Making a Difference
Chapter One
Detectives David Starsky and Kenneth Hutchinson sat side by side in the large treatment area watching the activity around them. Frazzled nurses hurried to and fro, some carrying bandages and medication, others with their arms loaded with charts as they disappeared into various rooms caring for the throng of patients that had invaded the emergency room that night. Doctors rushed from room to room, the wrinkles in their white lab coats and the matching creases in their foreheads a silent witness to their workload. Phones rang constantly, babies cried, and an occasional scream or muffled curse from behind closed doors added to the overall din.
Starsky looked over at his blond partner and tried once again to start a conversation. “Have you ever seen so much activity in one place, Hutch? I think this is worse than the station during a blackout.”
Hutch’s only reply was to sigh loudly, not looking in Starsky’s direction.
“Look,” Starsky continued doggedly. “I don’t know what you’re grousin’ about. If it wasn’t for me, you might’ve been killed.”
Hutch took a deep steadying breath before finally turning to look at the persistent man seated next to him. “If it wasn’t for you, we’d be out with the twins instead of sitting here waiting for yet another tetanus shot.”
Starsky reached down and lightly touched the bandage that covered the neat row of stitches that now graced Hutch’s forearm. “That’s gratitude for you. I risk life and limb to push you outta the way of that speeding car¾ ”
“Speeding car?” Hutch interrupted incredulously. “Starsky, that ‘speeding car’ was being driven by a little old lady who’s never gone over thirty-five miles an hour in her life, and she was nowhere near me.”
“Yeah, well, it was hard to tell how close she was from my angle. Besides, even if she was goin’ that slow she still coulda hurt you if she hit you.”
“Not half as much as that pile of broken glass I landed on when you came barreling out of nowhere and knocked me over. I swear, Starsky, you’re hazardous to my health.”
“You know what? You’re absolutely right. Next time, I’ll just let you get mowed down. At least that way I won’t have to listen to you gripe all the time.”
Hutch was just about to reply when a young boy came running past them at full speed, knocking over a linen cart and two nurses in the process. His eyes were wide with fright, and he kept glancing back over his shoulder as if he were being pursued by the hounds of Hell itself.
Starsky and Hutch exchanged a puzzled look before glancing down the hallway in the direction from which the boy had come. A young nurse appeared in their line of sight, her uniform smudged with dirt, and her hat sitting askew on her head. “Somebody stop him!” she yelled, pointing at the young boy that had just rushed by.
Without a second’s hesitation, Starsky was on his feet, flying down the hallway in pursuit of the teenager, with Hutch a few steps behind him. Just before they reached the sliding glass doors that led to the outside and freedom, Starsky’s superior speed won out, and, with a graceful tackle, he stopped the boy in mid flight.
Catching up with the pair, Hutch extended his hand to his partner who, in turn, dragged the teenager up by the front of his shirt. “What’s your name, kid?” Starsky asked, breathing heavily from his recent exertion.
The kid in question stared at Starsky, eyes narrowed in fear and suspicion, before he spoke. “Billy,” he replied, his voice shaking with emotion. “My name’s Billy. Now let go of me.”
With a hard shake of his arm, Billy broke Starsky’s grip, but Hutch was a millisecond quicker. Before the teenager could even think to run, Hutch grabbed him by the arm and stuck a warning finger in his face.
“Oh, no you don’t! You just stay right there until we find out where you’re supposed to be.” Hutch paused a moment to catch his breath. “Now, where are you supposed to be?”
“I’m not going back there,” Billy scowled defiantly. “If they take me back, I swear I’ll kill myself! And I’ll make it real messy and someone’ll have to scrape my brains off the walls and ceiling, and my blood will all run out and be so gross they’ll never get the stains out of the carpets.”
Starsky and Hutch exchanged a look, lips curled in distaste. “Back where, Billy?”
“Back to Juvie, that’s where.”
Their conversation was interrupted when the nurse who had sounded the alarm finally caught up with them, dragging an older portly police officer behind her. “Thank you very much, sir,” she said, nodding curtly to Starsky. “I can take it from here.” She latched onto Billy’s ear and began forcing him up the hallway in front of her.
“Wait just a minute!” Hutch reached out and grabbed her by the arm, turning her in his direction. “You can’t manhandle the poor kid like that.”
The nurse drew herself up to her full height, eyes darting between Hutch’s hand on her arm and his eyes. “I can do whatever I like, sir, and, as I recall, you are supposed to be sitting in Treatment Room Twelve waiting on a tetanus shot. Now, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get back down there and wait like you were told.” Without another word, she turned on her heel and headed back down the hallway, the hapless Billy being pulled along by his ear.
Hutch looked at Starsky who seemed to be having a difficult time refraining from smiling. Starsky cocked an eyebrow in amusement at his incensed partner, then turned to speak to the police officer who had witnessed the entire scene with a weary eye.
“What was that all about?” he asked, brushing the dirt off his pant legs.
“Aw, just some dumb kid. Caught him for petty theft a few hours ago, and then on the way to Juvie, he starts screamin’ about wantin’ to kill hisself. Kids are smart these days¾they know if they start makin’ threats, they get to come here first and it keeps ’em free for a little while longer so they can waste everyone’s time and try to escape. Stupid kids.” He hitched his uniform pants up a little higher and raked a hand through his lank, greasy hair. “I’d like to wrap my hands around his scrawny neck myself and save him the trouble, all the grief he’s caused me.”
Looking at Hutch once again, Starsky saw the muscles in his jaw tighten dangerously. He felt a similar anger rising in himself, but choosing to ignore it, he placed a placating hand on Hutch’s arm before continuing. “What grief?”
“Baby-sitting duty, that’s what. My wife had dinner all ready and we was gonna settle down and watch a movie tonight, but now I’m stuck sittin’ with that kid ’til the hospital psychologist clears him to go to Juvie. Which, by the way, is exactly where he’s gonna end up. Just a big waste of time, if you ask me. Rotten kids.”
“How long you been workin’ Juvie?”
“Fourteen years next summer. If I can hang on a few more years, I’ll get to retire.”
“Why haven’t you put in for a transfer?” The three men started back up the hallway toward the treatment room where the nurse stood glaring at them, crooking her index finger at the police officer in a wasted attempt to get him to hurry back to his duty of guarding young Billy.
The officer looked surprised at the question. “’Cause I love kids,” he answered as he shuffled off down the hallway and once again resumed his post outside the treatment room door.
Hutch started down the hallway after him, but was stopped by a firm grip on his arm. “Let it go,” Starsky advised, steering his partner back into the hard plastic chairs they had vacated only moments before.
“Can you believe that guy?” Hutch asked, trying in vain to free himself from Starsky’s grasp. “They shouldn’t let someone like that anywhere near a kid.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a different nurse¾this one, carrying two wicked-looking syringes. “Detective Hutchinson?” she asked, her eyes darting back and forth between the two men.
Starsky spoke up quickly, jerking his thumb in Hutch’s direction. “That’s him!”
“Come with me then.” She approached a cubicle, holding the curtain back so Hutch could precede her.
Hutch swallowed audibly. “Uh, Miss? I, uh, couldn’t help notice you have two needles there.” He smiled and choked back a nervous chuckle.
“That’s right,” she answered brusquely, nearly pushing the detective into the cubicle ahead of her before allowing the curtain to drop back into place. “An antibiotic and a tetanus shot. Now get in here and drop ’em, Blondie. I haven’t got all day.”
Hutch could have sworn he heard the sounds of muffled laughter coming from the other side of the curtain as he gritted his teeth and slowly followed the nurse’s orders.
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