Las
Vegas Strangler
We
stood on the observation deck at the Las Vegas airport, watching the Lear Jet
disappear into the distance. A warm
wind tousled his hair, but he didn't notice.
He kept watching the spot where the plane disappeared for a long time
after it was gone. And I was watchin'
him, waitin' for the storm.
He's
been quiet for two days, cold and controlled, like he always is when he's
really upset and doesn't want anybody to know.
Once we got the Las Vegas Strangler, he shut down. He does that sometimes. It drives me crazy.
Finally,
he turned and asked quietly, "Ready?"
I
just nodded, and followed him into the airport. I walked faster, until I caught up with him and we walked side by
side through the doorway. He didn't
look around or say a word. Like I say,
it drives me crazy when he's like this.
What I mean is, it drives me crazy when he's like this with me. When he won't talk to me, except in that
coldly polite tone that can freeze me with just a few words.
I
knew he was havin' a hard time. It
ain't easy to see one of your boyhood friends die. Jack Mitchell was so young, just our age. Killed by a brain tumor. Of course it didn't help that he was
suspected of murder, and that Hutch and me had been investigating him. Talk about guilt trips. My partner was on a big one.
Friendships
are real important to Hutch. I get the
idea he didn't have a lot of friends when he was growin' up, although he hardly
ever talks about his family or how things were when he was a kid. And he doesn't have a whole lot of friends,
real friends now. It's hard to get
close to people when you're a cop. He
really cares about the people he does call his friends. Huggy and Dobey, and Luke, the police
lieutenant who was his partner when Hutch was a rookie, are near the top of his
list. And me of course. I'm usually right on the top of that list,
although I'm not so sure about that right now.
We
had just stepped outside into that Las Vegas heat when Lt. Cameron walked over
to us. Boy, has this guy got great
timing or what? I mean, he tricks us
into coming to Las Vegas so he can use Hutch to get to Jack Mitchell. Then he hounds us about Mitchell, accusin'
him of bein' the Las Vegas Strangler, refusin' to listen to Hutch when he tries
to tell him that Jack is innocent. Then
he all but calls us every name in the book when the killings keep happenin',
like he thinks we're helpin' Mitchell murder showgirls or somethin'. And now that it's over, here he is,
remindin' Hutch that the friend he was investigatin' is dead.
Hutch
is eatin' himself alive over this, and Cameron is standin' there, smilin' like
there's nothin' wrong.
The
guy must have the sensitivity of a telephone pole. There he was, standin' in front of us, all smiles. Hutch just stood there, but I'm not sure he
was really seein' Cameron.
Cameron
started talkin'. I don't think he even
realized that he wasn't getting through to Hutch. He started babblin' about how he's heard that we're leavin' to go
home, that he knows we stayed so Hutch could make arrangements for sending
Jack's body home and pack up his stuff.
He starts in on what good work we did, how grateful the City of Las
Vegas and the police department are, how he's gonna make sure Dobey gets a
letter about what a good job we did.
(This part sounded like he was readin' from somethin', so I figured one
of his superiors was makin' him say it.)
Through
it all Hutch just stood there, not movin', not reactin' at all. He does that when his emotions are about to
overwhelm him, and he's tryin' desperately to keep control. He just turns all cold and zones out. Most of the time it's not me he's shuttin'
out, though. It's just the rest of the
world he wants to keep at bay, so no one will see him lose control.
Even
when I was poisoned, he was always gentle and caring with me, although I know
now that while he was takin' care of me, he was nearly overwhelmed by his rage
at the guy who poisoned me. He told me
later that he almost lost it when he went back to Vic Bellamy's apartment. He was tearin' the place apart, desperate to
find somethin', anything to link Bellamy with the guy who hired him to poison
me. He found him, too. Saved my life. Again.
Anyway,
Cameron finally got the message and stopped talkin'. He looked at me. I just
shrugged with a silly grin plastered on my face.
Hutch
shook himself a little, and seemed to come back to where we were from wherever
he'd been. He looked at Cameron,
apparently seein' him for the first time.
His whole body tensed, his hands clenched into fists.
The
lieutenant stepped back. I think he was
thinkin' what I was thinkin', that Hutch was gonna hit him. Cameron and I were both rememberin' the
scene in the jail, when Cameron was tryin' to convince us that Jack was the
Strangler. Hutch said he ought to take
Cameron's head off for trickin' us, and Cameron replied that if Hutch still
felt that way when it was all over, he'd have his chance.
Well,
here we were. It was all over. And Hutch still felt that way. And Cameron was standin' right in front of
him. For one awful moment, I thought my
partner was gonna take his chance. His
fist came up, and his weight shifted.
Cameron thought so, too, 'cause he took another step back and got ready to
defend himself.
Hutch
is a gentleman. He can send a goon
across the room with one punch, but he's not aggressive, unless I'm in
trouble. He'll go after anybody who
says things about me or tries to hurt me, but otherwise he doesn't look for
fights unless he's frustrated by the way a case is goin', or not goin'. He knows he can take care of himself if he
does get involved in a ruckus, but he doesn't usually invite them. He'd rather try to talk it over. So I wasn't surprised when his fist went
back to his side and he drew a deep breath, trying to make himself relax.
Cameron
said softly, "I really believed he was guilty."
"And
, you were wrong, weren't you?"
Hutch's tone was so cold it would have frozen the Amazon rain forest, if
you know what I mean. "You had us
hounding an innocent man, an innocent man who's only crime was having a brain
tumor that was slowly killing him."
"I
was wrong, I'm sorry."
I
was really surprised Cameron would admit it, and I think Hutch was, too. But it wasn't makin' my partner feel any
better.
If
Cameron had stopped then, he'd a been way ahead of the game. Hutch and me would have left, and the
lieutenant would have gone on with his life, no harm done.
But,
instead, he smiled and said, "I'd like to send flowers to his family. Just give me the address."
From
where I was standin' I could see Hutch's face freeze, and I knew his eyes had
gone cold. I've seen him turn that look
on suspects. It had the same effect on
Cameron that it did on the perps. The
big man, Mr. Macho Cop actually looked afraid.
Without
another word, my pal started walkin' away.
I left too, but I couldn't resist what happened next. Cameron was startin' to follow Hutch, and I
knew it was a poor idea. Could I help
it if my leg got in the lieutenant's way and he ended up sprawled on the
sidewalk? Hey, accidents happen, right? I looked at down at him. "Stay away from us, Cameron. In particular stay away from my partner, or
I'll tell anyone in your department who'll listen about how your insistence on
Jack Mitchell's guilt kept you from finding the real killer until 6 girls were
killed. If hadn't been for Hutch and
me, you'd still be trying to figure it out.
Hutch told you Jack was innocent.
But you wouldn't listen."
He
just laid there. I figure he knew that
if he did get up, I'd just knock him down again. I wasn't about to let him get near Hutch; my partner had
suffered more than enough already. No
way was I gonna let Cameron make things worse for him.
I
sprinted to catch up with Hutch, and walked with him to the flashy red
convertible we were driving home. Hutch
had been drivin' it mostly, but he went to the passenger side, and I got behind
the wheel. We didn't say anything as we
put Vegas in our rear view mirror. I
had some things to say, but it wasn't time, yet. Hutch would let me know when it was time.
As
we drove, the words I said at the hospital after Vickie was attacked echoed in
my head. "That's another thing I'm
sick of, this unquestioning loyalty to your friends."
Sure
I was upset; Vickie's a sweet kid, and she was almost killed. And I really thought Jack had done it. But I shouldn't have taken it out on
Hutch. Even if it was true, it wasn't
Hutch's fault. I guess I thought that
if Hutch hadn't fought so hard to prove his friend was innocent, Jack would
have been behind bars instead of attackin' Vickie. That's the only reason I can think of for sayin' somethin' like
that to my best friend.
And
I kept hearin' what my best friend said in reply. "Is present company included or excluded?"
That's
a good question. How many times has he
given that unquestioning loyalty to me?
How many times had Hutch been there for me? I lost count. Just last
year he saw me through being poisoned and getting shot, not to mention how he
stood by me when George Prudhomme was killin' cops to make me resign from the
force. That unquestioning loyalty had
sure come in handy then.
It
goes both ways. Hutch knows I'll do
anything for him. When he was kidnapped
and forcibly addicted to heroin, I took care of him, hid him away at Huggy's
until he could get straight. He still
thanks me for that every once in a while, like it was somethin' special, like
he has no right to expect me to take care of him when he's hurtin'.
Well
he was hurtin', and it was partly my fault.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I
shouldn't wait for Hutch to let me know he was ready to talk. Maybe…
"Did
you mail it?" he asked softly.
"Yeah,
Vickie should get it in a couple of days."
He
nodded. "Good. Maybe she can get help for her little
girl."
I
hoped so. I really did.
"Let
me know when you're ready for me to drive."
"Sure." I didn't see that happenin' for awhile. He
looked exhausted. Not only had we boxed
up Mitchell's stuff, but Hutch had had to call his family and make all the
arrangements to have the body shipped.
And, he'd hardly had any sleep for the past few nights. Even when we cleanin' up Jack's place, he
stayed up long after I had called it a day.
At
least he was talkin' to me. During the
two days we spent packing up Jack's stuff, he'd hardly said a word. Jack didn't have a whole lot. I figured since he knew he was dyin', he
hadn't accumulated a lot of things. He
knew he wouldn't need them long. But it
was still hard, real hard for Hutch.
Like I said, he cares about his friends; that unquestionin' loyalty
calls for deep feelin's.
"I
didn't get to tell him I'm sorry."
Hutch's voice was so low I could barely hear it over the car's
engine. "He died thinking that I
wasn't his friend. He thought I was
trying to kill him."
I
didn't know what to say. I wanted to
make him feel better. But there just
wasn't any way to do that. All I could
do was offer him what comfort I could."
Hutch, it's not your fault.
Cameron used us and Jack. He
couldn't figure out who the killer was, so he molded the evidence to fit Jack
and centered on that. You did all you
could. You were the only one on Jack's
side. You protected him as well as you
could. You were as good a friend as you
could be under the circumstances."
"Yeah,
and he died thinking I wanted to kill him."
"That's
not your fault, either, Blondie. That
was the tumor talkin'. If Jack had been
thinkin' straight, he'd a known how much you cared about him. You did your best, Hutch. That's all you can do."
He
was quiet for a long time. I saw him
wipe at his face a couple of times. He
didn't want me to see him cryin'. As
far as I was concerned, it was the best thing he could do. But I didn't let on that I noticed his
tears. That's the way he wanted
it. Fine with me.
"Thanks,
Starsk," he finally said. His voice sounded a little hoarse, but I
pretended to ignore it.
"Think
nothin' of it, Blintz. It's just my
unquestionin' loyalty, comin' out."
He
smiled. "Unquestioning
loyalty? I thought you were sick of
it," he commented.
"Naw. I just forgot for a minute how important it
is," I said. I put my hand on his shoulder and drove one
handed for several miles. He put his
hand over mine, and sat watchin' the
desert go by.