Payback

"It's a good thing that I shut off the Internet. There is a scheduled task to send his e-mail link to every contact that you have," I told her. "Family, friends, co-workers, church, everyone; you broke up with him Thursday, and this is his way of getting even."

Marge just collapsed onto herself, and her mother hugged her again.

"But this might be enough to keep you out of prison."

All three stared at me, so I added, "This shows that he had remote control of your computer and could use it to get sensitive data from it. Right now, George thinks that you e-mailed Perez those documents; this shows that Perez could have done it. And that website logs IP addresses; if you are not lying, Marge, it will show Perez logging in to your computer at the times that your e-mails to him went out. It may clear you."

The other part of my revenge was that I had installed the camera software on Perez's computer and copied all of the video files to his hard drive. It now looked like he was guilty of taping his sex scenes. The rape video was included. And since it now looked like these were his videos, they were admissible in court. Perez was in more trouble than he yet knew.

I also sent the audio files of his blackmail efforts to his computer; George would be able to use those as well.

Finally, from Perez's computer, I had logged into Marge's and e-mailed him her active quotes. The login website would show that it went from Perez's motel IP address to Marge's computer.

Fast forwarding a few months:

After Perez's final criminal sentencing hearing, he had been convicted of rape, sodomy, and filming hidden videos. Once released from prison he would have to register as a sex offender. He was also convicted of theft, fraud, extortion, and racketeering.

Marge had to testify about her affair in four open court trials, all of which made the newspapers and evening news reports.

He never wavered in proclaiming his innocence about the web site and the hidden cameras. But since the programs and the files were on his computer, and the young lady testified about her rape, the court took affront and acted more harshly. He was sentenced to a total of 23 years in prison and had to serve 11 years before any chance of parole.

The day that he entered prison, both the IRS and the state tax people served notice on Perez that they were seeking back taxes on the bribes that he received, as well as auditing his companies.

On his second day in prison, his wife had him served with divorce papers.

A week later, George and I were sitting in the bar where Mary no longer worked. Her new job in base procurement allowed her to quit the bar and enter nursing school in their latest night class.

I reminded George to tell me what I owed him for his recording devices that I had 'donated' to Perez.

He promised that he would and then, grinning widely, added, "Also, you and I spent $1,500 apiece yesterday."

"Good for us," I replied. "This gin and tonic is not as good as Mary made, but it's not bad either."

Ignoring me, George continued, "It just happens that I know the supervisor of the guards over where Perez is staying. And I happened to see the guy over at his favorite bar the other day. He mentioned Perez, and then said that he followed the trials and thought that I did a great job bringing a real scumbag to justice. I told him that I wasn't done with Perez yet, and that I wanted him to suffer every day in prison. Then I slid a newspaper over to him. Underneath was an envelope with three grand of our money. By now, the white gang has been told that Perez consorted with a black woman. The black gang knows that he abused a black woman. The military guys have learned that he brutally raped one of our own. The guard's job is to make sure that Perez stays alive and suffers for his full sentence, and then, I don't care."

I stared at George for a long time, and then finally said, "Thanks."

About then, Mike walked into the bar. He looked like shit as he walked over to us. I ordered a new round of drinks; the new barmaid was making better gin and tonics.

I had expected Mike to show up tonight; I had told him where I would be. It was this afternoon that, with regret, I had handed him a copy of the file where our wives spoke of their infidelities, and told him of what had transpired between Marge and me.

Mike sipped his gin, and then turned and said, "George, I would like to rent some surveillance equipment from you."

And so it began again.

Two weeks later, Perez had a civil hearing concerning his tax evasion charges. I didn't know about it, but now it is obvious that Marge was following his trials. She was in the courtroom that day.

As I reached down to pick up a handful of dirt, I remembered watching the courtroom tape and seeing Marge suddenly standing to face Perez, wearing that same grey pantsuit. She brought my Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum up and put three bullets neatly in Perez's chest.

The two bailiffs responded with a hail of gunfire.

Slowly, I let the dirt fall onto the coffin of the love of my life. I realized that, yes, I had my payback. And that I would have to live with that knowledge for the rest of my miserable life.