CHAPTER 4

When Hutch arrived he found the front door slightly cracked and an Erie panic swept over him. Starsky never left his door standing open and both the Torino and the Rodeo sat dormant in the driveway. The uneasy feeling he had experienced when he had gotten no answer with his last attempt to call him was increased now as he pushed open the slightly cracked door. With
his gun drawn and the adrenaline flowing…he crept inside to have a look around. The unsettling quiet overtook him as he walked carefully through the living room and opened the two bedroom doors to find each one unoccupied.

Then he heard a sound…it was very weak and distant but it was unmistakable.  A moan of pain that was all too familiar to him.

“STARSK…STARSK…Where are you?” Hutch called out as he rushed back into the living room and heard it again. From where he stood he couldn’t see all the way into the kitchen but when the sound hit his ears once more he realized where it had to be coming from.

As he rounded the corner of the kitchen counter his heart skipped a beat and his whole body trembled…

“OH my God!” Hutch said as the morbid scene met his eyes. Two bodies lying on the kitchen floor within a few feet of each other. One his still breathing partner and the other just a kid…shot in the chest at point blank range…he didn’t seem to be among the living anymore. He rushed over quickly grabbing his Partner’s head from behind and lifted it up to talk to him.

“Hang in there…Buddy….Don’t try to talk…Just hang on.” He removed his jacket quickly and placed it under his head. Then he grabbed a near by kitchen towel and ripped Starsky’s shirt open to examine the damage. The bullet had gone clean through him…penetrating a kidney probably and possibly his intestine. The hole in his back was a little larger than the one in front and the blood was steadily spilling out from both sides. He was kneeling in a large puddle and judging by the size of it and the steady flow from the two gaping wounds he knew that it was up to him to stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down before he could reach for the phone to call an ambulance.

Time was not on his side.

He left him only for a moment as he ran into the Bedroom…grabbed a larger towel and headed back. Then he quickly  removed his belt…wrapped the towel around his partners injuries and slid the belt under him to pull it tight, speaking softly to him the whole time.

“Take it easy…stay with me…try to relax…breathe…breathe…it’s gonna be alright…I’m here buddy.”

As soon as he felt he had enough pressure on his wounds…Hutch stood up and reached for the phone on the wall to call for the ambulance. As he spoke quickly he glanced down at the body of the young kid who lay motionless on the floor next to his feet. Hutch knelt down to feel a pulse but didn’t expect to find one. He had seen the face of death too many times and
his instincts had told him at first glance that the kid was done for.

As he gave the address to the dispatcher his fingers probed for any sign of life in the teenager. To his surprise…he felt something…it was weak but there. He didn’t know if this kid had been the one who shot his partner…but it was obvious that Starsky hadn’t shot him since Starsky’s gun was still resting in his holster on the hook by the door where he had always
kept it.

“Better make that two…and Hurry!” Hutch said as he waited for the reply and hung up the phone. He then pulled the kid into a more comfortable position and ripped his T-shirt in two to get a better look at his injury. A bullet in his chest with no exit apparent in his back as Hutch gingerly rolled him over to get a look. Maybe a collapsed lung and internal bleeding that he
could do nothing about. This kid could very well die in his arms.

“Hutch…” Starsky managed to call to him in a very weak voice.

“I’m still here Buddy… Ambulance is on the way.” Hutch said still holding onto the young boy.

“Is he alive?” He asked in a whisper.

“Barely…” Hutch told him with a sadness in his voice.

“They took her…,” he said still in a whisper.

“Don’t talk…you can tell me all about it later…save your strength.” Hutch told him. He had assumed they had taken her…but she was probably still alive. If they planned to kill her she would have been lying next to him.

“Find her Hutch…you have to find her.” Starsky told him insistently using every bit of his strength to get the words out. Every breath felt like a thousand knives in his side.

“Don’t worry…we’ll find her…we’ll find her.” Hutch assured him as he continued to hold pressure on the wound in the young boy’s chest.

In only five minutes from Hutch’s phone call…the Ambulance arrived. Paramedics rushed in carrying oxygen and numerous other pieces of equipment and went to work on Starsky right away. Zack was pulled abruptly from Hutch's arms and placed on a stretcher to be hooked up to IV’s and hurried out the door. Hutch held Starsky’s hand all the way to the Ambulance and
climbed inside with him as they sped off.

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Cassie was still not fully aware of her surroundings…but she knew that something terrible had happened. One minute she was looking into his tender blue eyes and the next she heard shots and felt herself being lifted up and carried away….away from home…away from him. But her body was not her own…she had no strength in her arms or her legs and her mind was clouded by the drug so much that the images that she could make out during her brief moments of semi-consciousness were distorted at best.

All she did know was that she was cold…and it was very dark. The bed she was lying on was dirty and there where no sheets…no blankets. The air was heavy with the smell of mildew……and she was naked.

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  chapter 5
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