Chapter 1

I finished grading the last two papers and triumphantly tossed them onto the pile. I'd been at it for three hours straight but I was finally done. After almost twenty years of teaching I still hadn't learned to stagger due dates from class to class. One hundred and twenty research papers turned in at once- most of them poorly written and painful to read- was just too much.

It had been a long day. I stayed late at school, then rushed off to a committee meeting at church, grabbing a deli salad on the way. I ate my meager dinner while I listened to our pastor drone on and on about the upcoming tent revival. That lasted for an hour and a half, then I hurried home just in time to hear about the kids' day, send them off to bed, pick up their latest mess and then try to finish my schoolwork. It was only Tuesday and I was already tired.

I stood and stretched, then glanced at the clock. I had just enough time for a quick soak in the tub, then I'd head off to bed myself. Alone.

I hated Mark's job but he insisted that he had to accept the position of district manager if he was to ever have any chance of becoming a vice president in the company. He left for the airport every Monday at six and he returned every Friday at nine. The rest of the week was a whirlwind of cities and meetings and trade shows and clients and I couldn't keep track of where he was at any given time. At first we tried to speak on the phone every night but he was usually busy or exhausted and I was busy with school, church, the kids and the house. Lately we were lucky if we talked twice a week.

I felt guilty because the kids didn't have Mark in their lives. I overcompensated to make up for it but it wasn't the same. I spent almost every evening with them, doing homework and carting them to sports events but I wasn't a father. Still, I thought I was doing a pretty good job raising them, so when the phone rang and Donna Neumann said she was concerned about David's behavior I was surprised.

"Cindy, I don't know if it's a big deal or not," she told me, "but this afternoon I heard David and Jason talking about a picture they got from the Internet. I gathered it was a girl in a skimpy dress or something, but David described it rather graphically and you know where things could lead if they start searching around for pornography."

"I'll check into it," I assured her. "If David is abusing his privileges, I'll take the Internet away from him for a while."

"I know that the boys are getting interested in sex," Donna continued. "I just don't want them to stumble across some of the psychos that are out there. Thanks for checking it out," she said as she hung up.

I stared at the computer on the other side of the den, now dark and quiet. Had David been doing something he shouldn't have been? At fourteen, it was perfectly normal for him to be interested in girls. I knew he often emailed people he met on the net; it was possible a girl had sent him a picture of herself. If it was in a revealing outfit, I wasn't going to go crazy but I wanted to know if something worse was going on.

I didn't want to ask him and plant the idea in his head if it wasn't already there, but I couldn't ignore the warning either. I decided to do a little investigating before I accused him of anything.

Since I barely know how to turn a computer on, snooping around his files wouldn't do me any good. I needed to spy on him. I decided to leave school early the next day and see what was going on.

The next day I signed out early, left my car two blocks away and got home twenty minutes before the kids. I felt like Kinsey Millhone as I hid my blazer and shoes in my bedroom, then slipped into a closet on one side of the den. It wasn't the ideal vantage point for seeing the monitor but the louvered door would allow me to see anyone sitting at the computer and I'd be able to hear what was said.

A few minutes later I heard the front door open and my sixteen year old crossed the room, followed closely by her best friend. Beth threw her backpack on the couch and opened the door to the deck. She called the dogs in from the backyard and she and Sarah stooped to play with them.

I smiled as I watched her from my hiding place. I was proud of my daughter. Physically the exact opposite of me, Beth was tall and slim, a star athlete and an honors student. Boys vied for her attention, drawn to her trim body and her girl-next-door beauty. She had my bright blue eyes and dark brown hair, although hers was long and straight to my wavy, shoulder length mane.

After petting and cooing at the dogs for a few minutes, Beth and Sarah got up and disappeared. I heard them giggling as they clumped up the hall stairs and into Beth's room. They were both hard-working students and I assumed they were sitting right down to attack their homework.

Helmut and Bogart immediately came sniffing over to the closet door, whining to be let in with me. I held my breath and made no sound as I cursed myself for forgetting about them. If the kids found me hiding in here, they'd know I was spying on them and I'd be humiliated.

Fortunately, both dogs soon lost interest and wandered off, probably in search of food. I barely had time to catch my breath when I heard the door again. I pressed my eye to the slats as the boys entered the den.

David and two of his friends went straight to the computer and waited for it to boot up. I listened as they talked excitedly.

"Do you think there's a new one?" Jason asked eagerly.

"I hope so," David answered. "I asked for one."

"I don't believe you guys," Kevin said. "I think you're both full of shit."

Jason grinned as David started tapping the keys. "You won't be saying that in a few minutes."

"Did we miss anything?" I heard my twelve year old call as he entered the room with another boy.

I gasped quietly. I could cope with the fact that David and his friends were looking at erotic pictures but I'd be furious if he was corrupting his baby brother. Jimmy was still way too young for such nonsense.