the doc said. When you’re done here, pick me up from the hospital. Jules, can you come with me to the jeep for a second, help me out with something?”
At the truck, Wild asks Julian to take some rope and attach the boy to his body in a protective sling. “The HMU jostles on the road, and I don’t want to drop him when we hit a pothole. He’ll be more secure this way.” Wild holds the infant to his chest, and Julian fashions a harness around the boy, tying him snugly to Wild. For extra warmth, they hide him inside Wild’s coat, the coat Julian bought for him. After Julian buttons it, you almost can’t see there’s a baby inside. To protect the boy’s exposed, nearly bald head, Mia fixes him with the red beret Julian gave her. “That’s okay, Jules, right? I don’t have anything else. You ruined my wool hat with your blood. The beret will keep him a little warmer. And Wild will bring it back in a few hours.”
“You’re talking about the beret, right?” Julian says.
The plump shivering mass that is baby Michael has quieted down inside Wild’s coat, stopped crying, stopped moving. Only his alert eyes with huge black pupils are open. His ear is pressed to Wild’s chest. He looks up at Wild and smiles toothlessly.
“What is he doing?” Wild says in a panic. “What does he want?”
“He’s just smiling at you, Wild,” says Mia.
“Why?”
Down the street and affixed to the stretcher, Duncan is howling, afraid they will cart him away to the hospital without Wild.
“Listen, never mind the hospital. Just head back to Bank, you two,” Wild says. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. Look at Dunk, that poor bastard. I may be in for a long day. I’ll come back when I’m done. Jules, I know there are some black-market lorries near Brick Lane. Want me to pick up a few things?”
Julian reaches into his trouser pocket. He gives Wild what’s left from the sale of one of his coins, over a hundred pounds. A hundred pounds in 1940 is five thousand pounds today. “Get whatever you think we need.”
“That’s a lot of whisky, mate,” Wild says. “But we’re going to need it. A wake for everyone.”
“A wake for everyone,” Julian says.
“What do babies eat anyway? Can they have whisky?”
“If it’s laced with milk, absolutely.” Julian and Wild smile at each other.
“Wild,” Duncan calls from his stretcher. “Wild . . .”
“Pipe down, woman! Honestly, he cries more than the baby. I’ll be right there!” Wild rolls his eyes. “All right, I’m off. I’ll see you, Swedish.”
“I’ll see you, Wild.”
Julian doesn’t know why he feels such a stinging ache watching Wild and Duncan drive away in the medi truck.
“Do you know the names of the women who lived in that house?” the Incident Officer asks Mia. “I need to record it into my log book. Where is Finch? He knows everything. I can’t do this job without him. Is he not better yet?”
“Finch died,” Mia says.
The Incident Officer, who’s been everywhere and seen it all, does an unprecedented thing. He bursts into tears.
20
Lunch at the Ten Bells
WILD DOESN’T RETURN TO BANK.
And then there were four.
Only Julian, Mia, Liz, and Frankie are left in the passageway.
On Monday morning when Julian and Mia arrive at Royal London to visit Duncan, they learn that Wild left on Sunday afternoon for the black market and did not come back. Duncan is in bad shape. He did break his back. Now he’s paralyzed from the waist down. Julian and Mia sit with Duncan into the evening. When the big man finally falls asleep, they leave. They go upstairs to the fourth-floor orphanage to check on the little boy. The nurse administrator shows them the three male babies under a year old that have been brought to the hospital in the last 24 hours. They all look about right, and yet not right.
They don’t know what to think.
Sheila Cozens, on her third straight shift, is angry, exhausted, and has no answers. Yesterday afternoon, Wild asked Sheila for some milk for the baby. He said the child seemed hungry. Sheila got upset with Wild, too. “Where do you think I’m going to get milk from, I said to him.” She told him to go to the fourth floor. The orphanage would know what to feed a baby. He said he would, said goodbye to Duncan and Sheila, and left. That was it. Sheila storms away as if Mia