The next morning, Tim and Heidi were up before Melanie, and were sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, when the young woman walked in, wearing one of Heidi's robes.
"Good morning," Melanie said.
"Good morning," Heidi replied. "I know you didn't want me to, but I told Tim what happened to you."
Melanie felt her face get hot. "You...you did?" she asked.
"You didn't do anything wrong, Melanie," Tim said. "You were dumb, maybe, but you didn't do anything wrong." He saw his wife's frown and ignored it.
The girl's face got redder and she nodded. "Ah...yeah, I guess I was kinda dumb," she said, sitting down at the table.
"How long have you and Juan going out?" Tim asked.
Melanie shrugged. "Four, maybe five months, I guess," she said.
"He ever hit you or physically abuse you while you were going out with him?" Tim continued.
Melanie nodded and a sheepish look formed on her face. "He...ah...he did hit me a couple of times, when he was drinking," she said.
"How were you getting along before this happened?" was Tim's next question.
Heidi got up and got the girl a cup of tea.
"OK, I guess," Melanie said, sipping her tea. "I...I was thinking of breaking up with him, but he didn't know that."
"Do you have any idea why he'd suddenly decide to do something like he did last night?" Tim asked.
Melanie knew why Juan had done what he did, but she couldn't tell Tim, he was a cop, and he'd arrest Mr. Sanders and put him in jail. "I...I'm not sure," she lied. "I...when we...when we were together last night, he said he was going out with somebody else. Maybe..." She shrugged.
The girl's story didn't ring true to Tim. What Juan had done to her the night before sounded like an act of revenge to him. It was the kind of thing he could have seen Juan doing if Melanie had broken up with him. If the young thug already had a new girlfriend, why bother humiliating Melanie? He realized guys like Juan were dumb, and prone to doing macho things that made no sense, but what Juan had done was really stupid. And risky, too.
"Enough of this third degree," Heidi said. "Melanie, go get a bath and get dressed, we don't want to be late for school."
"OK, Mrs. Jackman," Melanie said. She stood up and left the room.
"You were pretty tough on her," Heidi said once Melanie had gone upstairs.
"She's not telling the truth," Tim replied. "At least not all of it."
"How can you say that?" his wife asked, a bit upset. "Don't you believe she was victimized and brutalized last night?"
"I believe that part," Tim said. "I'm not so sure she doesn't know why it happened."
"Tim!" his wife said. "I'm surprised at you. I never expected you to turn into the kind of cop who believes rape victims are responsible for what happened to them."
"That's not what I'm saying," Tim replied. "All I said was that I think she knows a lot more than she's willing to tell me."
"What makes you say that?" his wife asked.
"What those guys did to her last night was an angry act," Tim explained. "The kind of thing somebody who's really pissed at someone would do. If you believe what Melanie said, it came out of left field."
"But she said she planned to break up with Juan," Heidi protested. "If he knew..."
"She said he didn't know, she hadn't told him," Tim interrupted. "If that's true, why did he do it? Remember, Melanie said he already has a new girlfriend."