Bye Bye Baby

28

I told Erica about the talk I'd had with Dr Snow.

"You shouldn't have let Clare pay the ransom."

I shrugged. "Not my choice to make."

"Next time, Bruce won't come back."

"You sure he'll come back this time?"

"There's no doubt in that poor woman's mind." Erica tapped the side of her head with a couple of fingers. "So I'm certain Bruce will walk round that corner any minute."

She was right.

Bruce arrived a few minutes later.

I saw Mrs Wilson run down the nearly empty street.

I saw her stop abruptly, fling her arms around thin air and hoist her invisible child off the ground.

"Something else, isn't it?" I said.

"That's love," Erica said. "Blind, screwed-up, mad as a bag of squirrels. But it's love. Do you love your children like that?"

"I don't need to," I said. "My kids are alive."

"Ain't you the lucky one." She picked up her radio handset. "What's Dr Snow's number?"