After a fitful few hours of sleep, I awoke again, this time to Laurie’s hungry cries. I pulled her into bed with us and fell back asleep while breastfeeding.
Something was nagging at my mind, not letting me rest properly. What was it?
Kiku! The new baby! We were going to miss the birth. I struggled to open my eyes and look at the clock. Quarter to seven.
I shook Jim. “Wake up, Jim!”
He didn’t move.
“Jim, Kiku’s going to have the baby soon! Mom will be here in eighteen minutes! Wake up!”
Jim turned and slowly rolled over toward me. My hand shot out to stop him. “Laurie’s right behind you.”
Jim moaned, then sat up. “We’ve got to get to the hospital, huh?”
“Yeah. Get up.”
Jim’s red eyes peered at me. “I’m exhausted.”
“Welcome to the club.”
“Why don’t you stay here? I’ll go.”
“No way. I want to see the squishy baby.”
Jim smiled. “Okay, you go. I’ll stay here with our cheesy little one.”
“Nope. Get up.”
“Thought so.” Jim swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “I’ll make coffee.”
We arrived at the hospital in record time. The nurse would only allow one of us into Kiku’s room. We decided that Jim would stay in the waiting room.
I went into the labor and delivery room and, to my astonishment, saw George at her side.
“When did you get here?”
Kiku looked over to see me. “Kate!” she cried happily. “George here for baby!”
“Of course he is,” I said, making my voice sound as casual as I could.
The nurse started to prep Kiku for the cesarean. I slipped out into the hallway to wait with Jim.
After about an hour, George appeared, looking haggard. “Healthy baby boy, ten pounds, two ounces. We’re going to name him Robert. Momma’s doing fine. They’re going to move her now.”
Ten pounds, two ounces? Good Lord, that was almost twice as big as Laurie had been at birth! Even now at six weeks she was still only about eight pounds.
“Congratulations, Daddy,” Jim said, patting his brother on the back.
Tears streamed down my face.
George leaned into Jim and said, “I thought I was going to pass out in there, man.”
We laughed. Jim embraced George. When they let go of each other, both of them had tears in their eyes.
“I do love you, buddy. You know that, right?” Jim said.
George nodded. “I know. Me, too.”
Kiku and Baby Robert had been moved to a third-floor recovery room with a partial view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We sent Jim to get breakfast for Kiku and me.
Hey, why not? I was always hungry now anyway.
I settled myself on the bed, at Kiku’s feet, and cooed at Robert. George couldn’t let go of him. Looking at him holding his baby made me miss Laurie. How could I miss her so quickly?
Kiku dozed off.
Now was my chance.
“George, we gotta talk.”
George looked up from the baby and bit his lip.
“Where have you been? Are you behind these murders?”
His eyes grew wide. “Come on, Kate. ’Course not.”
“I found ledgers showing monkey business at Heavenly Haight and El Paraiso.”
George’s shoulders drooped. He exhaled and shook his head back and forth. “So, you know then.”
Know what?
Without giving it a second thought, I blurted, “I can help you.”
George moved toward the corner of the room, away from Kiku. He motioned with his head for me to follow.
“Rich’s been looking everywhere for those ledgers. We figured Michelle was keeping records. But we didn’t know where.”
I wanted to shout, “What does it mean?” but bit my tongue.
“I never wanted to sell dope. But I was on the streets, so in exchange for a place to crash, I sold a little for Brad, you know?”
Cash deposits to Michelle, bags at the pier, secrecy about everything. Now it was starting to make sense.
I kept my voice steady. “After Brad was killed, you worked for Michelle. Now you work for Rich, huh?”
George nodded, misery showing on his face.
“You were selling drugs for Michelle. She denied you were at her place the night Brad was killed because she didn’t want the police to make the connection between her and the drugs, right?”
George sighed. “I was over there to drop off the cash from that night. I had no idea anything was going on with Brad. I knew he and Michelle were having problems, but, you know, everyone has problems. I didn’t think he’d end up in the bay.”
“Is the pier your drug drop?”
George nodded.
“Rich was looking for those reports because they show how the money is being laundered, right?” I asked.