Katherine

   Harold Dobey here. I'm a Police Captain. I got the call at the precinct. My two best detectives, my boys, had left to go find a suspect named Vic Bellamy. They had information that he might have poisoned a police officer. My police officer. Detective Sergeant David Starsky.

   Starsky and his partner, Ken Hutchinson had gone to Bellamy's apartment. The uniformed officer who called me said they had chased him onto the roof of his building, and that's where I needed to get to, fast.

   Of course there was no elevator. It seemed like it took hours to get to the roof, and then I had to stop and rest because my chest was on fire. So maybe I'll think about losing some weight Someday. After my breathing calmed down, I finally stepped out onto the roof.

   Two uniformed officers were bending over a still form. Bellamy. One of the officers looked up at me and shook his head.

   Another man was standing across the roof, looking down at something. When I came up behind him, he just turned to me and shrugged. There were tears in his eyes.

   I choked back a tear of my own when I saw what he'd been looking at. Dave Starsky was sitting on the roof, his back to an air conditioning unit, his eyes closed. He was very still, except for the hand that was gently ruffling his partner's blond hair. Hutch was lying with his head in Starsky's lap. He looked serene and peaceful. I would have thought he was asleep, except for the ugly dark stain on the front of his shirt.

   I squatted down beside Starsky. I put my hand to Hutch's throat. No pulse.

   "What happened?" I asked softly.

   Starsky didn't seem to hear me for a moment. He just kept stroking Hutch's hair. Then his eyes opened. "Hutch...he wouldn't fire on Bellamy. He was afraid he'd kill him, afraid we wouldn't be able to get the antidote from him...Bellamy knew. He got the drop on Hutch. He...he still wouldn't fire. I followed them up here...tried to shoot Bellamy before he shot Hutch...vision blurred...weak...fired too late..."

   "The paramedics will be here soon. We'll get you to the hospital, Dave."

   Starsky actually smiled. "Called me Dave. Hutch said some people will do anything to get on a first name basis." Then what I said must have sunk in. He put his other hand on Hutch's shoulder and shook his head. "No hospital, Cap. I want to stay here with Hutch."

   "Dave...he's..."

   "I know. But he's here...I can feel him. He's waitin' for me. Please, Cap. There's no antidote. Even if there was...I don't think... It's too late. I don't want to die alone, without Hutch. Please let me stay with him. It won't be long, I promise."

   So I sat next to him and put my arm around him. He leaned his head on my shoulder, but he kept his hands on Hutch's...on Hutch, patting his shoulder, running his fingers through fine blond hair.

   He raised his head to whisper, "Hutch...he was able to talk to me for a minute...said...said Bellamy wasn't smart enough to do...this. Said...someone else is behind this. Get him, Cap. Get him, for me and Hutch."

   He laid his head on my shoulder again. He was right. It didn't take long. The doctors told me later that the shock of Hutch's...of what happened to Hutch must have made Starsky's body react to the poison more quickly than it would have otherwise. Anyway, it only took a few minutes.

   Starsky leaned against me, for those minutes. When the paramedics arrived, I just motioned them away. And when Starsky sighed his partner's name and fell heavily against me, I cried.

   It was the last thing I did for my boys.

   Except to personally put the cuffs on Professor Jennings and make sure the case against him was airtight. After he was convicted, Huggy Bear and I went to "The Pits" and drank toasts to our boys.

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

   "No! No!"

   "Harold, wake up, you're having a bad dream."

   His wife's voice, and her gentle but insistent shaking of his arm finally woke him.

   "Huh? What?"

   "You were having a bad dream."

   "Boy, was I. Was it really a dream?" His voice sounded small and a little lost.

   "I don't know. What did you dream?" She was using the same tone she used on the kids when they had a nightmare. He found it as soothing as they did.

   He rubbed his face with a trembling hand. "Starsky and Hutch. They...they..." He couldn't say the words.

   "Well, unless something happened to them since dinner, I'm sure they're fine."

   "Dinner?"

   She put her arms around his neck and snuggled against him. "Dinner. You do remember dinner, don't you? You brought them home with you so we could celebrate."

   "Celebrate?" He knew he was sounding like he couldn't think on his own, but he was still groggy. And that dream, if it was a dream...was just too...

   She just laughed. "Jennings, the man who poisoned Starsky, was convicted today. You and "your boys" had dinner here to celebrate.

   "Oh yeah. I remember." And he did. A good dinner, laughter, seeing his two best detectives safe and relaxed. It had been a wonderful evening.

   "Good. Now go back to sleep."

   He lay in the comfort of her arms for several minutes. "Maybe I should call them."

   She sighed. "Harold, they're big boys. I'm sure they're fine."

   "Yeah." He lay quietly, waiting until her breathing evened out and she was asleep.

   Then he got up and went to use the phone in the kitchen.

THE END