Around twenty or so patients waited to be seen, some with emergency dressings over wounds, still caked in dust and grime, staring mindlessly as if unable to comprehend what had happened to them.Charley King glanced around the waiting area anxiously. He had left Gray’s Mansions soon after they freed the woman Marleen, leaving the replacement watch to finish searching for further bodies. But although he’d gone home to bed he found he couldn’t sleep for thinking about the girl.It was that remark Fred had made. ‘She don’t look as though she’s got anyone left in the world.’‘Have you seen a Miss Forester?’ he asked a nurse as she hurried by.She paused, frowning. ‘A patient?’‘No. She’s a relative of a woman brought in with back injuries early this morning. A young, tall girl with black hair,’ Charley explained.‘Oh yes. She’s in the waiting-room.’ The nurse pointed back along a corridor. ‘We’ve asked her to go home several times but she just won’t.Her somewhat callous report irritated Charley.
