"No, I don't think so. Where is she?"
"She's a doctor in Frisco. She visits me every year, but she's already more than a month late this year."
A doctor. Jasso raised a mental image of Alina as sort of a duplicate of Grida, a plain, elderly woman with graying hair swept back into a bun at the nape of her neck. Right now, however, he had more important matters on his mind.
"Grida, do you know a good lawyer?" he blurted.
"Why, yes. Tello Distane is the best in town," she said. "Is there anything the matter, Lao?"
Silently, he pulled the crumpled letter from his pocket and handed it to her. It was from a prominent Nuyork legal firm. It said:
On behalf of our clients, Colorvue Publicity, Inc., we are instituting suit against you for one million dols in damages, for having disposed of psycho-paintings you contracted to accomplish for them.
"But isn't that the company you couldn't find any report of?" gasped Grida.
"It disappeared right off the map," said Lao grimly. "Now it's appeared again. I can't understand this at all!"
"I'd take it to Tello," said Grida firmly. "He can tell you what you should do."