Breach of Trust

In the enormity of evidence that pointed to Roby concerning the note Chris Banks had brought to her, was Cori's doubt.

It just seemed too easy. Roby was smarter than to make it so plain, so clean cut and obvious. If he'd been the one behind the note, he would have done it in
such a way that he would be the last person suspected. Or else he would have done exactly what he'd told her; just leveled the threat to the kid's face.

His own invoice? Why not just sign his name if he was going to be that stupid? He was being set up. She was sure of it.

But that meant Banks had a hell of a lot of nerve; something that seemed so unlikely as to be absurd. If he was capable of this, how in God's name had she
been able to miss the signs?"

The brush of the resident stray cat against her leg snagged her attention and she turned from the porch railing. Her purse sandwiched between her arm and
side, she crouched to stroke the animal. The feline was a Tabby, his fur a mottled, silly quilt of color. Always starved for food and for attention, he rattled a
loud purr as she slid her hand along the length of his spine.

She faced having to lie to Chris Banks, was stalling in spite of the fact she felt desperate to get to Roby's apartment upstairs. Ten minutes had passed and
she was still out here on the porch procrastinating, anguishing over what she intended to say to the unappealing young man.

Before that, she'd spent the short drive home, in addition to planning out her lie, racking her brain for any clues she might have unknowingly come across
prior to this horrible letter. Clues that would indicate he was capable of such duplicity.

She spoke to the breakfast patrons as they left the diner for their different daily endeavors. Still hadn't come up with precisely what she was going to tell
Banks. She watched the clouds above the ridge as they scudded across the vast October sky, a sky so blue it appeared much too clean for that particular
day, and wondered if she should have told Emory to keep an eye on him while she'd been out.

Slowly straightening to her full height, she walked the length of the long veranda-like porch and stared into the woods. Emory didn't like Roby, made no
secret of it, but she was fanatical about people respecting boundaries and would dog Banks relentlessly if she thought he might cross one, albeit with Roby
or with someone else.

She gripped the railing in front of her. God, that was it! It had been over a year ago. Her set of master keys had gone missing and she had assumed Jonah
had gotten hold of them again. Chris had been the one to return them to her, had said he had come across them in the diner when he'd been sweeping the
floor.

The keys had been out of her possession for nearly twenty-four hours. Plenty time for him to make duplicates. He hadn't jimmied the lock on Roby's door.
He'd let himself into the apartment the same way she would be able to in the case of an emergency.

She had been so unsuspecting of anything underhanded with her set of keys, had chalked the whole incident up to her brother. When Jonah tired of an
object, more often than not, he tossed it aside. She had reasoned he had wandered into her office when she'd stepped out momentarily, spotted them on her
desk, and made off with them. Instead it had been Chris.

Of course it had been Chris.

She jumped guiltily when someone spoke, and her purse swung free from her side, the strap still secured over her shoulder and keeping it from falling. Not
expecting to see the person she had just been speculating about, standing only a few feet from her, she clasped her hands together in front of her haplessly.
Unable to formulate her disjointed thoughts, she merely offered an empathetic smile and forced herself to relax her fingers, let her hands fall to her sides.

One side of Banks' mouth twitched. "Those things you were going to check into…did you?"

She found her voice, hoped it didn't sound as deceptive as she felt. "I took the note over to the police station in Lebanon to show Harvey - you know Harvey,
he comes in pretty regular in the evenings - but another jailer was working. He said Harvey was pulling bailiff duty at the courthouse today. Soon as we can
get in touch with him, we can show him the note and see what kind of insight he can offer as far as what actions would be in your best interest."

She needed to stop talking. She was winging it, and it sounded like it. "I thought that would be the right place to start. I don't think it would be a good idea to
tip your hand when there is a possibility that someone else is behind the note, someone like Kim, who Roby might have talked to after the bathroom incident,
who might have saw an opportunity to mess with you. Let's use some discretion; figure out what we're up against. Harvey can put us in touch with the
authorities when we are more sure about who did it."

He nodded in apparent agreement and she felt her lungs deflate in relief. For the first time, she noticed the Styrofoam plate in his hand. He glanced down at
it and smiled self-consciously. "Thought Crawdad might like some of the gravy left over from breakfast."

The plate was placed near the railing and, seemingly out of thin air, the cat appeared. Cori hadn't even noticed if the animal had still been on the porch. She
watched as it lapped ravenously at Bertie Hutchinson's gravy, and then she moved in the direction of the door.

"The jailer said he'd tell Harvey to get in touch with me so if he calls I'll let you know. Otherwise, I'll be in my office."

Her hand was on the door when Banks said, "I think the note should stay in my possession."

He was trying to manipulate her and it was better for her to keep playing devil's advocate. Until she could figure out a way to nail him, anyway.

"This is a very serious thing, this letter. You brought it to me, I assume, because I'm your employer and you expect me to take some kind of action on your
behalf. The note remains in my charge until we speak to Harvey and know what options are available to you. It's better this way…safer. Tonight, I'll tell Roby I
was the one who found the note. He'll know that it's in my possession and he won't have any reason to go after you should he get antsy and want to get rid of
it."

Banks bent from the waist and scooped up the object of his affection, causing the cat to caterwaul in protest. He tucked the small animal beneath his red
goatee, pinning the front paws in one freckled fist. It was when he pressed his lips over the fur on Crawdad's head and began murmuring childish
endearments to the animal that Cori experienced a surge of disgust.

In the span of mere seconds, it had become apparent to her that Chris Banks wasn't working on all cylinders. Maybe he'd been okay at one time. Maybe
he'd been just fine. He wasn't now. He was behind this threat, had been in Roby's apartment, maybe even hers.

The misfit had been masturbating in the men's bathroom downstairs as recently as yesterday morning - something that was creepy in it's own right in
retrospect - and when Roby had stumbled in on him, caught him in the act, he had finally gone off the deep end. Now, he was determined to make Roby pay
for his humiliation.

The kid must be totally unstable; his bottled rage easily triggered. Or was he obsessed with her? The words in the letter - treading on thin ice, Cori is off limits
- were haunting her now, like remembered crimes.

Bad, this was very bad.

She wanted to get away from him. Get away so she could think all of this through. She stared at the scene in front of her a moment longer, at Banks' blank
expression and Crawdad's huge, dilated eyes.

"You all right with the setup, Chris, with how I plan to handle this?"

Chris Banks nodded absently without looking at her, then finally spoke, his voice like sandpaper on drywall. "When you left, I went upstairs and picked the
lock to his apartment. I wanted to see if I could find anything that would prove he's got it in for me and I found something really horrible, Cori."

"You broke into his apartment?" she said, her voice a ribbon of shock, slipping through her vocal chords. "I can not believe you did that."

His eyes were on her now, desperate, heated. "I know it was wrong but you've got to listen to me. There was a DVD on his bed. I was curious, put it in the
player."

She held her head in one hand, stepped back and leaned against the house. "Don't tell me this."

"He's gay, Cori."

Without looking at him, she turned, opened the door to the diner and disappeared inside.

He was determined to hang Roby out to dry, so determined that he had even admitted to entering his apartment just to ensure she would find whatever vile
stuff he'd planted there. Taking the steps upstairs two at a time, she decided she would have to deal with him later.

She needed time to wrap her mind around the danger he'd become…
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