Free Obsession (The Talisman series) by Sofia Grey

day.”
    I tried the laptop lie again, but Katy wasn’t buying it. She also couldn’t tell me where I could find my wife, apart from somewhere in the Manchester area, seeing a number of people.
    I’d have to risk it.
    Within the hour, I’d found the Geek and outlined my requirements to him. I wanted access to all her email accounts and chatrooms, all the passwords he could give me, a complete list of her browsing history over the past two months and a record of all the items she’d deleted from her hard drive.
    He stared at me, frowning slightly, his eyes screwed up behind trendy glasses. He looked more as though he should be working in car sales. “It’ll take me a few hours. I might not get it finished today.”
    Gritting my teeth, I inclined my head. “I’ll pay double if you can finish it by three this afternoon.”
    He favoured me with a feline smile. “Done. I’ll give you a call when it’s ready.” As I turned to leave, he called me back. “I can throw in a logger as well, if you like.”
    A logger? I had no idea. He hastened to explain. “A keystroke logger. It records all the keystrokes and saves them to a hidden file. It means you can recreate any activity on the machine.” He paused, sounded nonchalant. “If you like, I can get it to mail itself to you, say on a daily basis? It’s really useful if you think someone’s tampering with her computer.”
    Oh, yes. I would like that very much.
     
     
    4.3 Suki
     
    Anita nudged my elbow gently and smiled at me. The sun, still high in the sky, wouldn’t be setting until at least 8:00 p.m., possibly later. I wanted to leave in plenty of time to drive home in the daylight. With a start, I realised she’d just spoken.
    “ It’s really nice to see you again. We don’t often have visitors here.”
    “ Oh, why not?”
    A shrug. “Like you, we’re not home that much. But I hate the idea of the press knowing where we live. Unlike you, I’m not happy in front of the cameras.”
    I had to smile. “Well, technically, I’m the press. I’m a journalist.”
    “ Yeah, but you’re also an F1-wife, which makes you a friend, rather than the enemy.”
    We walked in silence for a few paces and I squidged my toes into the cool sand. It’d been ages since I’d walked on a beach, especially one as empty as this. “Is it always this quiet here? I mean, it’s the middle of the summer holidays.”
    “ It gets a little busier, but not much.” She paused, bending down to pick up a couple of stones, weighing them in her hands. I watched, curious. She gave me a brilliant smile, handing one of them to me. “Do you know how to skim them? Across the water?”
    I stared at the small, flat stone on my palm. “I don’t know. Show me.”
    Stepping forwards to the low waves washing to the shore, Anita adopted a position with her weight on her back foot, ready to hurl the stone into the sea. As I watched, she threw it low and flat. It caught the water and lifted off again, skipping, once, twice, three times before sinking out of view. She turned back to me, laughing, holding her wayward hair back with one hand. “Three jumps. That’s rubbish! A mutant dwarf could do better.”
    With her help, I moved into the right position, swept back my arm and tossed the stone as far as I could. It spun as it arced through the air, splashing through a cresting wave, skipping just twice and then disappearing. “Two jumps—not bad for a beginner.”
    I turned back to smile and caught sight of someone at the edge of the beach. My heart nearly stopped. Oh God , this was bad, very bad.
    Anita must have seen my panicked expression for she frowned and stepped forward, touching my arm. I had instinctively wrapped them both tight around my body. “Suki? What’s the matter?”
    I looked up again, away from her. He’d gone. Oh, Jesus. I was hallucinating in broad daylight now. I felt faint. My knees buckled.
    “ Suki?” Anita grabbed my hands. “ Suki ? Are you alright? You look as