"Melanie's father is a pig," Heidi told her husband later that night while they were putting the dinner dishes in the dishwasher.
"Oh?" Tim said, smiling. He rinsed off the meat platter and found a place for it on the dishwasher's lower rack.
"You should have heard the way he talked to her in school today," his wife continued. "Luckily Ben Sanders took over. He told me later he'd gotten things straightened out."
Tim was suddenly very alert. "Ben Sanders?" he asked. "I was going to ask you about him."
Heidi looked at him. "You were, why?" she asked.
"What does he do at the high school?" her husband inquired.
"Don't you remember him?" Heidi asked. "I think I introduced him to you at this year's faculty reception," she said. "He's director of guidance." She put the last glass in the dishwasher. "Why do you want to know about Ben?"
"I talked to Juan Perez today," Tim said. He got the dishwashing detergent out of the cupboard and poured some into the dispenser in the dishwasher.
"You did?" Heidi asked. She dried her hands on a dish towel and stood at the counter, waiting for her husband to finish.
Tim shut the dishwasher door and turned the machine on. "Lex and I picked him up first thing this morning," he told his wife. "He's up in the detention section of the county jail as we speak."
Heidi couldn't keep the smile off her face. "I thought you weren't going to be able to arrest him for what he did to Melanie," she said.
"We didn't arrest him for that," Tim said. "I planned to have Lex stop him for speeding, then search his car incident to the stop. From what Melanie told us last night, I was sure we'd find drugs. Then I'd have had something to lean on him with."
"Did it work?" Heidi asked. She started for the living room.
Tim followed. "It did, but not exactly the way I planned it," he said. "Juan ran on us and we wound up in a high-speed pursuit. He crashed over on Pulver. We found a lot more drugs than I figured, which gave us a whole lot of serious charges to use against him."
"Good, I hope they lock him up and throw away the key," Heidi said. "What did he tell you about Melanie?"
"He said the reason he did what he did was to get revenge on her for screwing around on him," her husband replied.
"What?" Heidi asked. "How did he know that she was screwing around on him?"
"Juan claims he followed her from the mall to some guy's apartment the other night," Tim said. "He she went in and didn't come out for several hours."
"Juan didn't actually see Melanie doing anything, did he?" Heidi asked. "He could be wrong."
"Honey," Tim said, "if you saw me go into some woman's apartment and I didn't come out for four or five hours, what would you think?"
Heidi felt her face reddening. "All right," she said. "I guess you do have a point. It's just that I hate to have to agree with Juan Perez."
"I know," Tim said. "Anyhow, that brings me back to Mr. Benjamin Sanders."
"What about him?" Heidi asked.
"He lives in the apartment Juan says he saw Melanie go into," he said. He watched his wife's face go white and her eyes widen.
"No!" Heidi said softly. "He...Juan...he has to be wrong. Are...are you sure?"
"I know Juan says he saw Melanie go into Apartment 1-A in Jamestown Manor," Tim said. "He took us there and pointed the apartment out. He also says she didn't come out for at least four or five hours. And the city directory says a man named Benjamin Sanders lives in that apartment."
"My God!" Heidi said.
"Of course, Juan's not exactly a great witness," Tim pointed out. "Not many juries would see the little scumbag as someone who's believable. Especially not if he was testifying against a real person, with a real job."
"But...but Ben Sanders!" Heidi stammered. "Do...do you think Melanie's the only girl he's seeing?"
"I have no idea, hon," Tim replied. "I'm not even sure he's seeing Melanie. But, if he's doing it and its just Melanie, he's not in any legal trouble. She's over sixteen. But, if she's not the only one, and if any of the others are under sixteen..." He shrugged.
"What are we going to do?" Heidi said. "I...if Ben Sanders is...is sleeping with students..." She flushed. "I...I guess I'm no one to talk, am I?" Heidi, years earlier, had affairs with two male students. In fact, that's how she met Tim.
Tim got up, walked to the sofa, sat down next to his wife, and pulled her into his arms. "I was eighteen when we met," he said. "But it is kind of ironic that we'd be the ones to stumble onto this, isn't it?"
"What are you going to do about it?" Heidi asked.
"Tomorrow I'm going to dig into it a little deeper," Tim said. He stood up and pulled Heidi to her feet. "Tonight, I'm going to go to bed and make love with the most beautiful woman in the world." He kissed her.