, in response they all turned back to their work , Dobey picked up Starsky´s tray, took it into his office, closed the door and then finished what was left of Starsky´s food.
On the way down to his car Starsky suddenly remembered his candy bars, so he ran back and looked through the window into the office, his tray had gone, he then saw the closed door to Dobey´s office, he sighed and went to the candy machine in the corridor and bought a couple more bars to take with him.
Chapter 2
Starsky meets Tiger.
Starsky drove to the warehouse, it was still cordoned off and there was still a black and white there on duty, Starsky parked his car, flashed his badge and entered the warehouse. The crate had been taken away by forensics, Starsky walked towards the back of the warehouse, there was nothing to see so he then walked back towards the front, he stopped, he thought he heard something, nah he was mistaken. He began to walk off again, no, he definitely heard something, he looked behind the crate near the forklift, there he saw the dead cat, there were already flies there, he looked at the cat, it was a scrawny looking thing, and suddenly something moved. His first thought was that it could maybe be a rat; Starsky hated rodents and stepped back. Then he saw where the noise was coming from, there was a tiny kitten lying near the dead cat. Starsky moved closer, the kitten was undernourished and looked as though it wouldn’t survive for long so Starsky leant forward and carefully picked up the kitten, it was so weak that it didn’t even try to escape. He looked around for something to wrap it up in, the least he could do was to take it to a vet and have it put down humanely. He carried it to his car, he looked in the back seat and saw Hutch’s baseball jacket in the back, so he wrapped the kitten up in Hutch’s jacket and placed the kitten on the passenger seat and drove off very carefully. He radioed in and asked for the address of the nearest vets, he then set off, unusually slow for Starsky. He found the place and read the brass plaque outside, ok this was the right place. He held the kitten still in Hutch’s jacket in his arms and went inside. He explained to the receptionist what had happened and sat down to wait in the waiting room. The waiting room was empty apart from a young boy holding his fish in a plastic bag.
He looked at Starsky, “Hey mister, what yer got there?” he asked
“It’s a kitten, he’s in bad shape so I don’t think he’s gonna make it, but I didn’t want to leave him outside to die, what’ve you got?” Starsky replied
“Oh this is Swimmy, he’s been quiet for a few days so I thought I’d come down here to see if they could do anything for him, I brought my pet spider, Leggy here once and he recovered, I think he choked on a fly, but he soon perked up, I’m hopin that Swimmy will do the same” The boy replied
Starsky looked at the fish; it was lying on its back and would obviously not be swimming any more. He looked at the boy and wondered what to say, he was saved by the appearance of the receptionist who kindly led the boy holding the plastic bag into the surgery. Starsky looked at the kitten now, he hadn’t really looked at it before, it was a tortoiseshell color with probably a white belly, but it was so dirty that he couldn’t tell. The reception then came to tell him that he could go in next with the kitten, as he walked in he passed the boy. His dirty face now streaked with tears and carrying a little cardboard box, probably Swimmy thought Starsky.
“Don’t let the kitten die mister, please” said the boy
Starsky just ruffled the boy’s hair and told him that he would do what he could.
Suddenly all thoughts of the kittens welfare went out of the window when he saw the vet, she was had the most catching smile that Starsky had ever seen. For a moment he forgot why he was there, but was subtly reminded when he felt his hand get wet, oh boy, he thought, Hutch is not going to like this, now I’m definitely gonna have to launder this jacket. The vet introduced herself as Carrie and as she carefully took the kitten from the jacket she sighed, it was not looking good. She was going to get some fluids into the kitten and give it some jabs. They would then see if the kitten would survive the night. Starsky left his number and went to leave.
“Excuse me, what’s his name?” she asked
Starsky looked at the little striped kitten, “Tiger!” He replied. He felt sorry for the little kitten, it looked very scruffy and scrawny, but it had somehow got to him, it had tiny little paws and a pink nose. Starsky thanked Carrie and promised to phone later for an update. As he walked through the waiting room he saw that the boy was still there,
“So is he still alive?” asked the boy
“Yep he’s gonna be fine, I know it” said Starsky
“Good “said the boy.
Starsky then put his hand on the boys shoulder and they walked out together, the boy ran off with the box tucked under his arm. Starsky went back to the precinct to fill out his report and to see if Sonny or Brad had decided to talk. He spent a while typing the reports and clearing his desk, then he decided to go and visit Hutch. He was just about to leave the office when he remembered to phone Carrie the vet and check on Tiger.
The news was not good, the kitten was very weak, but if he made it through the night then he had a good chance, only the next few hours would tell.
He walked into Hutch’s room at the hospital only to find his partner sleeping, he sat down beside him. He had expected to find Louise there, but his partner was alone. He sat there for a while; he then got to thinking about the word puzzle, the anagram which Louise had given Hutch. The Morse Code” Starsky wrote the letters down and began to scribble words down, this was not his sort of thing, but Hutch was asleep and he had nothing else to do.
After a while he nodded off in the chair next to Hutch´s bed.
Hutch woke up and smiled when he saw the curly haired head of his friend in the chair beside him.
Starsky stirred, his neck ached and his arm was numb.
“Hey how yer doin?” Starsky asked
“I´m ok, just got a bit of a headache now” replied Hutch
Hutch then went on to explain that he had sent Louise home as there was no need for her to hang around at the hospital while he slept, so she had left and promised to look in later.
“Hey I think that I have solved your anagram Hutch” said Starsky, obviously pleased with himself.
“What?” asked Hutch
“you know, the angram, The Morse Code” replied Starsky
“Oh that” replied Hutch with a smile
“Well don´t you want to know?” asked Starsky
“Yeah sure, what is it then?
“Dee chest room” replied Starsky, now grinning from ear to ear
Hutch burst out laughing, then followed it by a groan as he held his head.
Starsky was hurt, he hated to be laughed at.
“Well if yer gonna laugh at me, I may as well go and do some work I´m gonna go an see Huggy.” Said Starsky as he stood up to go.
“Hey Starsk I’m sorry, don’t go, please” replied Hutch
Starsky sat down again and looked at Hutch, who was still smiling, but now not laughing at Starsky.
“Tell me about the case Starsky, do you know anything about those two guys yet? Asked Hutch
“Nah they’re not talking, obviously working for someone big, I’m gonna go an speak to Huggy to see if he has anything more” replied Starsky
Just then the door opened and Louise walked in,
“Hi Dave I thought you might be here so I brought you some coffee” she said as she passed him a cup of steaming coffee.
She then leant over and kissed Hutch on his forehead
“How are you feeling Ken? She asked, before he had a chance to answer she spotted Starsky´s Morse Codes notes on the side of the bed, she smiled
“So you haven’t worked it out yet have you?” she said
Hutch opened his mouth to reply, but Starsky stared at him and stood up to leave
“Well I hate to leave you two love birds, but some of us have a job to do, so I’m off, I’ll see you in the morning Hutch and Louise I look forward to seeing you soon”
With that he left the room and headed off to the Pits.
Louise sat with Hutch until well into the night; she spent the time going over homework, marking books, while Hutch slept. She was more than fond of this smooth talking policeman, she had been immediately attracted to him, she loved nothing better than being at his place just sitting close to him while he strummed his guitar and hummed a tune. She also had a soft spot for his partner, he made her laugh and was always teasing her about the way she spoke, but she could give as good as she got and the three of them spent a lot of time together. She soon realized that they came as a package. She admired the way that the two detectives looked out for each other; they were more than good friends and were not afraid of showing their feelings. She had been brought up in the South of England and English people are not known for showing their feelings especially not a couple of street wise policemen, but she liked it, she liked it a lot. She felt very privileged to be a part of this relationship.
She now looked on at the sleeping Hutch, she stroked his hair, and lay her head on his chest she was falling deeply in love with this man, but wasn’t sure if she would be able to get used to this side of his job seeing him get hurt like this again and again. For now she pushed that thought to the back of her head and soon fell asleep listening to the soft breathing of her lover.
The next day Starsky got up early and stopped off at the vets, he didn’t know what to expect as he walked up the steps and he hadn’t really thought it out, he hadn’t got time for a pet, I mean he had difficulty looking after any plants that Hutch gave him and he only really took the kitten there to have it put down humanely, because he didn’t really expect the kitten to survive. He introduced himself to the receptionist; she then called out for Carrie, who soon appeared in the waiting room and smiled at Starsky.
“We have very good news, we gave Tiger some fluids and his jabs and he’s perked up a lot, you can take him home and bring him in again on Friday and I’ll check him over” she told Starsky as she brought out a cage with a very noisy kitten in it.
