From: HILLEMANN@MACALSTR.EDU
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 19:49:56 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: "Partners"  (Part 2 of 11)
Message-Id: <01HPHTUML8GIAKZBID@MACALSTR.EDU>

"Partners"  (Part 2)
By Beth Hillemann


Sam spent the next several hours reading over the pending case files and
getting acquainted with the department and its officers.  He found "he" had an
apartment and where it was located.  Later he went out with Hutch to cruise the
neighborhood, familiarizing himself with their territory.  He found Hutch to be
polite and informative when questioned about cases or the neighborhood, but
reticent to the point of monosyllables on all other topics.  They were in
Hutch's car, a battered Ford of indeterminate color that seemed to have no
shock absorbers at all.

It was nearing 4:00 when the police radio suddenly crackled and a female voice
said, "All units in the vicinity of 30th and Larpenter, gunshots reported at
132 Larpenter.  All units please respond."

"That's us," Hutch said. "Tell them we're responding."

Gingerly, Sam picked up the radio mike.  "Uhh, this is...Zebra 3," Sam said,
remembering their call letters.  "We're responding to the call you just made. 
Um, over."  Sam ignored Hutch's raised eyebrows and reached for the attachable
flasher to put on the roof of the car.  Hutch flipped the siren switch and they
raced to 132 Larpenter.

When they arrived they found a black and white police unit already there, along
with an ambulance, in front of a modest ranch-style home with a neatly kept
small yard.  They hurried inside, nearly colliding with the paramedics as they
wheeled out a gurney.  The paramedics ignored them, working as they were
walking, trying to stabilize the victim of the shooting before transport to the
hospital.  Sam caught a glimpse of their patient and was stunned to see it was
a young boy, maybe 8 years of age.

Sam's immediate impression once they were inside the home was one of chaos. 
There was blood spattered and pooling before the sofa in the living room.  To
one side a small, anxious knot of pre-teen boys were clumped together,
nervously eyeing a uniformed police officer, who was coming back into the
living room through the kitchen.

"Hi Linda," Hutch greeted the police officer.  "What's going on?"

"I'm glad you got here," Linda replied.  She was of medium height, with short
chestnut hair and green eyes that looked very worried.  She glanced at Sam with
some curiosity, but was quick to inform Hutch of the situation.  "There's a boy
out back with the gun.  He's threatening to kill himself."  She gestured for
Hutch and Sam to follow her and led them hurriedly through the kitchen to the
back door.  "His name is Jason," she continued as they walked.  "It was his
younger brother, Stevie, who was shot."

The back yard was fenced in, with a garden along the back bursting with flowers
and vegetables.  A small deck led from the kitchen to the yard.  To one side of
the yard was a small shed, the door ajar.

"It looks like it was an accident," Linda said as they drew to a halt just
outside the back door.  "But Jason was holding the gun when it went off."

Hutch nodded.  "I'll go talk to him.  You two go back in and see about the
other boys."

"Hutch wait," Linda objected, stepping in front of him.  "I've already
established some contact with Jason; let me go talk to him."

"No, I'll do it," Hutch insisted.

"But..."

"I know the promotion is important to you, Linda," Hutch said brusquely, "but
I'm handling this one."  Linda blinked in surprise and backed up as Hutch
brushed by her, moving slowly towards the shed.

Grimacing, Linda came to stand beside Sam near the back door, the two of them
watching tensely as Hutch approached the shed.

"Jason," they heard Hutch call, "my name is Ken Hutchinson.  Can we talk for
just a little bit?"  Any reply that Hutch received was unintelligible to the
two watching.  "I just want to talk," Hutch said, easing toward the door.

"Stay away!" a boy's voice cried loudly.  "I'll shoot you.  I'll kill you! 
Just like..." the voice broke off into a sob.  Hutch reached the door and
pausesd, half in and half out.  Sam heard him speaking, and the boy replying,
but couldn't make out the words.  He looked at Linda and saw that she too was
straining to hear what was being said.

Linda sighed and glanced at Sam, though most of her attention remained focused
on the shed.  "I'm Linda Perillo," she introduced herself.

"Mike Jennings," Sam replied.  "I'm working with Hutch."

"Oh, lucky you," she said with sarcasm.  Immediately her expression changed and
she said, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean that.  I guess I'm sensitive to
'grandstanding' at the moment."  Sam looked an inquiry.  "Promotion," she
explained laconically.  Her eyes fastened on the shed again.  "That kid's on
the edge," she said, the worry evident in her voice.

>From the shed they heard the boy's voice again, sounding anguished.  "No!  You
don't understand..."

There was a commotion behind Sam and Linda, and through the back door came a
small blond woman.  "What's going on?" the woman cried.  "Where are my sons?" 
She looked wildly around the yard, then zeroed in on the shed.  Sam and Linda
both grabbed her before she could move past them.

"Mrs. Hatch," Linda said to the distraught woman.  "Are you Mrs. Hatch?"  The
woman nodded, fixing anxious eyes on the police woman.  "Mrs. Hatch, I'm
Officer Perillo and this is Detective Jennings."  She urged the woman back
toward the house.  "Let's go inside to talk for a moment."

Mrs. Hatch resisted the urging.  "My sons?  Where are they?"

"I'll explain everything, Mrs. Hatch," Linda assured her.  "But just come with
us right now."  Reluctantly Mrs. Hatch allowed Linda and Sam to take her back
into the house.  They stood in the kitchen, able to keep an eye on both the
shed and the other boys still in the living room.

As gently as she could, Linda explained the situation to Mrs. Hatch.

"Shot?" Mrs. Hatch exclaimed in a horrified voice.  "Oh my God, Stevie..."

"He's on the way to the hospital right now," Linda reassured her.

"I have to go to him," Mrs. Hatch said, wringin her hands, but her gaze was
fixed on the shed in the back yard.  "But Jason.  Why can't I see him?"

"He's blaming himself for what happened," Sam explained softly.  "He might not
be able to face you right now."

Mrs. Hatch raised a trembling hand to her lips.  "I don't understand any of
this," she said in a shaking voice.  "You say that Jason _shot_ him.  We don't
even own a gun!"

"Mrs. Hatch," Linda explained, "we think one of the other boys brought the gun
to show.  They were playing around with it and it accidently went off, wounding
Stevie."

"Oh my God," Mrs. Hatch moaned.  "Oh my God."  She looked up and her eyes fixed
on a sight outside the window.  "Jason," she said softly, then more loudly as
she started toward the door, "Jason!"

Sam and Linda turned to see Hutch walking across the yard, one arm around a
boy's thin shoulders, urging him forward.  When they came into the house Jason
halted, pulling Hutch to a stop with him.  His eyes were full with tears, his
expression anguished.  "Mom," he choked out, "I-I didn't mean to hurt him.  Oh,
Mom!"

Mrs. Hatch opened her arms and Jason flung himself at her, burying his head in
her chest and sobbing.

Hutch walked over and handed the gun to Linda saying, "Here, you'll need this." 
His face might have been chiseled in granite, the lips pressed tightly together
and every feature accented.  His eyes held a terrible, aching expression as he
turned away from them to look back at the mother and son.

"Hutch," Linda said with concern, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm.  "Are
you all right?"

Hutch disengaged from her hold, answering shortly, "I'm fine."  With a helpless
gesture, Linda dropped her hand and moved back a few steps.

"I promised Jason I'd take him to the hospital to wait for word on his
brother," Hutch informed them in a flat voice.  "I'll take the two of them in
my car, while you and Mike finish up here."  He glanced at Linda.  "Harry's not
with you today?"

"He called in sick this morning," she replied.

Hutch nodded.  "Then would you drop Mike off at the hospital when you're
finished?"

"Sure," Linda said and Sam nodded in agreement.

