I SEE YOU an unputdownable psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by PATRICIA MACDONALD (fb2 epub reader .TXT) 📕

back, his side of the bed empty. She glanced over at their bathroom door. There was no bar of light beneath it. In fact, the door was ajar, the bathroom dark.

He probably can’t sleep either, she thought. How could either one of them be expected to rest, knowing that Lisa’s fate was now in the hands of the jury? Hannah lay there, thinking about her daughter. Hannah had actually been happy when Lisa became involved with Troy. Obviously, Lisa was no virgin, but her relationships had been short-lived and seemingly loveless. Troy actually seemed to care for her. Hannah worried that she would never be able to trust anyone after Troy’s betrayal.

Hannah put a hand on Adam’s still warm pillow. She had always tried to impress on Lisa that the one you married needed to be special. A clear choice. No second thoughts. That didn’t mean he had to be the perfect man. Just the perfect man for you. Someone you could trust with your life. Someone who would always put his family first. Someone whose love was the rock in your life. Obviously not someone like Troy Petty.

Hannah frowned, wondering where Adam was. Had he gone down to the kitchen to eat something? He always hated himself when he did that. Adam was a disciplined person, faithful in his exercise, cautious with his drinking. It always kind of amused her when he got up in the middle of the night and ate snacks. Proof that he was human, just like everybody else.

Maybe I’ll join him, she thought. We may as well spend this sleepless night together. Hannah sat up, pulled on her wrapper and slid her feet into her slippers. Then she went out into the dark house in search of him.

As soon as she walked out into the hallway, she saw that he was not in the kitchen. It was pitch black at that end of the house. And he wasn’t in his office either. The light was on, however, in Lisa’s room, a glowing bar visible beneath the closed door.

Hannah frowned, and walked over to it. Why would he be in there? She reached for the doorknob and turned it slowly. The door opened in. At the desk by the window he sat, working on Lisa’s laptop.

‘Adam?’ she said.

He jumped and turned around, a guilty look on his face.

‘What are you doing in here?’ she asked.

Adam turned back to the laptop and stared at it, pushing a couple of keys. The screen changed with each tap of his fingers. ‘Looking for something,’ he said.

‘On Lisa’s computer? I don’t even know Lisa’s password,’ Hannah said.

‘It’s Sydney’s birthday,’ he said.

Hannah smiled, pleased at this notion. ‘Well, of course it is,’ she said. ‘After all, I use hers.’

Adam’s eyes did not leave the screen. ‘She knows that, doesn’t she?’

Hannah frowned at him. ‘Yes, of course.’ She came in and sat down on the end of Lisa’s bed, from where she could look over his shoulder at the screen.

‘What are you looking for?’ she asked.

‘I’m tracking her history,’ he said.

‘You mean her search history?’

‘It’s a bit more complicated than that,’ he said. He did not bother to explain. He knew that Hannah’s familiarity with the workings of computers was rudimentary.

‘What are you looking for?’

Adam pressed some more buttons, the cool light of the screen reflecting, sickly silver, on his face. ‘Something that isn’t here,’ he said.

‘Is that a riddle?’ she asked with a trace of impatience. ‘I’m awfully tired for riddles.’

‘No,’ he said.

‘Then what is it?’ Hannah demanded, feeling suddenly annoyed at him. She would never get back to sleep now.

‘Something that should be here, but it’s not,’ he said, still tapping at the keyboard.

Hannah frowned at him. ‘Stop talking nonsense. What do you mean?’

Adam swiveled the seat of the desk chair around and looked at Hannah directly. ‘I went back to last winter. I looked up your mother’s birthday. That was the date when Lisa spoke to Wynonna about Troy, and then I went forward from there. It was three weeks after that that she first went out with Troy Petty.’

‘We talked about this,’ said Hannah defensively. ‘You and I agreed that she probably felt sorry for him. The underdog, unfairly accused. That’s just like Lisa.’

Adam shook his head. ‘She didn’t search it.’

Hannah frowned. ‘Didn’t search what?’

‘Her accusations. Lisa started to date him but she didn’t research Wynonna’s accusations.’

Hannah shook her head and peered at him as if he was losing his mind. ‘Oh, Adam, what are you doing? That doesn’t mean anything.’

‘Really?’ he asked. ‘This Wynonna person tells her that a guy she works with is an accused pedophile. And the next thing you know, she starts dating him. And she didn’t even do a search on the incident at the camp? Lisa’s the mother of a small child. She’s told that this guy is a pedophile and she goes out with him anyway, without even doing the most basic search? Who would do that? You wouldn’t do that. You’d do a search on him first thing.’

Hannah felt suddenly indignant. ‘Maybe she asked him about those charges, and he explained it to her. Did you ever think of that? Or maybe she looked it up at work.’

Adam looked at her stubbornly. ‘She hasn’t got time to make that kind of search at the hospital. And I don’t believe for one moment that she asked him. Look, I don’t care if she risks her own safety, but to risk Sydney’s?’

Hannah slid off the end of the bed and stood over him, her hands on her hips. She felt tears pricking her eyes but she did not wipe them away. ‘Why are you doing this? She’s your daughter. You’re supposed to defend her, not trump up reasons to vilify her. You’re worse than the prosecutor.