“Well I don’t really have time for a kitten” Starsky began to say, but then Carrie took the kitten out of the cage, the kitten was now clean and very perky. Carrie passed the bundle to Starsky
“Looks like I’m gonna have to find time” said Starsky grinning.
Carrie put the kitten in a box and passed the box to Starsky.
Starsky walked out and opened the car door, he made space on the back seat and put the box there, he then drove off towards the precinct. The kitten whined during the whole trip, in the end he had to pull over and see if it was ok, he put the box on the front seat, as he opened the box the kitten jumped out. Starsky tried to coax it into the box again but Tiger was having none of this. He sat up on the dash board then leapt onto the passenger seat and there he sat.
“Zebra 3, zebra 3 come in”
“Zebra 3 Starsky here”
“Starsky this is Captain Dobey, where the hell are you? Hutch has been waiting for you to pick him up and I was hoping you would turn up for work today”
“Sorry captain, I got held up, I was tied up with a witness, don’t worry I’ll get Hutch now”
“Then I want to see your ass here!” captain Dobey shouted
“Yes Captain”
He looked down at the kitten who was now sitting quite quietly in the passenger seat, Starsky then noticed Hutch’s jacket on the floor from yesterday, hell thought Starsky I’m gonna have to get that to the cleaners before I pick up Hutch, so he pulled in at the first Dry cleaners he saw and jumped out of the car, but he was stopped in his tracks by loud meowing, Tiger was running up and down the dashboard, Starsky tapped the window and told the kitten that he wouldn’t be a minute and was beginning to wonder what he had taken on.
He then returned to the car only to find the kitten pacing up and down meowing really loudly as soon as Starsky started to stroke him he sat again in the passenger seat, curled up and as Starsky drove off towards the hospital he soon fell asleep.
Starsky parked the car and looked across at his passenger; the kitten was pretty cute, especially now that he had been cleaned up.
Starsky very slowly opened the door, hoping that Tiger would sleep, but no, he woke up and started whining, Starsky suddenly had an idea, he put Tiger in the pocket of his leather jacket and told him to be very quiet, they then headed off to get Hutch, who was waiting in the corridor and obviously had been for a while.
“Where the hell have you been?” Hutch asked “I’ve been here for hours waiting; Dobey said you’d be along early to give me a lift”
“Sorry I got held up, I took your jacket to the cleaners” said Starsky, only then realizing that he had, as you say let the cat out of the bag
“Why? There was nothing wrong with it” Hutch yelled, obviously not in a good mood and now was not the time to tell him about a kitten messing on his jacket.
“Come on Buddy, calm down I’m here now, I’ll get you a coffee and a donut as soon as we get to the precinct ok?” Starsky said, taking his partner by the right arm, but being careful not to let him see Tiger, who was curled up in the right pocket of Starsky´s jacket.
As they got in the car Tiger jumped out and sat on the passenger seat.
“What the hell is that?” yelled Hutch as he narrowly avoided sitting on the kitten and in doing so knocked his head on the top of the car
“Well I was just about to introduce you, grinned Starsky, Hutch meet Tiger, Tiger this is Hutch” grinned Starsky and as he reached out for the kitten.
“Starsk, what the hell are you doing with that thing in here?” asked Hutch, definitely not in the mood for any of this and now beginning to get a headache again.
Tiger dug his claws into the upholstery and was obviously not moving, Hutch on the other hand was not giving in either, so he sat as close as he could without actually sitting on the cat Although this meant actually sitting on the edge of the seat.
“This kitten saved my life and I’m looking after it till it gets better” replied Starsky
Hutch sighed and could not be bothered to argue so they drove off to the precinct and didn’t say much more.
When they got there Starsky took the kitten again and put it in his pocket,
“Starsky, surely you not taking it in there?” asked Hutch
“Hey, I’m not leaving him in the car, he’ll get lonely, besides he has to eat and I bought him some cat food so let’s go up, Dobeys waiting”
Hutch slammed the door and he could have sworn that the cat grinned maliciously at him, nah he was imagining things.
As they reached the corridor they could already hear Captain Dobey yelling at someone so they went straight to see him,
“Where have you to been, Starsky you were supposed to pick up your partner hours ago!” yelled Captain Dobey
“Umm Yeah I got held up with a witness Capt” Starsky replied trying hard to keep the kitten in his pocket.
