by Ann Marie
“Yes sir, but I have to...”
“To what son, keep out unwelcome visitors? By the looks of that lady, she is gonna be in surgery a while. You won’t be missed and when we are through, I will straighten everything out with your superiors.” The two men entered the elevator.
Chapter 24
“Feeling better I hope?” Dr. Kessler rushed in, through the door, behind Josephine.
“Oh, hi, yes much better. Thank you. Your coat, I have it back at the house. I can’t...it’s off limits at the moment.”
“No problem, you know where I work. You can just drop it by when you have the time. Nice to see you again, I have to get upstairs. Excuse me.” He continued on past, in a hurried mode.
Josephine and Billy headed over to the receptionist. “Antonia Dal Santo please, has she been moved or is she still in ICU?” The receptionist handed Josephine a visitor’s pass without looking up. Josephine glanced at the card and then smiled up at Billy. “This is good. This is good.” She stated, feeling secure that Anthony was well enough to have been moved out of ICU. Together they headed for the elevator.
As they exited the elevator, Josephine felt something was wrong. She glanced over to the nurses’ station and found it empty. “It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with Antonia.” Billy tried to be reassuring but he couldn’t even convince himself. Josephine looked at the visitors pass for the room number and then up at the wall for an arrow. She turned and walked full trot down the hall. Taking the corner a bit too fast, she ran into a nurse who, in turn, spilled medication all over the floor. The nurse’s startled expression changed quickly from anger to star struck. Billy went down with the nurse to help pick up the pills as Josephine tried to walk past.
“She’s not in her room. Ms. Ferrero... I am sorry... Ms. Ferrero!” The nurse pleaded to Billy with her eyes. “There was a...someone got in. I’m sorry, I’m sure they were going to call...”
“What do you mean someone got in? Where was the security? Someone was supposed to be posted outside her room.”
“Apparently the gentleman claimed to be a relative of some sort. Her father, I think that’s what they said. I’m not sure. I’m really sorry. They took her downstairs...”
Billy didn’t wait for her to finish. He raced after Josephine to the door of the room. Josephine could not bring herself to enter. She just stood frozen in time. Billy pushed past her. He went directly to the bed. From behind, Josephine could see his head bob up and down. He was desperately fighting for control. Again he turned and pushed past Josephine, seemingly not noticing her. Josephine watched him go from door to door until he found the same nurse they had just left in the hall.
“Where is she?”
“I tried to tell you...”
Billy grabbed the woman by her shoulders and shook her. “Where is she damn it?”
“They took her down to surgery. She was hemorrhaging badly.”
Billy turned and raced back to the elevator. Josephine quickened her step and followed. As Billy pounded on the buttons, hoping to speed up the car, the nurse came calling.
“You can’t go into surgery, sir. That just isn’t possible. Perhaps...” The doors opened and closed before she could finish. She darted back to the nurses’ station and phoned downstairs.
Once again on the main floor and out into the hall, Josephine and Billy stopped briefly for a moment to collect their thoughts.
“What exactly do you hope to do now, Billy? She’s right you know. You can’t go into the surgery. It’s not your fault. You’re not responsible for any of this. There was supposed to be someone posted outside her door. I asked that Barsky woman to have someone there.”
“There was someone there, Josephine. There was a guard sitting outside her door. The guy said he was a relative. Shit Joe, I can’t take much more of this. Antonia doesn’t deserve any of this.”
“I know, I know. Let’s just see if we can find out what exactly has happened and focus on that. OK?” Josephine walked confidently towards the receptionist in the emergency waiting room. “Ms. Dal Santo was brought back in for surgery. Do you have any information on her status? Or is there any way you can get an update for me? Anyone I should talk to?”
“Just a minute Ms. Ferrero, let me check for you.” With that the woman disappeared. Josephine spent the next five minutes signing autographs and talking with fans. Something she never did anymore. Billy watched dumbfounded from a distance. She seemed stronger to him now. Somehow taller and more self assured. She was even, he noticed, wearing her glasses.
