Page 70 of The Devoted Husband

Tonya

Tonya,

This is letter number two of two. You should receive this at least three months after my death.

Now that I’ve freed you, you owe me. I could have left you rotting in prison for a crime you didn’t commit, but I showed you grace instead.

You should know I did that for a reason, and it for damn sure wasn’t out of the kindness of my heart.

I need you to finish what I started. Sade Griffin has to pay for what she did.

I believe there’s a body or some incriminating evidence in the small body of water behind her house.

I saw her boyfriend, the man she killed women for, toss three black garbage bags into the water.

I want you to search that water for those bags and see what’s inside.

If it is what I think it is, call the police immediately.

If it isn’t...at least you’ve still got your freedom.

I’m gonna put the address on the back of this letter.

Please, don’t fuck this up for me. Don’t touch anything inside the bag.

Evidence has already been ruled inadmissible once before with this girl. I can’t let that happen again.

Still hating you from beyond the grave . . .

Jones

“Whew.”

Tonya plopped down on the grass and wiped her forehead.

Searching the lake took longer than she thought it would, but she found the three bags Jones mentioned.

Because she wasn’t sure how much time she had before someone noticed her, she put on her gloves and ripped a bag apart as quickly as possible.

The smell and sight of decaying flesh immediately made her sick to her stomach. She crawled over to the lake and emptied the contents of her stomach before scooting several feet away from the bags. Standing, she began to pace.

She knew who Sade Griffin was. She also knew why her ex-husband wanted her to pay. Though Tonya appreciated Jones finally telling the truth so she could be free, she didn’t owe him a damn thing. Her curiosity was why she’d done as he asked, but that was as far as it would go.

Tonya retied the bag and tossed all three back into the lake.

She looked around and made sure no one was watching before she tossed Jones’s letter in there too.

As she walked toward her car, she hummed, and a smile slowly spread across her lips.

Tonya had never thought much about the afterlife, but she hoped Jones was looking up at her from hell, watching her leave.

She never thought she’d be okay with letting someone get away with murder, but under these circumstances, Tonya was convinced Sade deserved a reprieve.

The End