Hutch sat down and glared at Starsky. The Captain went on to explain that they had made progress with the two men brought in and with so many charges against them had been able to do a deal, so they finally gave them a name, the man importing the drugs was a George Foster. But so far they had drawn a blank; he seemed to have vanished off the face off the planet. He owned several small candy stores around the city, but hadn’t been seen for a couple of days.
“Starsky! What the hell is the matter with you! Can’t you keep still while I’m talking to you?” Yelled Capt Dobey again
“Ermm Sorry Capt, but is that all?”
“Yeah, yeah, now go and do something!!”
The two detectives went out to the office, Starsky went to his desk and got some cat food out and tried to feed the kitten, Hutch Got a cup of coffee, sat down and went through the files on this, George Foster. Even in his bad mood, he couldn’t but smile, as he watched his partner try to coax the kitten to eat, but all to no avail.
“You know Starsk, maybe you should give to someone who knows about animals eh?” said Hutch
Starsky by now had tried everything and still the kitten wouldn’t eat, Starsky tried to turn his attention to the files
“Hey Hutch shall we go and see Huggy and see if he’s heard of this guy?” asked Starsky
At that moment Captain Dobey walked in “Starsky what the hell of you got there? This is not a petting zoo, you know the rules”
“This is Tiger and he saved my life, so I’m just spending a little time with him” replied Starsky
“I don’t care if it’s related to the Queen of England, get it out of here!” said Captain Dobey
“We’re going” said Starsky
“Hey Hutch, you should’ve seen the vet, was she beautiful or what?” said Starsky
“Starsk, you can’t have that with you all day, you have to get rid of it” said Hutch
“What I think he’s really cute, look at his little face”
They got in the car again, this time Hutch getting maybe a little more of the seat
“Hey why can’t he go in that box in the back?” asked Hutch
“He doesn’t like it, he likes to be up front here with me” replied Starsky
On the way they bought a couple of donuts and a couple of coffees. Starsky put his on the dashboard as he pulled out of the parking lot; tiger jumped up onto the dashboard and began to lick the donut,
“Hey Hutch will yer look at that, he’s eating” said Starsky
“He’ll probably be sick all over your car you know” replied Hutch
“Nah, he won’t”
They drove off to Huggys, Starsky was now very hungry as soon as they got there they ordered the specials with extra relish for Starsky.
He sat the kitten on the stool beside them and waited for Huggy
“Starsk, you can’t take that kitten with us all the time, I mean are you gonna get it a badge or something?” said Hutch
Huggy then arrived “Hey Starsk, what have you get there, you know what the health inspectors would say, I can’t have any animals in here” he said
“Ok, ok we’ll go as soon as we’ve got our food, I’m starving and need to eat, Tiger here ate all my donut on the way”
Huggy unfortunately could give them no real information, so they got their meals and began to eat their burgers. As they sat there eating discussing the case, Tigers paw came up and managed to pull Starsky´s burger clean from the bun, he knocked it to the floor and began to eat it.
“Hey Tiger! That was mine” yelled Starsky
Hutch nearly choked on his as he laughed so much.
He was now beginning to realize how alike they were, the kitten and his partner. They were born survivors and for some unknown reason survived on the most unhealthy of diets…
Starsky was a softie and doted on the kitten, it traveled around with him in his Ford Torino day and night, he made such a remarkable recovery that unfortunately Tiger didn’t need to go the vets anymore so any chance of a romance with the vet was out of the question.
The case progressed slowly; all the leads tended to fizzle out and as they sat in the office finally filing away the case, Starsky suddenly remembered something.
“Hey Hutch, what was the answer to the Morse code anagram?” asked Starsky
Hutch smiled and replied “well it suddenly came to me, the answer was; here comes dots”
Starsky looked at his partner and was just about to reply when Tiger suddenly jumped up on the desk and managed to spill Hutch´s hot coffee in his lap. So the next few moments were taken up with mopping up the coffee and saved Starsky from making some comment about the waste of time spent on these anagrams!
It had not been a good day, they hated an open case, but try as they might they had to file it away for the time being…at least until something new turned up. There were more cases which needed their attention. It was late and as usual Starsky and Tiger were hungry so all three of them headed off towards Huggys to grab a bite to eat, then Hutch would be off to see Louise and Starsky would hang around at Huggys for a bit and wait to see what tomorrow would bring…..