When Dr. Luke stepped out into the waiting room, the crowd parted. Billy came to stand next to Josephine. He intertwined his fingers with hers and held her hand in silent prayer. The doctor motioned for the two to follow him.
Back inside the ICU, away from the crowd of fans, the three found privacy in a curtain draped cubical where Josephine sat herself down on a cot. “We managed to stop the major bleeding. There was a great deal of blood loss. In a short period of time I am afraid. There is no easy way to say it.” Billy braced himself for impact. Josephine sat patiently, waiting for the doctor to finish. “There is still internal bleeding. We haven’t been able to cap it. He tore her up pretty bad inside. At this point I am not certain how it is going to end in there. I think you should prepare yourselves for another very long evening. There is a very good possibility, due to the amount of blood loss in the small period of time that she may not come out of the anesthesia.”
“Coma?” Billy asked.
The doctor shook his head. “Very strong possibility.”
“Was he trying to kill her then?”
“I don’t think so. No. She was raped. I don’t think he meant to kill her.”
Josephine had not been expecting that. She stood and quickly headed for the small trash container in the corner. She vomited until she was dizzy. Billy came up behind her and rubbed her back. The doctor excused himself and sent in the nurse to help Josephine. “You should head outside for a bit and get some air.” Billy took hold of her arm and escorted her to just outside the ER.
“I don’t get it. What the hell is happening? Was it the same guy from last night? Why would he hurt her?”
“I don’t know. I have never known anyone who would want to hurt her. I have to assume this person, this animal, did not want to either.” They both stood in silence for several minutes.
“Tell me about Africa.” Billy looked sideways at her. He was not certain what she wanted to know. “Tell me about Anthony and Africa. Like, how did you meet her?”
“Oh, well, we met before Africa. At the army barracks in Calcutta. I was stationed out there and she came by with three other women. They came every day for four months. Self defense training. Some women, nuns I think they were, in the group they were working with, had been raped by guerillas. Antonia and her gang, as the guys referred to them, became security for the others. She was good. Too good. She made the guys who trained her look bad.” He chuckled to himself at the memory.
“So you and she...became an item?”
“Who, us? Antonia and me? I wish. No, unfortunately not. No, she went on to wherever her work took her. I remained in Calcutta. We just kinda ran into each other again a few months before she left Africa to come back here, to the States, to you.”
Josephine tried to find her answers in his eyes. “Tell me about Africa. Antonia’s Africa.”
“Hell Joe, did you ever ask Antonia?” He pushed his hands down deep into his pockets and looked for an escape in the stars. He looked back only to find her still questioning him with her eyes. “I don’t know that much about her Africa. Only that she had a hell of a lot of people around her. All the time. That woman couldn’t even go to the bathroom in peace. You could always tell when she was coming because there would be a parade of followers. They just came to her. She would teach them. Anything they wanted to know she would teach them. There is like nothing that woman doesn’t know.” It was Josephine’s turn to chuckle inwardly. Billy stopped talki
ng and just watched her. “I don’t know much about her work. I am sorry Josephine. I know they loved her. I know they seemed to need her. She was happy. Tired, but happy.”
“Until I called.”
“No, she was happy when you called. She was beaming almost. She didn’t want to leave, I can tell you that. But she couldn’t wait to see you. She was on the plane before I started the car almost.”
“Why do you think she stayed so long Billy?”
“For real? Are you serious? Damn Josephine, you really are blind to the world around you.” He started to walk back to the ER.
“Wait a minute. Billy, come on. You’re not being fair here.”
He turned and looked at her. She really had no clue. “For you Josephine. She stayed for you. If you had your shit together she would have left years ago. You’re a mess. You can’t make appointments. You can’t keep appointments. You can’t add or subtract. Your books are always messed up. You have employees who sell anything of yours they can get their hands on. You can’t be alone. You know she’s always worried that you’ll overdose or crash your car!”
“Overdose? That’s insane.”
