Susan
Starsky
became Mattie one afternoon a week later. He left the Torino and the keys with
Hutch, slipped into one hell of a black silk suit, slapped on a little dab of
Brylcreem, and drove the Mercedes to the Jungle Room, a stripper bar in
Hollywood and Cousin Danny’s favorite hangout. Danny was a classy guy who liked
his women dumb. It was easier to impress them that way.
They agreed
there would be no contact for the first two weeks, no calls, no secret messages
through Huggy, no meetings in back alleys. It scared the hell out of Hutch, but
he accepted that Starsky had to be Mattie if this was going to work.
The feds had
set their sights pretty high. They wanted Starsky to catch Danny doing
something really bad. One of them had actually said that. “Catch him doing
something really bad, would ya?”
“Squeezing the toothpaste in the middle?”
Starsky suggested.
“That’s not
exactly a federal offense,” Vaughan said.
“The way he
goes on about it you’d think it was,” Hutch retorted, looking at Starsky.
The agent
raised one eyebrow. Starsky shrugged.
In the end,
they narrowed it down to a few possibilities. Buying or selling a shipment of
drugs, killing someone. Not Starsky though, Hutch reminded them, since that
would defeat the purpose of the assignment. Starsky’s suggestion was catching
Danny leaving the toilet seat up.
“Another
federal offense?” Vaughan asked Hutch.
“You have no
idea.”
And there
would be no wires. Cousin Danny was also known as Paranoid Danny.
They said
goodbye in the squad room and did all the manly things men do on those
occasions. Hutch was pretty sure that no one saw their hands touch briefly
under the desk or the look on Starsky’s face when he turned to go.
Leaving the
station later, Hutch found a small envelope on the front seat of the car.
Inside were Starsky’s necklace and a short note.
For safekeeping
Rule
number four: No worrying. I’ll be fine.
Ciao
S
Hutch stood in the empty parking lot and remembered all the things
he’d meant to say. Like be careful and don’t take chances and remember the
rules. And I love you. That most of all.