Kate had placed the spy cam in a wooden dish on the window sill, centring it to capture the side profiles of Tom, and the client, for the duration of their sessions. When she’d first started recording client sessions, six years earlier when she’d decided they should keep their marriage a secret from the clients, it was to protect Tom’s reputation and ensure he wasn’t accused of impropriety. She’d seen some of the most successful speakers and self-help gurus in the States slapped with lawsuits – for sexual assault, molestation and even rape. She’d seen men destroyed, their reputations shredded. Most were sent to prison, and many killed themselves within hours of being locked up. She wasn’t going to let that happen to Tom. She’d seen the way women threw themselves at him after his talks: the arm strokes, the hair flicks and the simpering smiles. All it would take was for one woman to take his rejection badly and concoct a plot to accuse him of something he hadn’t done and his career would be over. She’d watched hours of recordings to ensure that would never happen, and all the time Tom had maintained a professional distance from the person sitting opposite him.

And then one day he didn’t.

Kate slaps the laptop screen closed.

She needs to get some dirt on Geraldine: something so shameful and dark Geraldine would rather die than have it disclosed to the outside world. Something Kate can use to quash the story that Geraldine’s penning about SoulShrink. But she’s going to need a good recording, the camera zoomed in on Geraldine’s face. She wants tears, regret, snot. She’ll give her a choice – drop the story or the video gets shared.

She glances at her watch. There are only ten minutes until Tom’s next one-to-one and she needs to get the SSD card back into the spy cam before it starts. She’ll get it set up so it focuses in on Peter’s face, to test it. Then it’ll all be ready for Geraldine’s next one-to-one tomorrow. Blackmail has worked for Kate before, and it’ll work again. She just needs something good – a confession or a revelation that will destroy Geraldine’s career.

And to get that out of her she’ll need Tom’s help.