“Terry isn’t.” His father spoke up. “He must have been going to pick someone up and give them a lift down here—then blew a shoe or something. Still, I don’t like it. I hope the boy hasn’t met with an accident.”
“Oh, don’t say that, Reggie! You make me feel positively faint. I know he has gone to the pictures.” Mrs. Walters was nervously emphatic. “Don’t be so silly, dear—I know he has.”
“You know nothing of the kind,” declared her husband.
Dorothy hurriedly excused herself and went back stage.
But by the time the final curtain was rung down, no Terry had appeared. Dorothy was really worried. Betty was giving a party to a number of the cast at her house in White Oak Shade, but despite protests, Dorothy made her regrets and went to look for her father.
“I think I’ll beat it for home, Dad,” she announced, buttonholing him near the door.
“I’ll be along in a few minutes, darling. I certainly am more than extra proud of you tonight. I never realized what an actress you are. But you look troubled—anything the matter?”
“I’m worried about Terry. I know he wouldn’t deliberately put us all in this hole. He’s not that kind.”
“Probably had a break-down,” consoled her father. “Excuse me, dear, I want to speak to the Joneses over there.”
Dorothy drove a six-cylinder coupe whose body had seen better days, though she claimed for its engine that the world had not seen its equal. With her windiper working furiously, she came cautiously along Valley Road, her big headlamps staring whitely ahead. The rain was pelting down now, and since she must have a window open, and that window was on the weather side, one arm and part of the shoulder of her thin slicker were soon black and shining.
“Something he couldn’t help—that’s what made Terry let us down,” said her subconscious mind, and she wondered how any of the cast could have expressed contrary opinions. She was glad she had refused Betty’s invitation. She liked Terry and was deeply concerned about him. He wasn’t the sort to default unless something unforeseen and unusual occurred. Mrs. Walters said he had been full of the show at dinner and had spoken about getting to the Guild House early. Something had come up, that was certain. And that something, after he had started for Silvermine in his car. The more she thought about it, the more mysterious it seemed. She would phone the Walters again as soon as she reached home. Maybe he would be back by that time.