* * *
An hour later, she was standing at the sink and doing breakfast dishes when Baxter walked in from a run to the grocery store. “I told you to stay off your feet.”
“I need to move my knee too.” She pointed to it. “Look. Not the size of a grapefruit anymore. And my ankle feels much better. We should go for a walk later.”
She could see he was tempted. “Beach walk?”
“Just a little one.” She rinsed the coffee carafe. “To stretch.”
“Fine, but you’re icing it afterward.” He sat down and watched her. “I think we know the motivation now.”
Katherine had been turning over possibilities in her brain. “We don’t know for sure.”
“Maybe not for sure, but…” Baxter cocked his head. “Think about how much people spend on meditation classes, wellness apps, that sort of thing. If a smart graduate student figured out how to create at-home biofeedback technology and pair that with an app that uses proven cognitive therapy techniques from PhDs in behavioral science?”
“You’re saying it’s a grad student? Why not the professor who designed it?”
“The grad students were the admins.”
“The professor was the designer.”
Baxter shrugged. “Six of one, half dozen of the other, Professor Bassi. Either way, a mobile phone app could be far more profitable than a book deal.”
“And easier to pull off,” Katherine said. “Provided no one caught on to how you created it in the first place.”
“If the study is never published, then the only ones who’d really know about it would be the professors and grad students involved,” Baxter said. “The graduate students are all looking after their doctoral opportunities. And listen to Anita—she didn’t even know you could make serious money with an app. The majority of our colleagues probably fall in the same category unless they’re in technology.”
Sarah Jordan and Tucker.
Justin McCabe.
Abby Chung and her partner, Mario.
Kaylee Ivers.
“Can you imagine, Baxter? All these bizarre and tragic events for the most boring motivation possible. Money.”
“It’s a classic for a reason,” he said. “We need to figure out who designed the biofeedback app and what exactly was on that thing.”
“We need to find out more than that,” Katherine said. “According to Anita, the app was the main vehicle for communication with study participants.”
“Correct.”
“I want to know if everyone got the same version.” She finished and turned to reach for the towel and dry her hands. “This didn’t happen to all seventy students. It happened to Sarah, Justin, Abby, and Kaylee. Did they all get the same app? Did they all get the same messages and prompts?”
“That’s a good question. Do you think you could get Sarah’s phone? Or Justin’s? Maybe we can look at the history.”
“Maybe not the phone itself, but possibly a record of the messages on it.”
“I had another thought while I was at the grocery store,” Baxter said. “Everyone affected by this is largely out of commission. Sarah left school. Justin and Abby are either in jail or in the hospital. Everyone except Kaylee.”
“Whatever he tried to do to Kaylee failed,” Katherine said. “You think she’s still in danger.”
“I don’t think there’s any reason to think that whatever made her a target has changed. She probably knows something but isn’t aware that it’s dangerous. She may not realize it, but whatever it is, she’s still a threat to whoever is behind this.”
Katherine sat down and picked up her phone. She tapped on Kaylee’s name and waited for the phone to pick up.
It rang. And rang. And rang.
“Hi! This is Kaylee. I’m not available right now, but please leave a message and your number so I can call you back.”
Chapter 25
Baxter and Katherine flew down the highway. It was Saturday, and the traffic around the university was a fraction of the usual bustle. Katherine was on the phone with Britt at the Fred lab.
“Is there anyone working today? I’m sorry to bug you, I know you were going to take this weekend off, but I couldn’t get ahold of Job.”
“Yeah, no problem. He should be there with a couple of his kids.”
“You mean grad students?”
“They’re all infants to me.” He cleared his throat. “Speaking of grad students—”
“Is Kaylee Ivers one of the students working today?”
“Kaylee? Don’t think so. Shaver brought some other kid in last week to help out. Can’t remember the name. He said Kaylee was going to be busy with a new project he had going at the BS office.”
“Right.” She put a hand over the phone. “Head to the social science quad.”
“Right.”
She spoke to Britt again. “Thanks.”
“Is everything all right?”
“I think so, but I need to speak to her, and she’s not answering her phone.”
“Huh.” He said something to someone on the other end of the phone. “Does this have anything to do with why she was on top of the architecture building the other day?”
“You heard about that?”
“Katherine, everyone heard about that. And about you tearing across campus and joining her. Is she doing okay? She’s a great kid.”
“She is. And I think she’s fine. I can’t say anything more than that right now.”
“Okay.” He fell silent. “Well, if she needs any help—”
“I’ll let you know.” They’d arrived at the faculty lot nearest the social science complex. “I need to go, Britt. I’ll talk to you on Monday.”
“See ya.”
The School of Social Sciences occupied three squat, midcentury buildings at the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac on the north end of the university.
“Do you know which building behavioral sciences is in?”
“Yes.” Baxter strode across the lawn. “I consulted with Anita, remember?”
“Right.” They walked up the steps, and Katherine followed Baxter as he led them to the right.
At the far end of the building was an office with Department of Behavioral Sciences written on a glass door. The office behind it was dark and obviously not staffed on weekends, but there was the relic of a computer lab right across from it, and there were lights on there.
Baxter stuck his head in the door and barked at the three students
