“Mr. Dorn, Miss Barr met a friend of mine in San Francisco. Isn’t that a coincidence?”
“Small world,” he said casually, though he paid attention to Vicki for the first time since he had come in. “Are you in San Francisco often, Miss Barr?”
Vicki noticed that Mrs. Bryant had grown tense. Evading Dorn’s question, she simply said:
“I’m in San Francisco only when my airline sends me there. It isn’t too often.”
“Oh, yes, I remember now,” said Dorn. “You’re a stewardess on—?”
“Federal Airlines,” said Vicki.
Mr. Dorn nodded and lost interest, and started to talk to Marshall Bryant about something else. Vicki half waited for Lucy to ask her a question about Jill Baker or make some further remark about Vicki’s being in San Francisco. But Lucy, too, dropped the subject.
Mr. Bryant, Mr. Dorn, and Lucy went into the next room to discuss some legal papers. Mrs. Bryant came over to Vicki.
“Will you accompany me upstairs, my dear? I want to—ah—show you something of interest.”
A pretext? So that they could talk together privately? Vicki wondered whether the elderly lady shared her doubts as to whether this girl was actually the Bryants’ granddaughter.