Girl Unknown

Nigel May

Description

Luck has never been on Lucie Palmer's side. She feels her life is a cursed one, full of loneliness and cruel blows. How else can she explain being removed from the family she loved as a child? Or being imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit as a young woman? Her life isn't fair... But now it's time to rebuild her life, to start afresh. Lucie attempts to learn the secrets of her family's past, about the people she was never allowed to love. But does a curse shadow her existence even now? A curse ready to strike again? Maybe even destroy her for good? Can she finally piece together the emptiness in her life before it's too late, to no longer be the girl unknown With gripping twists, turns and a shocking ending, The Girl Unknown is unputdownable thriller fiction at its most electrifying.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528962216
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Girl Unknown
How Do You Rebuild a Life You’ve Never Understood?
Nigel May
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-08-30
The Girl Unknown About the Author Dedication Copyright Information Acknowledgements Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 The Final Chapter
About the Author
Nigel May is an author, TV and radio presenter and a journalist. He has been described as “the UK’s male Jackie Collins” and has written six page-turning glamorous blockbusters. As a showbiz journalist, he has interviewed countless celebrities around the world for magazines and newspapers. His TV work has included appearances on ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as broadcasting from America. He is one of the UK’s most popular crafting personalities through his work on Create and Craft TV. On radio he is a proud member of the Gaydio team. He lives in Brighton and is obsessed with all things ’80s, flea markets and the Eurovision Song Contest. The Girl Unknown is his seventh novel.
Dedication
To Michelle Cooke, the strongest girl I know.
Copyright Information
Copyright © Nigel May (2019)
The right of Nigel May to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528918176 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528962216 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
Welcome to my darker side. A million thanks to “Team Unknown” – to the people who have seen this thriller through, from conception to completion. Eternal gratitude to Alan and Lottie, my utter soulmates. I love you both so very much. To David Lever, Andrew Carter and Mel Brown for being divine playmates. To Chris Meyrick, for his total strength and joyous friendship. And to Louise Porte, for being there for everything. To Helen Jenner, for initial book shaping and to all at Austin Macauley, for launching it to the world. To Gaenor Davies, for her loyal support, and to every person who has bought any of my books – whether it be for the glam or the grit. And finally to Jimmy Sutton, for his ‘shimmy’, without which life would be a much less thrilling place.
Prologue

Peru, Now
Even the smell of the room seemed different to Lucie Palmer. As if already impregnated with the sweet, anticipatory joy of freedom. She scanned her eyes around the room, taking it in, the stale drabness of the cold white walls and the softness of the cushion placed on the chair she was seated at. A comfort she had almost forgotten about. She tapped her fingers on the surface of the wooden table in front of her, listening to the sound they made. Melodic and somehow upbeat, despite a lack of tune. Her nails were bitten and worn away, the clean, colourful manicure that had once lived there now a thing from another life. If she closed her eyes, she could see how they had once looked. The pride she felt. Colourful and bright. Pristine. Before any hue of happiness had been snatched from her.
She opened her eyes and focused on the door on the far side of the room. Solid and strong, yet the small square window towards its top allowing her a view beyond that represented all that she had craved for so long. A corridor. An escape. A return.
After that, a light. Daylight. One with no boundaries. Something unimaginable since what seemed like an eternity.
Lucie allowed the corners of her mouth to spread into a smile. An action that had become alien to her. The sensation felt good yet full of fear. A fear of what was to come. Despite her longing. A chill spread across her back, at odds with the heat of her surroundings. She’d never become used to the stifling blanket of air that had wrapped itself dangerously around her for so long.
She closed her eyes again and breathed in deeply through her nostrils, the hiss of the air passing into her body, the only sound occupying her mind. She let the breath back out through her lips and pushed her hands down on to the table as she did so, enjoying the feel of the surface against little finger to thumb. She tipped her head back and only then opened her eyes, her attention immediately caught by the fan circling overhead. It moved slowly, inefficient in its duty. She didn’t care. Nothing mattered any more. Not now that the end was finally in sight. She watched the arms of the fan spinning, their movements as irregular as they were slow. Her mind drifted, hypnotised by its spinning. Around and around, a groundhog motion that quickly became mind-numbingly repetitive. Like so much of her life had been recently. For longer than she cared to remember really. One thing aimlessly looping into the next, its purpose forgotten yet accepted as how it had to be.
The sound of the door opposite opening brought her thoughts back. A man entered; his uniform horribly familiar to her. She shuddered as she thought about the first time she had seen it. The depth of the petrol blue material, the badge on his chest, the weapon at his side. It was as menacing now as she had found it then. But today, there was a difference. An accessory that had never been there before. A smile painted across the deep tan of his skin. His seemed alien too. It was their only connection. Lucie couldn’t remember when she had last seen such a welcoming, if somewhat strained, smile. Especially from someone dressed like him. She couldn’t help but respond. In his hands a backpack, another added and unaccustomed accessory.
‘Are you ready?’ His tone was as deep as his skin colour, his accent strong.
‘I’m ready,’ she replied. She had been for an eternity. Not just for the hour or so she had been left in the room where she was sitting, but for a lifetime before that. Ever since the confines of her surroundings had been initially placed around her. An entrapment that she would never forget, no matter how much she cared to.
‘Then come, Lucie Palmer. It is time.’ He used her full name, an action that took Lucie by surprise. It represented an individuality that had been unknown before. She had been one of many, a statistic.
Lucie rose to her feet and walked towards him. He opened the door and handed her the backpack.
‘Your belongings. Do you know what you’re going to do?’
It was none of his business but yet, his friendliness warranted an answer.
‘Go home, I suppose. Not that I’m sure where that is anymore. It’s been a while.’
‘Good luck Lucie, and I hope we never seen you here in Peru again. We see many girls like you here and it never becomes easier to see young women throw so much of their life away. How old are you now? 24?’
‘25. Last week. A quarter of a century, and this is where I spent it. Happy birthday, huh?’ Her voice a mixture of sarcasm and regret. ‘That was not what I had planned when I was growing up.’
‘It is never too late. Today is your day to celebrate. Finally, you are free. To escape this…’ He waved his hand in the air searching for the right word before deciding on ‘…madness.’
‘Madness. That’s one word for it. I can think of many others but I need to go. To leave this behind. I shouldn’t have been here.’
The two of them were now at the other door at the far end of the corridor. He drew back the large metal lock on its frame and pulled it open. A rush of heat hit Lucie’s skin from the outside air. Once more, she shut her eyes and breathed in through her nose, enjoying the moment. It felt different to any other air she had ever inhaled.
‘You shouldn’t have been here, Lucie. You are different to many of the girls here, there is a softness about you.’ Words of compassion from one of the many who had been turning the key on her existence for so long. For a second, Lucie was able to catch sight of the human behind the uniform. It seemed odd. She’d been so used to hating him. All of them. For no other reason than what they represented. Her captivity. ‘But you shouldn’t have messed with the drugs I guess. You’ve learnt your lesson.’
The smile was replaced by a downward turn of his mouth. To Lucie, it screamed smugness. All traces of human disappeared and she didn’t even say goodbye as she stepped through the door and into the open air. Why was she spending a second longer there than she needed to? As the door shut behind her, she turned her head to the right and then to the left, deciding which way to go. For once, there were choices.
Choices that had been missing from the moment she had been imprisoned in the Peruvian hellhole of a jail six years ago. Her life snatched from her after being charged with the possession of nearly £2 million worth of cocaine. Her life thrown away and tossed inside a stinking cell with nothing but iron bars and smashed dreams for company. Nineteen to 25. Years when she should have been experiencing what the world had to offer. The ways of love, travel and wanderlust. Finding out who she was, what she wanted. But in such a short space of time, control of her own life had been ripped out of her hands