The woman made an expression of contempt. 'Regimental information?'
Colette provided it. She was instructed to come back in seven days. 'Hut I can't,' she said. 'I have a job and — a little brother.'
The woman shrugged and called for the next in line.
'I'll come back, Miss Nightingale,' Younger said to Colette when they were outside.
The reference made no impression on her: 'No, I'll find a way,' she replied.
A sort of mush 'began to fall — not snow; more like clumps of congealed rain. 'You have a new job?' he asked.
'Yes,' she said more brightly. 'It starts in March. You were right: the Sorbonne turned me down. But it doesn't matter. I'll get in next year. Anyway, God took pity on me. Madame has offered me a position as a technician at the Radium Institute. I'll learn more there than I would have even at university.'
'God works in mysterious ways.'
She looked at him: 'You don't believe?'
'Why wouldn't I believe? What an outrage — these people who hold up the deaths of a hundred thousand children from the flu and blame it on God. It's not His fault.'
'It's not.' She turned away. Her voice fell: 'They've taken Luc. To a school for recalcitrant children. He was living with me in the basement of the institute. Madame is letting me stay there until my position opens up. It's perfectly nice. There are bathrooms, and books, and hot plates I cook on. But someone reported us to the authorities.'
'Fools,' said Younger. 'What is recalcitrant supposed to mean?'
'The other children are thieves and imbeciles. It's criminal. Luc learns nothing and receives no treatment.'
'He doesn't need treatment. He needs to live.'
'How do you know?' she asked. 'Are you a psychologist?'
He didn't answer.
'You could have helped him get the best treatment in the world,' she said. 'You remember how he used to write notes sometimes? He doesn't even do that anymore. He hasn't communicated with anyone for two months. Oh, why am I telling you this? Why am I here? I hate this country. I have to go — my train is coming.'
She ran away.
He expected to see her the following week. After ten days, he went to the liaison office to find out if she had come back. She hadn't. Younger lit a cigarette and gazed up at Bitburg's perpetually gray sky.
In the spring, when his discharge orders finally came through, he took a train to Paris. At the Radium Institute, he asked for Miss Rousseau. The receptionist told him that Colette was out, but expected back shortly. He waited outside.
The streets of Paris were admirable. Always a tree in the right place. The buildings handsome and large, but never too large. The smell of clean water on pavement. He wondered whether he should move there.
Colette was halfway up the steps before she recognized him. She stopped in astonishment and broke into her most radiant smile, which as quickly disappeared. She was even thinner than she had been. Her cheeks had a pretty pointing of red, but the cause, it seemed to him, might be hunger.
'Come inside,' she said.
He shook his head. They went walking instead. 'Did you find your Hans Gruber?' he asked.
'Not yet.'
'You didn't go back to Bitburg, did you?'
'No, but I will.'
'Because you didn't have money for the train. Have you been eating?'
'I'll be fine in ten days. That's when my job starts. For now I have to save everything for Luc. They don't feed him enough in school. Do I look awful?'
'More beautiful than ever,' said Younger, 'if that's possible. I found your soldier. Hans was Austrian. He volunteered with the Germans when the war broke out. They gave me an address in Vienna. Here.'
He handed her a piece of paper. She stared at it: 'Thank you.'
'How is Luc?' he asked.
'Terrible.'
'Do they ever let him out?'
'Of course. In fact his school goes on holiday at the end of this week. How long will you be in Paris? I know he'd like to see you.'
'I'm leaving this Friday.'
'Oh,' she said. 'Do come and see the institute. We have American soldiers visiting, learning Madame's radiography techniques.'
'I know. That's why I won't go in. I've had enough of the army for a while.'
'But I could introduce you to Madame.'
'No.' They had come to a street with trolley cars rambling on it. 'Well, Miss Rousseau, I don't want to keep you.' She looked up at him: 'Why did you come?' 'I almost forgot. There was something else I meant to give you.' He handed her an envelope from his pocket. It contained a short telegram, which read: i will accept boy with pleasure as new patient. advise sister to call on me directly she arrives vienna. freud
She was speechless.
'You can kill two birds with one stone,' said Younger. 'Take Luc to Freud, and pay a visit to your soldier's family.'
'But I can't. I don't speak German. Where would I stay? I can't even afford the tickets.'
'I speak German,' he replied.
'You would come?'
'Not if you're going to shoot me.'
To his surprise, she threw her arms around his neck. He had the impression she was crying.
Jimmy Littlemore unburdened the kitchen table of his feet. He stretched his good arm, poured two more whiskeys. 'I don't get you, Doc. First you practically rape her-'
'Completely false.'
'You unbuttoned her shirt. What kind of girl did you think she was?'
Younger scrutinized the autumnal color of the bourbon. 'The rules are different in war.'
'She didn't think so,' said Littlemore. 'What I like is how she knows what she's going to do with herself. She wants her sore bun, and she's going to get it.'
'I beg your pardon?'
'That school, the sore bun. Wants it for her dad. That's how I feel about making it to Washington. My dad missed his only shot with the Feds. When Teddy Roosevelt went to DC, my dad could've gone with him. He was the best cop in New York, but he had family, kids — you know. I'll probably never get the shot myself, but if I do, let me tell you, that would make him proud. So when did you find out her soldier boy wasn't dead?'
Younger's glass stopped midway to his mouth. 'How did you know that?'
'The dog tags,' said Littlemore. 'She goes to a German army office to locate a dead soldier, and she leaves the guy's tags back in France? I don't think so. I don't think she has the guy's tags. Why would that he? Because he's not dead.'
'I always said you should have been a detective.'
'She's sweet on the guy, huh? Didn't want you to know?'
Younger took a moment before answering: 'She's in love with him — her Hans. Want to know what happened in Austria?'
'I'm all ears.'
Chapter Seven
No city in the world was more altered by the Great War than Vienna.
