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aware she was shouting, but couldn’t hold herself back. ‘I need to find out what’s happening. I need to know they’re okay.’
    There was a soft tap on the door. A slim woman with bobbed black hair, dressed in dark trousers and a white shirt, hurried in. She had dark shadows under her eyes.
    ’I’m Doctor Ali, from ITU. You must be Mr and Mrs Wallace. Please sit down.‘
    ‘How are they?’ Christine whispered.
    ‘You can see your daughter, I’ve just been to check on her. She’s fine, just a bit shaken up. She’s being wheeled back from x-ray right now. We’ll need to keep her in overnight, just a precaution, but she’s in the ward at the end of this corridor for now.’
    ‘And what about Jack?’ asked Gerry.
    Dr Ali’s beeper sounded, but she ignored it and continued, ‘We’re waiting for the results of his CT scan. He’s in an induced coma so we need to check a few more things then you can come up to us in intensive care to see him. Third floor.’ She glanced down at the beeper at her waist. ‘Give us half an hour?’ she said, and rushed from the room.
    ‘But what’s wrong with him?’ Christine shouted, as the door slammed shut.
    Sergeant Price broke the silence. ‘They don’t like to commit till they know more. Why don’t you see your daughter just now then you can go up and see your son later.’
    Christine nodded.
    ‘If you don’t mind, Mr Wallace, maybe you and I could finish here for just now. I’ll give you my contact details and the duty sergeant’s too. It’s a bank holiday weekend so we’re on skeleton staff but there’ll be someone there any time you need to speak.’
    Gerry and Christine sat motionless, listening.
    ‘My colleague’s got the bags, phones and all the things that were in the car. We’ll have to keep those for a bit.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Nothing to worry about, Mrs Wallace, just need to check a few things.’
    ‘I suppose that’s to check they weren’t on the phone when it happened?’ asked Gerry.
    ‘Of course they weren’t,’ said Christine. ‘They’re sensible drivers, and they’d never speed. Who was driving?’
    ‘Jack,’ said Gerry.
    ‘Well, it doesn’t matter who it was, they’re both good drivers.’ Christine stood up. ‘I’m going to see Anna.’ She glared at her bag where her phone was ringing. ‘Are youallowed to use phones in here, Sergeant?’
    ‘Here’s okay, but not in intensive care.’
    ‘Okay,’ she said as she headed for the door, delving into her bag and switching off her phone.
    Christine strode along the corridor and into the ward at the end. She scanned the patients in the beds until she saw Anna’s familiar shock of blonde curls at the far end. She rushed to the bed and threw her arms round her daughter.
    ‘Sweetheart, are you okay? Let me see you.’ Christine took a deep, shuddering breath as she looked at her daughter; she had two black eyes and her face was swollen and covered in livid purple bruises. ‘Oh, my poor baby.’
    Anna burst into tears as her mother pulled her gently into an embrace. ‘Mum, not so tight, I’m sore all over.’ She pulled down her hospital gown to reveal red and purple marks all over her chest.
    ‘What are those?’
    ‘Seatbelt burn marks, but it’s okay, I’m fine. What’s the news on Jack? I keep asking, but they aren’t telling me anything.’
    Christine took her daughter’s arm and stroked her hand. ‘We’ve to go and see the doctor in half an hour. I don’t know any more. What happened?’
    ‘I can’t remember much, but I managed to get out of the car from my door. Jack had to be cut out, his side was all mangled up. It was horrible, Mum.’ Anna started to cry again and Christine circled her arms round her and patted her back as if soothing her baby twenty years earlier.
    She looked up to see Gerry appear in the doorway. He hurried over to his wife and daughter. He grasped his daughter’s hand and tears trickled down his cheeks.

 
    Chapter Six
    1876
    ‘Mrs