"Car accident is too dramatic," she muses. "A really bad flu? Doesn't totally explain why she didn't call earlier... Wrong time of year to get snowed in on a weekend skiing trip."

Not that she's ever been the weekend skiing trip type, but how well do her coworkers really know her? She's betting not that well. And anything too medically intense will lead to follow-up questions.

"Do they know I was a Federal Agent? We could say she's in protective custody, someone with a grudge broke out of prison?"