“Is it? Is it really, Josephine? You know I even asked her once, why. I couldn’t figure out why she gave a damn, what with the way you walk all over her all the time. Hell, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who gives a shit whether or not you swallowed too many pain pills. All anyone cares about is that Ferrero fortune.”
“What did she say?” Josephine inquired in a childlike tone.
“What? Who?” Billy had grown angry with the thought of Josephine’s lack of concern for Antonia.
“Anthony, what did she say when you asked her? If I am as evil as you would make me believe, when you asked her why she gave a shit, what was her response?”
Billy threw both hands up in the air in disgust. He turned and took two steps away from her and then stopped. Someone needed to slap her in the face with the truth. He turned and walked back to her. He got right in her face. “What did she say? She said, ‘Joe doesn’t mean to be the way she is. She got caught up in the role playing that’s all. She just forgets who she is sometimes. I know who she is. I knew her when she was real.’ “When was that Ms. Ferrero? Huh? When was it that you were a real person?” Billy was shouting. He was pressing for answers even though he didn’t want to hear anything Josephine might have to say. Nothing she could say would make him feel any better at the moment. He loved Anthony. He felt totally inadequate at the moment. He had let someone hurt her twice. He knew Antonia would never have let anyone hurt him or anyone whom she loved for that matter. Antonia would have known in advance that something was going to happen and she would have been there to prevent it. Knowing this, Billy had to assume that Anthony knew she was in trouble before it happened and she was helpless to do anything to prevent it. She could not protect herself in her condition. He should have been there for her. But he worked for Josephine and it was his job to protect her. He did not want this job anymore. He wanted out, but now was not the time to think of anything or anyone but Antonia. “Hell, if she doesn’t make it...”
“Doesn’t make it? Stop it! Don’t say things like that! Anthony will be fine. She will be just fine. She always is, isn’t she?” They were shouting at each other. They never noticed as Harold walked up behind them. He waited for a break in the action and then pretended to cough into his fist.
“Excuse me, please. My name is Harold Davis. Chief Inspector Davis. Well, I’m retired now, but that really doesn’t matter. I was involved in the original Dal Santo case.”
Billy was confused. “I’m sorry; I am not familiar with...”
“Her mother’s murder? That case?” Josephine jumped in. Billy looked questioningly back and forth between the two.
“Yes. Yes that’s right.”
“What brings you here all the way up here? You don’t live up here, do you?”
“No, no I do not.”
“What, you came up because of the shooting? That’s very admirable of you, but I am sorry, I don’t think you will be able to see her for a while.”
“I have already seen her, Antonia. I saw her right before they brought her back down for surgery. And then I went out to find you, at your home. But you were not there.” He looked over to Billy. “I think that was a wise choice, getting her out of there.” Billy just squinted his eyes at the man.
“I don’t understand. Why me? What would make you come out to see me?” She stopped for a moment in thought. “You didn’t just come to visit with Anthony did you? You read about the shooting or heard about it on the radio and...you don’t think there’s a connection, do you? I mean, that was like over thirty years ago. Her father was charged with that right? And he died in jail? Oh my God..., he did die in jail didn’t he?”
“Wow, you really charge forward, don’t you? Yes, um, yes I was involved with her mother’s murder case and yes her father was charged with that murder. Yes, it was reported that her father died while serving time for her mother’s murder. And yes, I do think there is a connection between then and now.” He stopped and regrouped his thoughts. “It was Antonia, actually, who sent me out to your place.”
“Anthony sent you? Why?”
“She was concerned; she thought perhaps the man who attacked her was coming after you.”
Billy used the moment to prove his case. “You see? There! You do see it don’t you? The woman has just been raped and who is the first person she thinks about? You, for crying out loud! She’s bleeding to death and all she wants is for you to be protected!” He ran his fingers through his hair and turned his back on the two.
Harold threw a protective arm around Josephine and walked her back towards the emergency room doors. “Actually her exact words were, ‘He’s going after Joe.’, I have to assume she meant you.”
