Chapter Seventeen #3
“I’m sorry to be blunt, sir,” Kit said levelly, aware that her mention of Mary was quickening his pulse, “but I need you to come clean with me. What’s going on here? And who is Joe?”
Ito flinched again, then stilled, his eyes closing as he drew deep, steady breaths. His blood pressure slowly decreased and leveled to something approaching normal.
“Where is Ricky?” he asked.
“He’s not here,” Kit said curtly. “Stop changing the subject. I need to know who Joe is.”
“Where is Paolo?” Ito asked. “Why hasn’t he been here?”
Kit opened her mouth to tell him the truth, but Akiko swept in, shooting a glance at the blood pressure monitor. “He’s not here, Hanshi. I’m not sure where he is.”
“Bullshit,” Kit whispered. “I need him to talk to me.”
“I need him not to die,” Akiko whispered back. “Not yet.”
And this was why cops were supposed to recuse themselves from cases involving family, Kit thought. She was honestly tempted to give way to Akiko’s wishes. But she couldn’t. This was about more than Kit’s job. More than Akiko’s safety.
More than my safety. People had been murdered, and Ito knew why. Kit was sure of it.
“I’m sorry, Akiko,” Kit said quietly. “But we have to get a straight answer.”
Akiko turned to Kit, her eyes wounded yet sharp. “You’re going to kill him.”
“I’m trying to save him,” Kit shot back. “And you.”
Akiko’s dark eyes flashed with anger. “I don’t care about me. I don’t want my grandfather to die. Not today. Save your questions for tomorrow. Please. For me.”
Kit’s eyes stung at her sister’s whispered pleas, but she resisted, raising old barriers around her heart, barriers she hadn’t used with Akiko in sixteen years. “Mr. Ito, who is Joe and why were you meeting with him and Nicchi and Mary?”
Another flinch followed by another ragged inhale.
And then another shake of his head.
“You can’t tell me that you don’t know,” Kit said, controlling her anger. But just barely.
“No,” Ito said heavily. “I cannot tell you that.”
“Who are you protecting?” she demanded. “We can provide police protection for them.”
Ito’s laugh was utterly mirthless. “No, Detective. You cannot.”
Kit tried to hold her temper. “Danny Takahashi nearly killed you. He nearly killed me. And he broke into Akiko’s house, searching for something. He killed your daughter, Eddie. Your daughter. He killed Mary. Or should I say Himari?”
Ito began to tremble as he opened his eyes and met Akiko’s gaze. “Is this true? Danny killed Mary?”
“Kit says so,” Akiko said numbly, tears spilling down her cheeks. “And she’s rarely wrong.”
“Mary scratched him,” Kit said. “We got DNA from the skin cells under her fingernails. She fought him, Mr. Ito. She fought hard, but he still killed her.”
“Kit,” Harlan said. “Don’t do this.”
Akiko was openly sobbing, and it was breaking Kit’s heart.
“I want to stop,” Kit said honestly. “I want to walk away and not press this man, Akiko’s grandfather, for answers.
But I don’t have that luxury. Danny Takahashi has killed three people.
Wounded three cops. Dammit, Akiko. What if you’re next?
Is that what you want, Ito? To lose your granddaughter?
Or maybe all three of them, because Danny was also stalking Mary’s daughter Dahlia.
When he kills them, too, will you still say ‘I cannot’? ”
Kit’s voice had risen and, while she wasn’t shouting, she was being louder than she needed to be. So she drew a breath. “Who is Joe?”
Ito shook his head. Then he frowned. “He killed my Mary. Who are the other two?”
Akiko dropped her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Kit closed her eyes and counted backward from ten. Then she counted backward again. You’re trying to save your sister. You’re trying to save them all. Anyone who’s on Danny Takahashi’s list.
When she opened her eyes, Ito was staring straight at her. “Who, Detective?” he demanded. Then he seemed to shrink into the pillow. “Paolo? Is that why he’s not here? Did Danny kill my Paolo?”
Kit wasn’t going to lie to him. Too much was on the line. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry. Who is Joe?”
Ito stared for another thirty seconds before the tears filling his eyes began to run down his cheeks.
Then, once again, he shook his head. “I cannot,” he whispered, his voice ragged and tortured. “My Paolo…Did he suffer, Detective?”
Kit thought of Paolo’s body, his face beaten until he was unrecognizable. Then she looked at Akiko, whose hands still covered her face.
“No, sir,” she lied. “He didn’t suffer.”
Ito shuddered out a muted wail. “I thought you’d be a better liar, Detective.
Paolo was my son. Not by blood, but I’ve been his legal guardian since he was three years old.
I watched him grow up. I bandaged his knees.
I dried his tears. Took him to the doctor when he got the flu.
I took him to school. I helped him with his homework. ”
Kit’s heart broke a little more. “And when you moved from LA to San Diego to start a new dojo, you brought him with you.” It was a guess, but she was pretty certain. The timing matched up with when Paolo met Akiko.
“I did.”
“Joe left us clues, you know,” she said gently, because she genuinely feared the man would break. “He directed us toward passengers on Akiko’s boat. Whatever this is about, sir—whoever this is about—they boarded your granddaughter’s boat. They were as close to her as you are to me right now.”
Ito closed his eyes once again. He said nothing.
And Kit understood. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew they were closing in on Akiko, that they planned to incriminate her in their gun-running scheme. That’s why Mary came forward when she did. To warn my sister.”
Ito nodded once. And then he turned his face away and wept.
Kit sighed. This was all she was going to get.
“I’m sorry, sir. I truly am. I hate having to do this, hate having to be the bad guy.
” Kit’s eyes stung again and this time she couldn’t hold back her own pain.
Her voice broke, but she couldn’t care. “I hate having Akiko look at me like she is now. Like I’m a fucking monster.
” Because Akiko was doing exactly that, and Kit wasn’t sure she could draw a full breath.
Her chest hurt. “But I’ll be a fucking monster a million times over to keep her safe.
I’m going to find Joe, with or without your help. ”
She rose and moved to the door of Ito’s ICU room on unsteady legs. “Pop? Keep her here, okay?” Angrily, she dashed the tears from her cheeks. “Keep her safe. I have to go.”
“Kit, wait.” Harlan started after her. “Kitty-Cat.”
She shook her head hard and sped up, passing Anson’s employee as she left the ICU.
She pressed the button for the elevator, then turned to the man guarding the door.
His name was Eric, and he was a retired LAPD cop.
He could keep them safe. “I have to go. If anyone goes in that you haven’t cleared, can you follow them?
I don’t want Akiko and Pop alone. Ever.”
Eric didn’t ask her if she was all right, which she appreciated. He only nodded. “You need anything else, you let me know, okay?”
“Thanks.” She stared at the elevator display for a few seconds before heading for the stairwell. It was only nine flights, and she had energy to burn.
And answers to find. Because whatever Ito was hiding, it was clearly killing him to do so. Whatever he was hiding was somehow more important than protecting Akiko’s life.
Whatever he was hiding had to be big.