Ruby was ready and waiting on the steps of the nurses’ home, her light jacket on and shielded torch in her hand. ‘I’ll stay out until we find him,’ she said at once, realising Larry was not with them. ‘We’ll all help, Pauline. You mustn’t worry.’
Pauline only nodded, all words drained out of her.
‘Shall you come with me and search, Ruby?’ Kenny asked hopefully, but Ruby sadly shook her head.
‘I want to, Kenny, you know I do, but it doesn’t make sense. You know what he looks like and so do I. We’d better go separately.’
Lily emerged from the hall, fluffing her hands through her gorgeous blonde curls. ‘I’ll go with Ruby. I was just about to wash my hair but it can wait.’
Kenny raised his eyebrows, knowing that this was a major concession from Lily, but all he said was, ‘Okey doke, then.’
Iris hurried out, also bringing a torch. ‘I’d like to help too,’ she said. ‘I realise I don’t know the little boy, but I’ve had … some experience of this. Searching for missing personnel, that is.’ She stood awkwardly on the top step.
Lily looked at her askance. ‘What, in a little village?’ she asked. ‘I don’t mean to be funny but wasn’t that too small to lose anyone in?’
Iris shook her head. ‘Not there. In – in Plymouth. Anyway, I’m ready and able,’ she said decisively, turning the conversation swiftly away from whatever had happened. ‘Just point me at wherever you think is best.’
Alice’s ears pricked up at the new nurse’s hesitation. Something had gone on that she didn’t want to talk about and she made a mental note to check that all was well with her at a less pressured moment. ‘Er, Kenny, I think you’re in charge here,’ she reminded him gently.
‘Oh, Well, yes.’ Kenny drew himself up to his full height, which was only a couple of inches taller than Alice. ‘Right. Iris, you had best come with me, as you don’t know the area so well, but I’ll be glad of – of your experience.’ He paused. ‘Ruby, you and Lily go towards the high road and search the streets around the market. There’ll be loads of places for a kiddy to hide down there.’ He took a moment to smile at Ruby, as she gave him an admiring glance before setting off at once with Lily.
Alice thought swiftly. ‘Pauline, we’ll go in and get you a nice cup of cocoa,’ she said. ‘You’ve to stay here, in case Larry decides to come to the home as he knows it’s a safe place. I’ll take one of the others and how about I cross the high road and search around Jeeves Street and Butterfield Green?’ She tried to give Kenny the impression it was his decision, but he was not fooled.
He nodded in relief. ‘That’s a good idea. Maybe you can send out anyone else who is able to help, and I’ll wait here.’
‘Of course. Pauline, come with me.’ She led the exhausted child up the steps and into the welcoming evening light of the downstairs corridor. A few of the nurses were in the common room, and so Alice recruited Bridget to come with her, while Mary took charge of Pauline.
‘You can have our spare bedroom,’ she smiled, even though that was rather a grand name for it. In reality it was a converted understairs cupboard, but Ruby had slept there for her first couple of months when there hadn’t been a proper room ready – and compared to what Pauline had come from it was a positive luxury.
‘Why don’t we see if there’s anything on the wireless, Jack Benny or some music?’ Mary suggested. ‘Or, if there isn’t, how about a tune or two on the piano?’ Mary was the best pianist in the home, so this was no empty promise, but Pauline was too sad to appreciate it.
Alice swapped her light bolero for a summer jacket and then went out to rejoin Kenny, who was writing in his notebook. ‘Got to keep track of who went where,’ he explained. ‘I don’t want old misery-guts Spencer saying I wasn’t doing things proper.’
‘No, you’re exactly right,’ Alice assured him. ‘Between us we’ll cover every angle from here. If he’s out there, one of us will find him.’
Kenny threw her a sharp look, and Alice thought how much he’d changed in the few years she’d known him, from a lad who liked to work hard and then play hard, to someone who took his responsibilities ever more seriously. ‘We will, Kenny,’ she reiterated. ‘The police will have been informed by now, and the other ARP wardens.’
‘Suppose so.’ Kenny squared his shoulders. ‘All right – we could be in for a long night.’
Iris was hesitant as she strode along beside the ARP warden. He seemed pleasant enough, which she was glad of as she had begun to realise just how fond Ruby was of this young man. However, to her mind he was a little wet behind the ears. Stop it, she told herself. You’re older than he is – it’s only natural that he appears that way. Besides, he obviously knew the area much better than she did.
It was a veritable warren of almost identical streets of terraced houses, the only difference being that some were two storeys high and others had an additional floor, some with a steep set of steps leading up to the front doors. She guessed these once had had iron handrails, but most of those had been removed when the government had needed all spare metal to go towards munitions. The front railings had been removed too, leaving metal stubs in the stone walls, like overlarge hooves.
Iris had to concentrate as the ground underfoot was uneven, with rubble, broken glass and burnt pieces of wood littering the pavements and roads. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked, as Kenny was barely stopping to check behind fences or broken doors, all places she imagined a small boy would like to hide.
Kenny made a face. ‘I just had this idea,’ he admitted. ‘I know where I’d go and that little nipper ain’t so different to me, I reckon. I grew up not too far from here, a bit further towards Limehouse, and I know where I liked to play best.’
Iris narrowly avoided ricking her ankle on a fragment of old window frame. ‘And where would that be?’ she gasped, trying to catch her breath after her close shave.
Kenny didn’t break his step. ‘The canal. It’s full of places to hide. I thought we could go there first and then if no joy, we’ll work our way back.’
‘It’s also full of places to drown,’ Iris said grimly.
Kenny dipped his head in acknowledgement. ‘Yes, well, that’s right enough. You been down there, have you?’