“Me? He’s coming after me? He killed Chloe today. Did you know that?”
“Who was Chloe?”
Billy decided to take a walk. He let his anger get the best of him. A little fresh air, alone, and he would go back inside. Besides, Josephine seemed to be in good hands at the moment. By the time Josephine and Harold had made it back to the waiting room entrance, Billy was half way round the building. The pain from the brick connecting with his temple was as short lived as a spark. As Josephine and Harold went through the door, the lights flickered on and off. Inside surgery, the clicks and beeps of monitors and computers coming back on line were all you could hear, as everyone froze in their tracks.
Dr. Luke looked up at all around the table. Each individual motioned that they were OK on their end. He looked up at his patient. Antonia’s eyes were open. Panic briefly gripped at his heart. He looked to the anesthesiologist for an answer. “She’s out Luke, definitely out. She must have taken a jolt.”
All eyes went to the nurse watching the heart monitor. “Nothing here Doc, we’re good.” Dr. Luke reached over and shut Antonia’s eyes. Carefully he checked his staff. “Whatever it was, it is sure to be with us soon. Let’s finish up here, shall we.”
Josephine rushed over to the receptionist. “Is everything all right in there? What was that?”
“Just a power surge hon. It happens every now and then. You know, like if there is a storm or someone runs their car into a telephone pole housing a generator. I am sure everything is just fine back there. You should try to get some rest. Maybe get something to eat. Don’t worry, I promise I will find you if anything changes.”
She looks pleadingly to Harold. “Hey, you know what? I could really use some coffee. Why not let me buy you a cup.”
“I should go and get Billy.”
“He seems to be a big guy, I am certain he can look after himself. And when he is ready, he will find you. Please, humor an old man and let me buy you a cup of coffee.” Together they walked out of the waiting room.
Back into the lobby once again, Josephine wrapped her arms around herself. Vaguely she remembered being in the lobby the night before. She looked aro
und the area as they walked through. The cross on the wall called out to her. She felt her stomach constrict. “I have to run to the ladies room. You go on ahead.” She started off in the direction of the hall.
“I can wait for you if you’d like.” Harold’s voice landed neatly on the carpeted floor as Josephine never stopped to listen. He paused briefly before continuing on to the cafeteria, where he purchased two coffees and two Danish. He found a table in a corner, out of the sight of the viewing public. Thinking perhaps the Star would like to be hidden, Harold placed the items on the table. He then returned to the counter to retrieve a newspaper. Finally he settled in himself, and read the town news as he waited for Josephine.
Josephine turned on the cold water tap. She placed both palms down on the counter top to balance herself. She felt lightheaded and out of breath. Glancing at her reflection in the mirror, she took note of the bruise on her forehead. Without any makeup, she was a stranger to herself. ‘Have I eaten yet today?’ She couldn’t recall. ‘Maybe if I eat something I will feel better. Maybe I was supposed to take a pill or something.’ She caught herself. ‘Maybe?’ Billy’s voice echoed in her head. ‘She’s afraid you’ll overdose.’ ‘Christ Joe, when did you get so...what has happened to me?’ She reached into the water flow with both hands and brought her face down into them. Once, twice more before stopping. Turning off the water she realized she had not grabbed any paper towels. Glancing over to the dispenser, she laughed at herself. It was empty. She looked back into the mirror at the reflection of the dripping face. Strands of hair were pasted to her face. She ran her fingers through her hair in the hopes of saving her appearance. Drying her face with her fingers she leaned back against the wall and faced her true self. Somewhere deep inside she felt lonely. She missed the face she saw in the mirror. Where did that Josephine go? How long ago had she left? How did she slip away so silently? Her arms embraced her as a sudden chill entered the room. What a difference makeup can create. She recalled when she first started to wear the stuff. It was not permitted at school. But when she started acting, her mother had convinced the staff at St. Agnes that it was necessary for Josephine to learn how to apply her own makeup.