Chapter 53

Broken glass hit the pile of detritus in the big garbage can with a crunch that had Miranda grinding her teeth as she emptied the dust pan for what felt like the hundredth time. Turning back to the patient room, she shone a flashlight across the floor, looking for stray shards of glass. Finding none, she declared this room done and shoved the garbage can back into the hall. The floors would get mopped later. Striding back to the counter, she made a notation to the ruthlessly organized list about what needed to be done to that particular room, then stuck a fork into the turtle pie she'd picked up from Dinner Belles earlier in the afternoon. It was half breakup pie, half self-pity for the state of her clinic - all self-medication with sugar. She'd been working her way through it as, room-by-room, she set her clinic to rights. Alone.