In the next instant Vicki realized that by pretending to be Mrs. Heath, she had put herself in a dangerous position. Even more, she had put Lucy in danger! For Thurman Dorn could easily check by calling Mrs. Heath. Then, when she informed him that Vicki Barr had flown in as an uninvited guest at the hidden house, and that Lucy had half wanted to leave with her, Dorn would know Vicki Barr was on their trail. And Lucy might really disappear.
“Oh, what have I done!” Vicki groaned.
But it was done now, and no use fretting about it. She had gained an immensely valuable piece of information, but at a high price. She had known all along that the search for Lucy was risky. One thing stood out urgently—now that she had probably aroused Dorn’s suspicions, she must get Lucy out of that hidden house and away from Mrs. Heath as soon as possible. Tomorrow, or next day at the latest. Time was of the essence. She and Lucy would need time, too, to reach the Bryants and some degree of safety. But she was scheduled for a Federal flight day after tomorrow, Sunday. Time!
Vicki at once telephoned the Federal Airlines office at San Francisco’s International Airport, and asked for her Flight Stewardess Supervisor. But Miss Middleton was in a conference which would last the rest of the afternoon, and no one else was authorized to change Vicki’s flight schedule.
“Please tell Miss Middleton,” Vicki said into the phone, “I’ll come in to see her tomorrow, at eight in the morning.” A day lost, and no help for it. A day for Dorn to use—
Mother and son! Mr. Dorn, the lawyer assigned to find Lucy, and Mrs. Heath, the employer who took Lucy away with her to the hills—they were in collusion!
“The next thing is to prove it,” Vicki realized. “Mr. and Mrs. Bryant are so delighted with their bogus granddaughter that they might never accept the true Lucy without proof.”
Proof. Facts, which were matters of record. She remembered that Dorn stayed at the St. Clair Hotel from January twelfth to twenty-first, and on February twenty-first, during his first and second visits to “search” for Lucy. Vicki called up the hotel, asked for the man who had advised her before, and inquired:
“Can you tell me, please, whether a Mrs. Elizabeth Heath was at the St. Clair Hotel around the middle of January? And again in February, around Washington’s Birthday?”
She waited, then was told: