Jake watched Emily think about it. He knew that what she really liked to do on her fifteen-minute breaks was go to the beat-up couch in the employee break room, put her feet up, and read her latest romance novel.

“I guess if Mr. Richter doesn’t mind . . .”

After that first time driving Joan home, Jake knew that seducing her would not be a problem. It was clear from her flushed cheeks and stammered answers that she already had a crush on Jake. It was just a matter of figuring out how to begin an affair without getting caught. The answer came around the third or fourth time Jake, always claiming errands, drove Joan home from the bank. She told him how much she liked going to see old movies at the local university’s campus theater, how her friends thought it was lame, and she always had to go alone. Jake knew enough to not suggest a date, but he did start haunting the theater, finally running into Joan during a screening of Shadow of a Doubt on a wet spring evening. She’d taken the bus to the theater, so Jake gave her a ride home, but only after bringing her to his town house, parking in the first-floor garage, and taking her virginity in the back seat of his Quattro.

They managed to see each other occasionally during the remainder of that school year, and much more frequently during the summer between Joan’s junior and senior years of high school. Sometimes they’d meet at the town house, but more often than not Jake would take her to a roadside motel three towns away, occasionally bringing her to a nearby Chinese restaurant that had low lighting and high booths, and would serve Joan mai tais despite her obvious age.

Jake figured that it was at the Chinese restaurant where they were spotted.

In September, the president of the bank, a jowly man named Charles Fitch, called Jake into his office and gave him a terse ultimatum. Jake would leave immediately, not just the bank, but the city of Rochester. Preferably, even, the state of New York. If he did that, and if he did that right away, then the bank would supply a letter of recommendation. If it became clear that Jake had any more contact with Joan Wilkes, then the authorities would be alerted.

“Does Emily know?” Jake asked.

“If Emily knew it would be Mr. Wilkes talking to you, or the police. I’m cutting you a huge break and I suggest you take it.”