‘I took a short cut along the towpath to one of my patients,’ Iris told him. ‘I wouldn’t want to try that in the dark. So I suppose we’d better hurry.’
‘We had. Follow me, I’ll take us down the back way.’ He sped up and Iris had to struggle to keep up.
The canal at dusk was a different creature to midday. Insects swarmed just above the surface, birds swooping in to catch their suppers, against the silhouette of factories belching smoke, running twenty-four hours a day to keep the government orders fulfilled.
Kenny wove in and out of various obstacles, mooring bollards and rings, pieces of junk, spots overgrown with brambles. He seemed to know the towpath well, and soon Iris began to suspect why. In the gloom she could discern another building, too low for a factory, but humming with the noise of conversation. ‘What’s that place?’ she asked.
Kenny gave a little grunt. ‘That’s the Boatman’s.’
Iris had to laugh. ‘I take it you know it,’ she ventured.
Kenny had to admit she was right. ‘I don’t know as I’d go there now ’cos it’s a bit rough, to tell the truth. I used to drink there, back before I met Ruby. It’s not what you might call salubrious. But,’ and he came to a halt, ‘everyone around here knows it’s somewhere that nobody asks questions. You can disappear there, easy. There’s a lot of stuff in storage, if you take my meaning. Even the kiddies know it.’ He sighed, and Iris restrained herself from asking what manner of stuff he was referring to.
‘You think Larry might be there?’ she asked, keeping her voice low.
‘I don’t rightly know,’ Kenny said, deadly serious now, ‘but it’s where I’d go. He’s not a daft kid, just frightened. He won’t have gone far ’cos he won’t want to be a long way from his sister, but it’s far enough not to be spotted at once. It’s the obvious place.’
Iris nodded slowly. It made a strange kind of sense. ‘In that case, you’d better go first as he knows you, and I’ll keep back in case he tries to run. How many ways in and out are there?’
‘One main door out front but he won’t get in there, they won’t let him. There’s a yard round the back and it’s got a gate where you can get in and out unseen. I’ll try that. You watch out for him – he’s got the knack of escaping fast, as we now know.’
‘All right.’ Iris readied her torch as Kenny strode off, making his obviously familiar way to the back entrance. She hoped he wouldn’t be long. She didn’t fancy encountering any of the clientele of what was plainly a dodgy establishment. She supposed she should be shocked that Kenny knew it so well, but he was a dock worker and they had to find their entertainment at all sorts of odd hours. It had been the same in Plymouth, but she wouldn’t think about that now.
Waterbirds were settling in the plants along the canal’s edge and she accidentally disturbed a furious parent, which quacked its annoyance at her. Well, there was her cover blown. If Larry had been crouching somewhere out of sight he’d know that somebody was on the towpath nearby. Then again, he might assume it was a punter – if he was thinking straight at all. How terrified he must have been, to run like that.
Kenny had disappeared, though she thought she could just hear him calling in a low voice. Meanwhile a couple of customers really did emerge from the gloomy path in the other direction and head for where the front door of the Boatman’s must be. They must be doing reasonable business, she thought. Perhaps people from the nearby factories went there. She couldn’t blame them after working a tough shift.
The light was really fading now and she had to be careful not to get too close to the water’s edge. The path was narrow. She could swim well enough but didn’t fancy a sudden dip. She shivered a little, wrapping her arms around herself. Perhaps she ought to feel wary of being alone like this in the near-dark, but she had spent so much time on her own, often with nobody else around for miles, day and night, that it barely occurred to her.
Then, up ahead, she could just make out a shadowy figure, Kenny’s height, along with a smaller shape at his side. She caught her breath. Her immediate reaction was to run towards them but that would not do. She might frighten the boy, or she might end up in the canal. Neither would be any good. So she carefully picked her way along the tricky path, hoping that this was the missing Larry.
For a moment her attention was caught by a movement further away, just a brief flash of perhaps two adults, possibly in dark coats – but they were indistinct in the gathering gloom, and now Kenny was coming closer. She could see he had one arm around a little boy’s shoulders. She could just make out the boy’s pinched and frightened face.
The child came to a stop and gripped Kenny’s hand. ‘Who are you?’ he demanded, his voice high but clear.
Iris dropped into a crouch. She reached to her throat and drew out her Queen’s Nurse badge that she had thought to transfer from her uniform collar, to prove her identity if needed. ‘I’m Nurse Hawke,’ she said quietly but steadily. ‘Can you see this? It’s just like the one Nurse Lake wears, isn’t it? That means you can trust me. I work with her.’
The little boy cautiously reached forward and touched the metal, which glinted in the remaining light. He ran his fingers over it, carefully testing it. Then he nodded, apparently accepting it. He seemed to give it a few moments’ more thought and then he pitched towards her, holding out his arms, a strangled sob coming from deep within him.
Iris steadied herself and hugged him, letting him cry, knowing he must have been holding in his tears for a very long time. Expertly she patted his back, her years of experience in comforting children letting her know what to do. It didn’t matter that she had none of her own; she’d been midwife, health visitor and school nurse to all the youngsters in her old village and this poor little chap was exhausted and needed comforting. At last he stopped, and sniffed loudly. ‘We’d best get you back,’ she said. ‘We’re going to the nurses’ home – would you like that? You’ve been there before, I know. Pauline’s waiting for you there.’
He looked up at that. ‘Me sister’s there? We’ll be together?’
‘Yes, you will,’ Iris said solemnly, hoping that somehow a plan had been put in place.
‘Fancy a shoulder ride?’ Kenny said, bending down to their level. ‘You could climb up on that bollard. Nurse Hawke will help you.’
The tears had vanished. ‘All right,’ said Larry.