Kaylee’s eyes widened. “Okay, I promise I’ll keep my phone off until I finish here. And then—”
“Meet me at the North Beach Coffee Company as soon as you’re done here. What time?”
She shrugged. “Maybe around three? I’ll text you when—”
“No,” Baxter said. “Don’t text. Don’t turn on your phone at all until Katherine can look at it. Don’t turn it on, and don’t tell Greg or Professor Kraft what we talked about here.”
“Tell them I needed to talk to you about something at the Fred lab,” Katherine said. “They know they can’t butt into that.”
Kaylee nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to get away by three.”
“Just be careful,” Katherine said. “Don’t do anything suspicious. I’ll wait for you there.”
* * *
It was nearly four by the time Kaylee arrived at the North Beach Coffee Company, and Katherine and Toni were on their second coffee. The fog had rolled in early, so the beach was nearly deserted except for a clutch of surfers bobbing off the point.
“Hey.” Kaylee sat at the table in the corner that looked over the ocean. “You’re Katherine’s friend! I can’t remember your name though.” She held her hand out to Toni. “I’m Kaylee.”
“No worries. I’m Toni.” Toni took her hand and held it slightly longer than she normally would. “You’re worried about something. Don’t be. Katherine’s the smartest person I know.”
Kaylee’s eyes were round. “Do I look worried?”
Katherine jumped in. “Toni usually has a really good sense about people. How did the rest of the day with Greg and Professor Kraft go?”
“Greg was, like, super curious what we were talking about. He kept trying to bring it up. Professor Kraft was curious too, but you know her. She’s strictly business all the time.”
“Do you have your phone?”
“I do.” She reached in her back and grabbed a phone in an aquamarine case. “I haven’t turned it on, not even when Professor Kraft and Greg got theirs out. It was kind of weird.”
“How so?”
“So we finish and we’re packing up, and they both get their phones out to, like, check their messages and stuff. I didn’t, and Professor Kraft noticed. She told me, ‘Kaylee, you can check your phone now.’ But I didn’t. I told her I was almost out of battery and needed to charge it.”
“Good thinking.”
“Greg noticed too. He looked… weird.” She took a deep breath. “Katherine, if I think about who could have manipulated things in the study—”
“You think Greg has something to do with it,” Toni said. “And you’re afraid of him.”
Kaylee blushed a little. “I mean, I wouldn’t say I’m afraid.”
“He intimidates you, and you don’t know why.” Toni thought. “He pushes your buttons. Makes you react to stuff you normally wouldn’t.”
“Yes.” Kaylee was clearly annoyed. “Every stinking time I’m with that guy, I find myself doubting myself. Like… questioning my methods, second-guessing the answer to something. It’s so annoying! I’m not like that with anyone else. But there’s just something about that guy that always gets to me.”
“Interesting.” Toni narrowed her eyes. “Has he always been that way?”
“I only started working with him on this study with Professor Shaver, but I know he’s kind of a loner. No one likes working with him.”
“Except Alice Kraft,” Katherine added. “Greg mentioned that she’s been working with him on his thesis project as well. Did she pick him to administer the app?”
“Yes. I just thought it made sense because, according to Greg, they were already working on something together.” Kaylee rolled her eyes. “All the guys in the program were like… jealous or something. I don’t know.”
“Why?”
Kaylee looked to the side. “Well, it’s Professor Kraft. They get like that.”
“Why?” Katherine thought about the willowy redheaded professor who was often mistaken for a student. Alice Kraft generally wore casual clothing, jeans or leggings, T-shirts, and a jacket as a nod to professionalism. Katherine had admired her jackets more than once.
“All the guys talk about how hot she is.”
“Really?” Katherine turned to Toni. “There was a website for a while that rated professors by their looks. I think those who were deemed the most attractive were given a chili pepper as a rating. Because chilies are hot.”
“Yeah, I got that.” Toni rolled her eyes. “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to my mom and go to college. Imagine all the really deep, important stuff I missed.”
Kaylee said, “They don’t rate them with chili peppers anymore but… I mean, they still rate their hotness.”
“Of course they do.”
Katherine held out her hand. “Let me see your phone.” She brought out her laptop and opened it. “I’m going to clone it so I can see the data completely.”
“What?” Kaylee nearly squealed.
She held up a hand. “Purely to get the information we’re looking for and to make sure you’re not carrying any spyware. I’ll grab the data from the reporting app; then you can watch me delete everything else, okay?”
“Okay, I guess.”
Toni took a drink of her coffee. “Do you think Greg and this professor had something going on?”
Kaylee cocked her head. “I mean… I try to stay away from gossip because so much of it is stupid and—at least in my department—totally about creating drama. I don’t have time for that. But yeah, there were rumors about Greg and Professor Kraft.”
“What kind of rumors?”
“Just that he kind of pursued her. And they kind of have a thing. But nobody says anything because it’s not like what happened with Professor Boehner or anything.”
Toni looked at Katherine. “What happened with Professor Boehner? Other than having a really shitty name.”
“A name he totally deserves,” Kaylee said. “So gross.”
Katherine said, “Albert Boehner was fired last year for trading sexual favors for grades with undergraduates. It had been going on for years and people mostly looked the other way.”
“Gross.” Toni turned to Kaylee. “But Professor Kraft and Greg, no one saw it the same way?”
“I mean, he was pretty clearly going after her. And you could tell he was proud of himself.”
“Still highly inappropriate,” Katherine said. “She will be fired if
