Dusted
(a duet for two cops)
Nothing's
impossible, I have found.
For when my
chin is on the ground,
I pick
myself up, dust myself off,
Start all
over again.*
“I didn’t think I’d see you back here, Lieutenant.”
“It’s Sergeant these days, Detective Sergeant.”
“Kind of hard to know what to call
you, then.”
“Dave was good enough last time around.”
“Good to see you Dave; well ….”
“I understand.”
*****************
Don't lose your confidence if you slip.
Be grateful for a pleasant trip,
And pick yourself up; dust yourself off;
Start all over again.
Hutch had no
choice. Dobey tried his best but no-one could take working with him for more
than a couple of days. Younger cops were scared of him and older cops felt
uncomfortable taking Starsky’s place, however temporary they all believed it to
be. Dobey ended up putting him behind a desk and Hutch accepted that he might
just as well sign up for a few classes at the Academy to prepare the exams. No
matter how hard he tried, if a call came in for a car found abandoned, no
matter what the description, he had to go and see for himself that it wasn’t
Starsky’s.
He learned
one thing: fingerprint dust sticks to everything. And each black stain on his
pants or his shirt just told him how futile it was to try to find a man who did
not want to be found; especially when that man was a street-wise and
highly-skilled cop.
Hutch
studied and registered for the exams. He had been a cop long enough for his
experience to have taught him much of what he needed to show the examining board.
The studies added the necessary references to codes and laws that maybe he and
Starsky were a little too glib about in the old days.
He decided
to make the best of it. He enjoyed the mental challenge of studying again and
the investigative set-backs faded into insignificance. He started to tell
himself that if he fulfilled Starsky’s trust it would bring him back.
************************
Work like a
soul inspired
'Til the battle of the day is won.
You may be
sick and tired,
But you'll
be a man, my son.
The routine was tough but it was what Starsky needed.
He slipped back into the discipline of the rehab center that had put him back
on his feet ten years earlier. Waking at dawn; running the regulation two miles
before breakfast, pushing weights and his limits made it easier to ignore the
temptation to turn to easy comfort. When
he wasn’t pushing his body he pushed his brain.
It was good to use his quick mind again. It was too easy to let Hutch
believe his crack about who was “the brains” and who was the “not-inconsiderable
brawn” of the partnership.
He had set-backs when his body protested the regime
with pain and a bone-deep weariness. Those were the days when he spent more
time reading the textbooks and running over the test papers that a contact in
the Hawaii PD sent him. Sometimes he stared at the page and wondered whether
Hutch was keeping his side of the deal. He shook his head in disbelief that he
could even doubt it.
The son was going further than the father ever did.
***********************
Nearly a year after Starsky disappeared Hutch sat in
an examination hall with thirty other candidates for the rank of Lieutenant.
A week later he found a note on his desk, “come to my
office when you arrive, Hutch” signed by Dobey.
He opened the Captain’s door and walked in. Dobey didn’t look and Hutch’s
heart skipped beat. The moment he had dreaded for the past few months had
finally come…Dobey closed the file:
“You’d better take this one, Hutch. They’ve found a car that fits the description
up near
***********************
Starsky didn’t need
to be here any more. He wanted to stay.
He didn’t need permission to leave; he had come as a volunteer after all, and
he had achieved all the goals that he set himself. He had enough money to take his time and he
spent his days photographing volcanoes and bright-plumed birds and waves and
ripples in the sand on the beach near the apartment that he used as a base. He
hardly noticed the time pass.
May came, bringing the painful memories of his brief
encounter with his own mortality. In June he made his decision. He booked a
flight to
And when he was sure that he could finally make the
last move he booked another ticket. One-way.
*********************
Hutch checked his reflection in the mirror. The
department was on parade for a new Commissioner and he was in full dress
uniform
He noted the new Lieutenant’s uniform hanging on the
locker door and whistled at the impressive rows of medal ribbons. He hadn’t
heard of a new officer coming in; but truth was he’d been pretty absent since
May when the memories of the shooting a year earlier had sent him to the bottom
of a bottle until Huggy and Dobey pulled him up again.
Hutch put the words to the tune that someone was
whistling in the locker room shower. It was one of those songs you carry from
your childhood that worms its way into your brain and refuses to leave. He hated it and loved it at the same time. It
occurred to him that the whistler was the mystery Lieutenant.
The shower stopped and Hutch turned away
instinctively, not wanting the newcomer to think he was watching him as he
stepped out of the shower. He made his way up to the hall where his colleagues
were already assembled to greet the new boss.
Hutch took his place alongside Captain Dobey and Chief
Ryan and noticed an empty chair next to him. He figured it was for the new
Lieutenant. The door opened and the new Commissioner walked in. As the
assembled officers stood to attention Hutch sensed that someone had slipped
into the back of the room.
As they left the room Dobey put a hand on Hutch’s arm.
“Come with me. I want you to meet you new partner.”
Hutch was ready to bluster that he didn’t need a new
partner because….then he saw Lieutenant David Starsky standing grinning at him.
“Glad to see I was right to trust you, Lieutenant.”
“It was you whistling in the shower?”
“Yeah.
I always loved that song.” He started to sing softly
Will you
remember the famous men
Who had to
fall to rise again.
So take a
deep breath;
Pick
yourself up;
Dust
yourself off
Starsky sketched a teasing salute. “I did like the
song said, buddy. I guess now we are both ready to start all over again.”
Hutch nodded.
Dobey breathed a sigh of relief; suddenly the idea of
retirement didn’t seem so bad, not if he could be sure of two excellent
candidates for Captain coming up behind.
* Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Lyrics by Dorothy Fields to music by Jerome Kern