"This morning."
"Rough?"
"You said it. Was it rough on you?"
"A little, but it's been made up for."
"How come?" asked Dusty looking up.
She smiled quietly. "I've got legs and a figure," she chuckled. "I've
been cheesecaked all over town as the _Star Girl_ and there's talk of
my getting a part in the Jack Vandal series over at Cosmic Studios."
"How so? Seems to me that we're both sort of washed up."
Barbara shook her head. "Jack Vandal is a sort of cheerful villain,
you know. He takes delight in bumping off the well-protected crook who
can't be touched by the law. He's hunted by the police and hated by the
underworld--"
"Spare the gruesome details. They haven't changed in a couple of
thousand years. How come you're not in the dog house?"
Barbara smiled. "Because the woman in that kind of opus is always a
sort of shady lady herself. It wouldn't do to have an innocent virgin
for the companion of a buccaneer. So with my slightly tarnished
reputation I'm a natural. What happened to you?"
"The lie detector test."