Hutch paused, and his face softened.  "I'm sorry," he said quietly to Linda. 
"About what I said earlier.  There was no cause for it."

Linda smiled with a great deal of understanding in her eyes.  "It's all right,"
she assured him.

As Hutch, Mrs. Hatch and Jason went to the hospital, Sam and Linda returned to
the living room to interview the young witnesses.  The story confirmed their
opinions on what happened and Linda and Sam then spent some time contacting
parents, explaining the situation, and waiting until all of the boys had been
picked up by a family member.

They were quiet in the car as they drove to the hospital, until Sam broke the
silence.  "Have you known Hutch for a long time? he asked, hoping to gather
some more information on his partner.

Linda, who was driving, glanced at him.  "A few years.  Why?"

"Well, I just met him today. I'm his new partner."

She nodded.  "I heard Captain Dobey assigned him one."  She gave Sam a sly
smile.  "Gossip goes around the police station pretty quickly.  How are you
holding up?"

"He seems...distant," Sam ventured.

Linda nodded again, as if she were expecting that.  "He has been, ever since
the funeral," she explained with a sigh.  "He's shutting himself off from other
people--even his friends."  There was concern in the green eyes that turned to
Sam.  "I know he's hurting, but he won't let anyone in to help."

"Funeral?" Sam asked cautiously.

Linda's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed.  "Captain Dobey told you the
situation, didn't he?"

"Well...yes..." Sam stammered, trying to hide his confusion.

Linda was concentrating on traffic, but Sam could see the puzzled expression on
her face.  "His partner was killed," she finally said, in a voice that
indicated that should explain everything.  And for Sam, it did.  He felt like
he'd been seared with a burning sword.  To lose a partner...

"Maybe he didn't tell you how close they were," Linda suggested slowly.

Sam, feeling sick, shook his head.  "Tell me," he invited.

"They were a team," Linda began, her expression shadowed with grief.  "They
relied on  each other completely.  I've never seen any friendship as tight as
theirs.  And they were...balance for each other."  She glanced at Sam.  "You
know as cops we have to keep a distance, maintain an emotional separation to
avoid clouding our judgment.  Sometimes I wonder if that distance hurts as much
as it helps.  Well, they were able to skirt closer to that edge because of each
other.  One of them could vent the emotions for both, and if he went over, the
other would grab hold and bring him back.  That gave them tremendous freedom to
act and think and feel.  They not only trusted their lives to each other, they
entrusted their souls.  Now Hutch is having to relearn how to deal with cases,
and this life, without that support."

She drew in a deep breath, not looking at Sam as she dropped her next
bombshell.  "And on top of that, Dobey probably didn't tell you that Hutch
blames himself for what happened."

Sam's head turned quickly.  "No."

"He does," Linda said grimly.  "He wasn't responsible, of course, but what
matters is what he thinks.  And he thinks he let his partner down."  She sighed
again, and then a somewhat rueful look lightened the somberness.  "Why do you
think he insisted on speaking with Jason just now?"

Sam shook his head.

"He understands what Jason's going through--blaming himself.  I'll bet you a
week's pay he went in that shed and talked to him about Starsky, and about
responsibility."

Sam thought about Hutch's expression when he came out of the shed with Jason. 
"He opened up his own wounds, in order to help Jason?"

"He's a very good cop," Linda explained, a catch in her voice.

They arrived at the hospital to find Hutch, Mrs. Hatch and Jason waiting
anxiously for news on Stevie.  Happily the information soon arrived that Stevie
would be all right.  He had lost a lot of blood and it would take time for
complete rehabilitation, but he would be fine.  Mrs. Hatch thanked the three
officers profusely, but Hutch pointed out that if Jason hadn't called for an
ambulance right away, Stevie might not have made it.  Mrs. Hatch, with an arm
around her elder son, agreed and Jason gave them both a shy, tentative smile,
through his tears.  The terror that had gripped him was now fading into relief
and joy.

--End of Part 2--
Beth Hillemann
hillemann@macalstr.edu