Again more paper work, Starsky stared at the form the desk Sergeant had given him at the police station. He had an odd feeling of familiarity when he had walked into the station as if he some how belonged there. How was he supposed to fill the form out when he had no idea what to say? He surely couldn’t put ‘Sam’ on this one for he knew that wasn’t his real name or at least he didn’t think so.
Tessa rapped on the desk to get the Sergeants attention. “Excuse me sir but we really need some help here.”
“Listen Miss is this an emergency?” the Sergeant asked.
“Well not exactly.”
“Then just fill out the paper work. I have my hands full right now, there was a big wreck and most of my men are out on duty. Fill the paper out put it on the desk and I’ll get to it.”
Tessa sighed, she took the paper from Starsky filled in the top with her name and address wrote that she had found a man wandering along the highway, where she picked him up and a brief description of ‘Sam’. Then she slapped the paper down on the desk. “Let’s get out of here. I never liked cops away.”
The Sergeant glared at the pair as they left hearing her comment. He picked up the form and tossed it into a basket on his desk. The paper missed and fluttered to the floor.
Hutch woke up with the sweats his whole bed was soaked. He felt cooler and hoped that his fever had broken for good. First thing he did was picked up the phone and dial Starsky’s number.
To his shocked he heard it being picked up. “Hello?” It was a female voice.
“Sara?” Hutch asked disappointed that it wasn’t his partner.
“Yeah, that you Hutch?” Sara asked. “Where they hell is Dave, we had a date last night. I was supposed to meet him at the restaurant but he never showed. I came over this morning to see what was going on. He never misses a date.”
“Yeah creature of habit.” Hutch said under his breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. I hate to tell you this Sara but it looks like he is missing. He hasn’t been heard from since he went to court day before yesterday. I have been out looking for him.”
“Oh my God Hutch,” She said tears forming in her eyes. “Shit I have to fly out in a couple of hours. Call the airline so they can get a message to me if you hear anything.”
“Sure thing Sara.” A disappointed Hutch hung up the phone.
When Hutch arrived at work he found a reporter sitting in Dobey’s office. Reporters often were not their friends reporting information that they rather not have reported.
But this reporter was there to help, Jennifer Landstrum was an ace reporter she had jumped on the news of a missing cop. She had been rather surprised when she had been ushered in to the missing cops Captain’s office; generally she was ushered out the front door.
Dobey waved Hutch in to his office when he saw him standing in the doorway. “Hutch this is Miss Landstrum, she is interested in doing a story on Starsky.”
“Miss Landstrum,” Hutch said only to be polite, he was in no mood for a fluff piece about his missing partner. “Cap I think we need to get Starsky’s picture out there, somebody has had to seen something.”
“That is what I’m here for Detective Hutch,” she said knowing that she had been dismissed by the officer.
“Just Hutch okay lady? And I’m not in the mood for this.”
“Listen…Hutch,” She stood up glaring at him. “I’m here to help find your missing partner not write about dating habits of cops or what ever it is you think I’m doing here. I don’t write those fluff pieces that I’m sure you are thinking about. I would like to help you find your partner if you will let me.”
“Then what are we still doing here?” Hutch said as he turned on his heel and walked out of Dobey’s office.
Jennifer watched Hutch leave then looked at Dobey. “If you want your story I suggest that you catch up with him.” After the reporter left Dobey just shook his head with a small grin 0n his face.
She finally caught up with Hutch out in the hall he was angrily jabbing at the elevator button. “Det….Hutch, I’m not the enemy here I really would like to help you.” Jennifer said. Then she blurted out, “My father was a police officer.”
Hutch stopped jabbing the button and turned to look at her. “What happened to him?”
“What makes you think anything happened to him?”
“You seem like you are on a mission,” Hutch said getting into the elevator when the doors finally slid open.
He held the door for her, Jennifer stepped in, “Ok you got me, when I was fifteen my dad disappeared while he was on the job, his body was never recovered and we never knew what really happened to him. I have had to live with that my whole life. You want to know anything else about me before you let me help?”
“You married?”
Jennifer ignored the question. “When was the last time you saw your partner?”
“Not here.”
Hutch took the female reporter to Huggy’s, where the barkeeper was eager to hear news on one of his favorite cops. “This is Jennifer Landstrum a reporter. Jennifer, Huggy Bear.”
“Huggy Bear, colorful,” she said smiling at him.
“Reporter uh? That desperate?” Huggy cocked his eyebrow at Hutch; he knew how they felt about reporters.
Jennifer sighed. “You know we aren’t all bad.”
“The ones I have come in contact with are,” Hutch said leading her to a booth. “Just because your daddy was cop doesn’t automatically give you an in.”
“FINE, I’m tired of being insulted because I offered my services.” Jennifer stood up to leave.
“Hey I’m sorry. Please sit,” Hutch said giving her a weak smile. “You have got to understand this is my partner that is missing, it’s like cutting off my leg not to have him around.”
“Ok I got it you have had a rough couple of days and you look like hell too.” Jennifer said noticing that he was beginning to sweat.
“I just can’t seem to shake this flu.” Hutch said wiping his brow.
“Now how about we get down to the business of finding your partner?”
“So now what?” Starsky looked at Tessa.
“I guess you stick with me until somebody claims you or you remember.” She smiled then she poked at him. “If nobody comes to claim you do I get to keep you?”
He grinned at her, “I might let you keep me anyway.”
She put her arm around his waist and he slung his arm around her shoulders. “How about some lunch?”
“I hate that you have to keep paying my way.” Starsky frowned.
“Don’t worry about it you can always pay me back if you want. So what’s your favorite food?”
He thought a moment then said, “Taco’s.”
Hutch looked at the evening paper, a large photo of Starsky was on the front page, Jennifer had pulled a few strings and gotten it on there. She had also got him an interview on one of the morning news shows to talk about his missing partner.
“Maybe the wire service will pick it up,” Jennifer said as she watched Hutch read the article. After lunch and her deadline Hutch had asked Jennifer out for dinner, to make up for being such a jerk. Now she was sitting comfortably on his couch with her shoes off and her feet propped on his coffee table.
“Good article,” Hutch commented.
“See we aren’t all devils from hell,” she laughed. “So now we wait.”
“This will bring the nuts out of the wood work but maybe if we are lucky there will be one good call in there.”
“I really hope you find your partner.” Jennifer said looking wistful; this had brought back a lot of painful memories.
“And I’m sorry about your dad, that must have been hard. It’s bad enough to lose somebody but then to never know what has happened must be very hard.”
“It was, I hadn’t realized how much I wasn’t over until I heard about Starsky on the scanner. I knew I had to do something to help.” Jennifer looked at Hutch her eyes filled with the pain of the past.
“I’m glad you showed up. And stuck with me I wasn’t being very nice to you.” Hutch admitted.
She smiled, “Hey I’m a reporter I’m use to it. I have been cussed out, spit on, even shot at once.”
“Sounds like being a cop.”
“You know I wanted to be a cop when I younger.”
“I bet you would have made a good cop.” Hutch smiled at her.
Tessa awoke during the night to Starsky yelling in his sleep. She padded into the spare room to see him thrashing around in his sleep. Now he was mumbling and she could scarcely hear him.
“Zebra Three come in,” he mumbled. “Hutch where are you?”
“Sam?” Tessa shook Starsky gently.
Starsky’s eyes popped open and he sat up. He was breathing rapidly as if he had been running. It took him several minutes before he could speak but finally after he got his bearings he asked, “Was I talking in my sleep?”
“More like yelling,” Tessa said snapping on the light next to the bed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, what was I yelling?” he asked.
“I’m not sure but when I came in you were saying something about zebras and a hutch.”
Starsky frowned. “That doesn’t make much sense does it?”
Tessa shook her head and smiled. “Why don’t you try to get some more sleep?”
He nodded, as she started out of the room he called to Tessa, “If I’m not being too forward would you…ah…ah.”
Tessa smiled and crawled into bed next to him. “I guess if you were an ax murderer you would have already killed me.”
“Thanks,” Starsky said as Tessa snuggled next to him. He tied to close his yes but the words zebra and hutch kept nagging at him. What did those words mean? Did he work at a zoo? Or maybe it was just a weird dream; he wished he could remember it. His heard started to throb he was thinking so hard. He wondered how long it would be until he got his memory back.
“You look great Detective Hutchinson,” the morning show hostess said as the make up artist put the finishing touches on him. Hutch had on a corduroy jacket and dress pants, he hadn’t been thrilled when the woman came at him with power. She explained that it was to cut down on any glare from his face.
“Ok in five, four, three, two…” the director signed the hostess.
