I was out of breath by the time I got to the family waiting room at the hospital. It was filled with people staring off into space or sitting in huddled groups hugging and crying. Kato’s wife sat alone with her head in her hands.
“Susie?”
When she looked up, I barely recognized her grief-ravaged face. Her skin was even paler than normal and her eyes were red from crying. She stood and hugged me. “Gia. He might not make it.” Her body shook with sobs.
I held her for a few seconds and then led her back to her seat by the hand.
“What happened?” I said, my stomach doing somersaults.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I got a call from one of his students.”
When Kato’s first student showed up fifteen minutes early, he’d found Kato’s crumpled body on the floor of the dojo, she said. He had been severely beaten. A heavy steel pipe with blood on it was found nearby. The student’s early arrival, before the dojo opened to the public, had probably interrupted the attack and saved Kato’s life. Police had found witnesses who said a group of four men had been seen fleeing out the back door of the dojo within seconds of the student making the 911 call.
Kato was in surgery. It looked like he had taken a severe blow to the head and also suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung.
Why would someone hurt Kato? It didn’t make any sense. I caught my breath. Unless, it had something to do with me. I drew back from hugging Susie and took a closer look at the other people in the waiting room.
Nobody I knew. None of my godfather’s thugs, just worried family members.
“Susie?”
She blew her nose and looked at me.
“Did you know there is a big black car in front of your house?”
Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think the people who are after me might have done this to Kato.” I closed my eyes. I felt sick to my stomach even saying that.
Susie wrapped her arms around me. “It’s not your fault.”
“I think it might be,” I said opening my eyes. I took her by the shoulders. “You can’t go home. You have to go to your parents. I think you’re safe here in the hospital, but don’t come home. Go to your parents and stay there until I call you.”
She sniffled. “Okay, Gia. I don’t think anyone would hurt me, but if you say so.”
“I do,” I said. “I just know this is connected to someone trying to find me. And these people—I used to think women and children were off limits—but I just don’t know anymore. I’d rather you were safe. I have to go now, but please promise me, you’ll be careful.”
She looked at me solemnly and nodded.
Just then the elevator door dinged. I ducked back into the doorway, grabbed my compact mirror out of my bag and stuck it into the hall at waist level. By holding it just right I could see the nurse’s desk. Two men in dark suits were talking to the nurse on duty. “Call 911 if those two men in suits even try to talk to you,” I told Susie and slipped out a side door of the waiting room toward the stairwell.
I took the back stairs out of the hospital, wishing I had grabbed my gun before I ran out of the house this morning. Being alone on the stairs creeped me out. I’d just read last month that a patient who had disappeared was found dead in the stairwell. She’d been there for three weeks before someone found her body. But my anger overpowered my fear.
I walked eight blocks away from the hospital before I boarded a bus back to the Tenderloin.
Ethel wasn’t at her usual spot outside.
Upstairs, Django greeted me with enthusiasm and I buried my face in his fur for a few seconds taking deep, gulping breaths. I hadn’t been to church since I was a kid, but I suddenly wanted to go light a candle for Kato. The thought of his dying sent such a tremor of fear through me, I could barely breathe.
I’d go to a Catholic church I’d seen around the corner and light a candle and say a prayer for him.
I took Django for a walk. He about lost his mind when I picked up the leash Thanh-Thanh had bought for him. Despite feeling sick to my stomach with worry over Kato, I couldn’t help but smile at the damn dog’s enthusiasm.
I made my plans for the night. I’d walk Django, light a candle at a church, and then sneak back into the hospital to check on Kato’s condition.
Having a plan seemed the only thing that would keep me from falling into my bed and not getting up for the next month. I felt such a heavy wave of despair hit me. It was all too much.