“Anything I can do for Lucy—well, she needs all the help and love her friends can give her.”
How wonderful it was going to be for Lucy, Vicki thought as she traveled back to the center of town, to discover that her grandparents cared for her. What a happy change in her life there would be.
On the way Vicki stopped at a drugstore and called the Scotts from a telephone booth. Their telephone rang repeatedly without answer. Vicki then called the Interstate Insurance Company and talked to the personnel manager.
“Miss Lucy Rowe?” he repeated. “Just a moment while I look up her card.” A pause. “Miss Rowe resigned from our employ on January twenty-second.”
Vicki scribbled down this date, and noted that it was now Monday, February sixteenth. A little less than a month ago ... just about the time Mr. Dorn said she had left San Francisco. Well, then, Dorn was right. Vicki asked whether the personnel manager could tell her anything further about Lucy.
“Well, I can tell you that she’s an excellent secretary, was with us for over three years, and we were sorry to lose her.”
“That’s a fine record, isn’t it? Thank you very much, sir.”
Vicki hung up. She telephoned the Scotts twice again on her way back to downtown San Francisco. No answer. On a third call a man’s voice answered.
“Mary Scott? She and her mother went away on a long trip. This is the superintendent. I’m in their place fixin’ a leaky pipe.... No, ma’am, I don’t know when they’ll be home.”
“Thank you,” Vicki said. Next she tried the Reverend Mr. Hall’s number. Here she kept getting busy signals. She decided to stop for lunch, then visit Lucy’s place of residence.