“Good Morning we are back with Detective Ken Hutchinson with the Bay City Police Department. He has a special request for all our views out there.” Cammy Jenkins smiled at Hutch.
“Thank you Cammy. My partner Detective David Starsky has been missing for three days. His car was found wrecked along side Highway 15 just out side L.A.” Hutch held up a photo of Starsky. “If any body has seen this man please call 555-2435.”
Cammy asked Hutch a few more questions then they were out for a commercial break, “I sure hope you find your partner Detective,” She said. “We will run this segment on the noon news, evening news and the late night additions.”
“Thank you so much for doing this,” Hutch said standing and shaking her hand.
Tessa flipped on the TV in the kitchen as she was fixing breakfast. “What do you feel like this morning?” She called to Starsky.
“I don’t care what ever is easy.” He called back. Starsky was a bit out of sorts, he hadn’t really gotten back to sleep and his head was still aching.
Tessa pulled the eggs out of the refrigerator and began cracking them into a bowl to make scrambled eggs. The morning show was just coming on. Cammy Jenkins appeared on the screen smiling her usual smile. “I’m going to make scrambled you like cheese in them?”
“Sure,” Starsky said listlessly.
“What?” Tessa turned down the sound on the TV. As she was waiting for her houseguest to answer her, she saw a blonde headed man appear on the screen. Just as Starsky’s photo was shown she walked out of the kitchen to see why he hadn’t answered. Tessa found Starsky sitting on the couch. “Are you alright?”
Starsky was sitting on the edge of the couch as if he were concentrating on something he looked up startled. “Yeah sure, I just remember something from my dream.”
She sat down next to him. “What was it?”
“I was being chase, someone was shooting at me.” Starsky looked worried, “Maybe I am a criminal.”
Tessa tilted her head back and laughed. “You don’t have a mean bone in your body.”
“Do you get the newspaper?” Starsky asked.
“Mom stops it when she goes out of town. I’m not much of a paper reader I guess I should be.” Tessa said, “I could go down to the corner and get you one if you want.”
“That’s ok,” he smiled at her.
“I better get back to making breakfast.” Tessa went back into the kitchen; she turned up the TV before she began on the eggs again. The blonde man was still on announcing a number.
“Any leads?”
Hutch looked up from a pile of messages on his desk. Jennifer Landstrum was standing there. He held up several of the phone notes, “Quite a few confessions that they killed Starsky.” Jennifer looked startled. “It’s the same bunch of crackpots that confess to every crime that happens in the city.”
“You will follow them up though?” Jennifer asked a look of concern on her face.
“Every last one of them.” Hutch said grimly. “But there is nothing that sounds solid.”
“I’m really sorry,” Jennifer sat down in a chair next to Hutch’s desk. “I wish there was more that I could do.”
“You have done a lot, got Starsk’s name out there quicker than I could have.” Hutch gave her a weak smile.
She reached over and put her hand over his, “You don’t think there is a possibility that he just took off?”
Hutch moved his hand from under hers and started at Jennifer. “You mean just skipped town? Why would he do that?”
“Who knows stranger things have happened.”
“Not to Starsky, that is not even an option.” Hutch started going through the message slips again. “Number one he would never leave his car, number two he wouldn’t leave me like that.”
Hutch stood in the spot where Starsky’s car had been found; it had been exactly one week since he had disappeared. There had been no leads and the story of the missing cop had slipped from the front page of the newspaper to being hidden some where in the local section. Hutch knew it wouldn’t be long before it vanished from print all together. He had been on another stations morning shows; nothing had come of that either. The most interesting interview he did was a man that said that he saw Starsky in an alien spaceship that he had been in.
He was beginning to wonder if Jennifer was right, perhaps Starsky did just walk away from his life. Their job was a hard one and it was difficult to take some days. Hutch could understand Starsky walking away from the job but not from him not from the their friendship. But he was starting to come to the realization that could be what had happened. It was better than thinking his partner was dead.
Starsky and Tessa sat on a blanket they had spread on the grass in a near by park. They were having a picnic lunch as they did every day. “I have to go back to school in a week ya know.” Tessa told him.
“I know what am I going to do if I can’t remember who I am by then?” Starsky asked. The headaches had stopped and the doctor had given him a clean bill of health. Starsky was starting to wonder if something had happened to him and he didn’t want to remember his life before Tessa. He did know one thing; he was falling in love with Tessa. She kind and patient, laughed at his silly jokes, took good care of him never pressing him to remember his past.
