Seeing in the Dark

***********************

And you are still here
tilting in the stranded ark
blind and seeing in the dark.

Phyllis Webb. 'Leaning.'

****************************

'Okay. Let's see. Where do I begin? How long have you guys been partners? Ya have any idea?'

'Um, I think the show bible says....'

'Forget the bible,' said Starsky. 'What do you think about it? How long have you worked together?'

Robert Preston was a handsome, distinguished older actor. He was playing the senior detective, in the partnership of Noble and Parr. Augustus Noble and Simon Parr. Starsky didn't think they sounded like the names of any real L.A. detectives he knew. But as Hutch said, this was television.

Preston hazarded a guess. 'Oh, a couple of years, I suppose.'

'You worked together a couple of years,' said Starsky, firmly. 'How did you meet?'

Larry Greenwood was the actor playing the younger detective. 'I became a detective, and I was partnered with this old fart here,' he said.

'Hey!' said the old fart. 'You gotta learn some respect for your elders. Yeah, they partnered me with this wet-behind-the-ears kid here. But I learned him.'

'Good,' said Starsky. 'But now, you've worked together for a while. And it's been a success, because you're still working together. You have respect for each other, under all the insults. You trust each other. You like each other, to a certain extent. So, you have to show it sometimes. When you were talking to that witness, and you walked away, you should have exchanged a look, as if you each knew what the other was thinking. Lean towards each other, not away.'

'You want us to act married?' asked the kid.

The old fart laughed, it seemed at a private joke.

Starsky wasn't fooled. 'Yeah,' said Starsky. 'That's what I want you to do.'

*********************************

'Detective Perkins?'

'Yes? What can I do for you, Lieutenant Hutchinson?'

'Ah,' said Hutch. 'You recognize me?'

'Yes. But I haven't got all day. I go on duty in an hour. What are you doing here? Is this some sort of IA check?'

'No. Why would you think that?'

'I'm not really thinking anything at all,' said Perkins. 'I'm at a loss for an explanation.'

'I see,' said Hutch. 'Can I come in anyway? I'd like to speak to you about something, and I'd prefer not to do it on your doorstep.'

'Sure,' said Detective Perkins, at last. He moved aside, and let Hutch in.

The house was in a nice neighbourhood. It was large, and the garage looked as if it could hold two cars, easily. The furnishings were good, as well. Nothing here was rich, in an obvious way. But still, even on a Lieutenant's pay, and even with the very nice salary that Starsky would be pulling in, Hutch doubted they could afford a place like this.

'Your wife work?' Hutch asked.

'What business is that of yours?' Perkins growled.

'None at all,' said Hutch, amicably. 'That isn't what I came here to ask you.'

'Then if you don't mind, would you ask whatever the fuck it was you did come here to ask me? And then, get the fuck out of my house, so I can get ready for work.'

Hutch sat down on the leather sofa. 'Sure,' he said. 'But first you might tell me, what work is it you do, exactly?'

'I'm a police officer. What the fuck do you think I do?'

'Oh. I see,' said Hutch, slowly. 'I wasn't sure. You are listed on the police rolls, as one of our members. And so, you must have heard about the task force I'm leading. May I assume that much, at least?' he asked, anxiously.

'Yes, I heard about the task force,' said Perkins. 'So what?'

'So, if you had information that might have helped us, I would assume that you would have offered to share it with us. That's what a police officer would do. You haven't done it. And yet, you call yourself a cop.'

'No, Hutchinson. You call yourself a cop. I am a cop. You got where you are, by sleeping with someone important. Everyone knows that. He gave you this cushy job, pretending to lead a task force. A task force to look into what? Everyone knows it's a waste of time. Those hookers moved on, like they always do. Or they died. Good riddance, I say. I'm too busy to care. And I don't have any information that will help you. So, why don't you run back to your little office, and play with your paper clips? Enjoy yourself, before the Commissioner gets a clue, and closes down your little task force.'

