“Do you have a legal-age contact in St. Louis who can sign papers for you?”

“I think my dad talked about that with Mr. Tucker, the president of the school.”

“He’ll be here soon.” Zeke stepped forward.

“That’ll work.” The woman adjusted the stethoscope around her neck. “Why don’t you stay in here until he arrives? It’s more comfortable than the waiting room. If you need anything before that, let us know.”

As she exited, Kayla motioned toward the door. “I’m gonna see if there’s a soda machine, okay?”

Perfect. That would give her and Zeke a few minutes alone to chat.

“Yeah. Don’t hurry. We could be stuck here for a while. And thanks again for coming. It helped a lot to have a friend with me.”

The girl’s lips flexed, and she gave a slight shrug. “I think it was kinda cool that you asked me.”

She skirted around Zeke and disappeared out the door.

He closed it behind her, leaving a two-inch crack—no doubt to create the illusion of propriety in an era when harassment charges against authority figures were becoming commonplace.

“Let’s talk fast. We only have a few minutes.” He moved closer but maintained a respectable distance. “What did your handler say?”

“He’s sending two of our people here to interview me.” Thank goodness she’d had the foresight to text him from the car and alert him to expect a call from Tucker. Forewarned, he could punt until she called him to discuss strategy in more detail.

“I assumed you’d follow standard department protocol for an incident like this to protect your cover.”

“Right. They’ll be seasoned detectives who’ve been fully briefed. I’ll visit the ladies’ room here before I leave to call my handler again and discuss next steps.”

“If you were specifically targeted, it’s possible your cover’s been blown.”

“I don’t think it was. The people you and I are dealing with play rough, and the guy who attacked me had every opportunity to finish the job. I was down for the count. If he’d come after me, I’d have been toast. Instead, he left.”

Her brain was firing on all cylinders again.

“That’s the same conclusion I came to.”

“I think the attack was either an intimidation tactic to keep people from wandering around in the woods and stumbling onto questionable activities, or I simply ran into someone who—as Tucker put it—was up to no good.”

“My money’s on the former.”

“Mine too—and I happened to be the unfortunate person who was known to take walks in the woods and therefore an easy target.”

“The walks in the woods will have to end.”

His authoritative tone rankled . . . but she wasn’t up to a fight.

Besides, she had what she needed for the moment.