“Come back with me.” Tessa leaned over and put her head on his shoulder. “I share a house with some friends but we could get a place of our own if want.”
“Are you serious?” Starsky kissed her gently on the lips.
“I sure can’t leave you here to live with my mom.” Tessa teased.
They were sitting there talking when a man walked by he was watching them, suddenly he stopped and came back to stand in front of them. “Starsky? Dave Starsky? How the heck you been man?” Roger Morse put his hands on his hips as he looked down at the couple.
Starsky looked up at him confused, “Do I know you?”
“Roger…Roger Morse we were in the academy together, remember you and Hutch and I used to hit the bars after classes.”
“I’m sorry I think you got the wrong guy.” Starsky said, he started packing up the picnic basket.
“No, no come on Dave I would remember you anywhere.” Roger was even more persistent.
Starsky stood pulled Tessa to her feet then picked up the blanket they were sitting on. “You got the wrong guy.” He tugged Tessa across the grass leaving Roger to stare after them.
“Are you him?”
“Who?”
“This Dave Starsky that the guy thought you were?” Tessa stopped walking and turned around to see if the man was still there but he was gone. “You should have talked to him, he seems to know you.”
“Everybody has a double.” Starsky answered pulling her along with him.
“Will you stop?” Tessa dropped his hand. “Don’t you want to find out who you are?”
He stopped his shoulders dropping, “I like who I am with you. What if I find out I’m some awful person?”
“He was talking about he knew you from the academy, what kind of academy? And he said you and Hutch; you were talking about Hutch in your sleep. It must be somebody you know.”
Starsky sighed, “I remember how I got onto the road.”
Tessa was angry with him for the first time since they had met. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m sorry, I’m starting to remember a lot of things actually.” Starsky looked up at her.
“So why were you walking down the highway like that?”
“Swerved to miss a dog I ran off the road, wreck my car. I guess I must have hit my head on the steering wheel pretty good, I really don’t remember much after than…not until you.”
“You have to have people looking for you. Hell you could be married for all you know have kids. There is at least this Hutch out there that must be looking for you.”
Starsky held up his left hand, “No ring.”
“That doesn’t mean a thing and you know it. Stop being so flip about this.” Tessa told him.
He grabbed her hand pulling her toward him. “Tessa I like you a lot.”
She sighed, “What does that have to do with anything? Can’t you still like me when you have your life back?”
“I don’t know can I?” Starsky asked stepping away.
“Just what else have you remembered?” Tessa asked squinting at him.
“I’m pretty sure I’m a cop.” He answered. “I have been putting a lot of my dreams together along with some flashes I get.”
“I think we need to go to Los Angeles mostly that is where you are from.”
“Just because that is where I wrecked my car?”
“You really don’t want to find out who you are do you?”
Starsky shrugged, “I can’t image my life being much better than this.”
“But this isn’t real,” Tessa said. “Do you remember anything else?”
“Well in a lot of my dreams I’m with this blonde guy.”
“Hutch?”
“Probably.”
Hutch was sitting at his desk; it had been hard trying to get back into the swing of things since Starsky had disappeared. Dobey told him earlier in the day that he needed to get on with his life. He was just getting up to leave when the phone started to ring. He continued putting on his jacket and wasn’t going to answer it but at the last moment grabbed the receiver. “Hutchinson.”
“Hutch that you?”
“Yes who is this?”
“Roger Morse remember me from the academy?”
“Sure Roger how the hell are you?” Hutch asked. It had been years since he had seen or heard from Roger.
“Good, good. Got out of the police business just didn’t have the stomach for it.” Roger said on the other end. “You hung in there uh?”
“Yeah,” Hutch said unhappily.
“I was calling about Starsky.”
Hutch felt like a knife went pierced his heart. “Roger….”
“I saw him.”
“You what?”
“Yeah I was in Barstow yesterday I ran into him a park having lunch with a girl. He acted like he didn’t know I was. Then when I got back to town today I was reading my back log of newspapers and saw that he was missing.” Roger explained. “So I thought I would give you a call.”
“Thank you so much Roger,” Hutch said excitedly. “Do you know what park you saw him in?”
There was silence on the other end for a few minutes. “No sorry.”
“I’ll find him.” Hutch hung up the phone. Hutch immediately went into Dobey’s office. “Cap I have a lead on Starsk.”
Hutch quickly explained his phone call. “What are you still doing here?” Dobey wanted to know.