Hutch laughed. 'The Commissioner?' he said. 'He's the big important guy I'm sleeping with. How about if I go back to him, and tell him how you just answered me? Would you like that? Maybe he'll sic IA on you, and they'll start questioning where you got the money for that stereo system.'

Hutch got to his feet, and strolled over to Perkins's liquor cabinet.

'My, my!' he said. 'That's some expensive whisky you have here.'

'Put that back!'

Hutch tossed the bottle from hand to hand. 'Real expensive whisky.'

'What is it you want?' Perkins asked.

'I don't know how you can afford this stuff,' said Hutch. 'I don't know how you've escaped the notice of IA. I don't really give a damn about either question right now. I want your notes on the brother of Amanda Patterson.'

'Who?' asked Perkins.

'Charlie Patterson. He came to see you, about six months ago. Said he had some information about his sister, and he wanted you to look into it. His sister is one of the missing women.'

'What about it?' asked Perkins.

'What was it he told you?' asked Hutch, with exaggerated patience.

'I don't remember,' said the detective. 'I'll have to look in my notes, see if I wrote anything down.'

'You do that,' said Hutch. 'I've got lots of time. I don't have to meet the Commissioner until midnight.'

*******************************

'You told him what?' asked Starsky. He gaped at Hutch for a moment, then burst out laughing. 'Couldn't you have just asked for his notes? Gone through the proper channels? Or something like that?'

'Starsky, you didn't meet this guy,' said Hutch. 'I don't think this guy would recognize a proper channel if it jumped up out of a sewer and fucked him in the ass. Somehow, I think that anything petitioned for through proper channels, would vanish, never to be seen again. I spent about two hours in the shower, after I got home, and I still don't feel clean.'

'Come here, baby,' Starsky crooned. 'I'll lick you clean, how's that?'

********************************

Starsky was stroking Hutch's hair. Hutch was thoroughly licked, he thought. Like a new-born kitten.

'Charlie Patterson,' said Hutch. 'Amanda Patterson's younger brother. About a year younger, their friends said. The two of them ran away from home, and ended up on the streets of L.A. Both of them turned to hooking, just to survive. But they stuck together. Their friends said they had hopes of getting out of the life someday. Going back to school. Then Amanda disappeared. All their friends told me Charlie was frantic. He looked everywhere, asked everyone he knew. He swore Amanda wouldn't have just abandoned him. They checked in with each other after every trick. They had an apartment, and regular street corners that they worked.'

'I hear you,' said Starsky.

'Okay, so Charlie heard a story. A story about a guy with a trailer, out in one of the canyons. A hooker went there, for a party. The party turned a bit scary, but she ran off. She told Charlie that the guy had a lot of women's purses and stuff there. He passed this on to Perkins.'

'And nothin' happened.'

'How'd you ever guess?' asked Hutch. 'It wasn't worth looking into, Perkins tells me. This is the sort of thing I needed to know. It might have helped me crack the case, long ago.'

'You know it now,' said Starsky.

'Yeah, thanks to you. No thanks to Perkins. But now, Charlie has vanished, like the other hookers. Even though he's a male. That's interesting. All the other missing hookers are women. And Perkins didn't pay any attention to his story. He doesn't remember where the trailer was parked.'

'It might have been moved by now, anyway,' said Starsky. 'You should try to find the hooker who escaped. She could give you a description of it. That might help.'

'Yeah,' said Hutch. He sighed wearily.

Starsky drew Hutch closer, petting him, like a kitten. A big kitten, he thought. A lion, turned into a pussy cat.

'A what?' asked Hutch.

Starsky realized he must have spoken his thought aloud.

'I said you're a pussy cat,' he said. 'And you need another tongue bath. Starting here.'

Starsky licked a trail, from the top of Hutch's cock, all the way to the base. Hutch purred.

*** The End ***

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