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99 Red Balloons: A chillingly clever psychological thriller with a stomach-flipping twist
Elisabeth Carpenter
Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?Eight-year-old Grace is last seen in a sweetshop. Her mother Emma is living a nightmare. But as her loved ones rally around her, cracks begin to emerge. What are the emails sent between her husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is there more to the disappearance of her daughter than meets the eye?Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Sharples sees a familiar face in the newspaper. A face that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…This is a gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist that will take your breath away.
LIBBY CARPENTER
99 RED BALLOONS
Copyright (#u56ce724e-b8f8-55b8-af88-60fbddb6ef0d)
Published by Avon
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
195 Broadway
New York
NY 10007
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins 2017
Copyright © Elisabeth Carpenter 2017
Elisabeth Carpenter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008223519
Ebook Edition © August 2017 ISBN: 9780008264024
Version: 2017-07-25
Dedication (#u56ce724e-b8f8-55b8-af88-60fbddb6ef0d)
For Dad
Table of Contents
Cover (#u73e73173-1471-59a3-9fb2-f29ce81e65bd)
Title Page (#u65fc1c36-6da8-5e4f-9017-f54b7870e2ed)
Copyright (#u9a9901db-1cb6-5799-89bb-845f29a7f6ca)
Dedication (#ubeab6d90-70cd-5a0d-891d-1289a439e61c)
Chapter One (#u89ab3bb0-a559-5153-bc1c-055da8c20b0c)
Chapter Two: Stephanie (#u76957f68-917d-5c8b-bdf8-3a7d8a154988)
Chapter Three: Maggie (#u13f7ca2f-669d-575e-9ef4-d2d4cc160b9e)
Chapter Four: Stephanie (#u6aae8076-5ebf-5e97-aaf5-851097c6fcbf)
Chapter Five (#u7e49dc8d-c22d-598a-a80f-65105a1aba3b)
Chapter Six: Maggie (#udf3cba51-c678-59fe-9486-2dd6f3cbea50)
Chapter Seven (#u137fa041-0633-542f-a019-2ab862415e13)
Chapter Eight: Stephanie (#uca144b44-8ae0-5497-b0c5-bcf70f50c1a7)
Chapter Nine (#uad1ecfda-f8ae-5d55-a736-05fc89328a8d)
Chapter Ten: Maggie (#ubd81ad0c-7380-5590-a97e-1b62da4fc685)
Chapter Eleven: Stephanie (#u7753ec22-00d0-56c8-be1d-8ae342f52973)
Chapter Twelve: Maggie (#ubf1be635-39f2-563c-b1e0-42da7bb0a18a)
Chapter Thirteen: Stephanie (#u584f0ab6-07b8-57c2-a574-1d690d04d5f0)
Chapter Fourteen (#u9e4af4d0-429b-5f5d-95d5-33cff67dceef)
Chapter Fifteen: Stephanie (#ub2c37755-03e3-57e4-9072-13bc80d7d362)
Chapter Sixteen: Maggie (#uf9e15ddc-1043-584a-876a-7ccfbc573a41)
Chapter Seventeen (#u0fda351e-6a7f-598f-b075-115b02cebcf0)
Chapter Eighteen: Maggie (#u737b8fa1-6cbe-5b48-bc52-a8aa67716d93)
Chapter Nineteen: Stephanie (#ua31e1dbc-69c8-5457-8cff-407cc5958855)
Chapter Twenty: Maggie (#u31d9802e-be86-51ec-b448-b42da2bde30a)
Chapter Twenty-One (#u57facbb6-e203-5320-b947-ecb271deeb6a)
Chapter Twenty-Two: Maggie (#u61926a3f-0b86-5c71-abe9-f26d402fb239)
Chapter Twenty-Three: Stephanie (#ued444828-dbe5-57d7-8195-894fe90e6386)
Chapter Twenty-Four: Maggie (#u6f168f32-7e28-52f3-bd2b-81f9de3f20c0)
Chapter Twenty-Five (#u241f0f86-7d25-5c85-b4bf-5e508a1d969b)
Chapter Twenty-Six: Stephanie (#u220ff424-f5ae-5418-be59-3a2dd8a36492)
Chapter Twenty-Seven (#u0679388c-1aed-52e8-a36b-1bfba9137d42)
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Stephanie (#ufbb2ac12-abd7-5485-9201-3e548a41826a)
Chapter Twenty-Nine (#u441903b2-5938-5a2e-b68b-d7803a0112a4)
Chapter Thirty: Stephanie (#u4ec89fcb-80cd-5033-9aa6-c8581be04d3c)
Chapter Thirty-One: Stephanie (#u1ceb8aec-8cd6-5161-808e-bc8219cabafe)
Chapter Thirty-Two: Maggie (#uf79fe796-3a10-5351-855b-458200da2424)
Chapter Thirty-Three (#u3ba2d57f-db6c-588c-a5de-cd1cc0b149e1)
Chapter Thirty-Four: Maggie (#u476ae7e0-bdb7-50c1-aef4-580c754cd1c9)
Chapter Thirty-Five: Stephanie (#u4589d413-96ed-5e7c-9741-7034e395776a)
Chapter Thirty-Six: Maggie (#u7bcf49ad-0a7b-5eab-ade5-2ee65c1fbb7a)
Chapter Thirty-Seven (#udfeb2b26-8214-5210-8f16-5874f112d964)
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Stephanie (#u37933230-5172-5804-bbfb-88142be0fda6)
Chapter Thirty-Nine (#u57903bbd-b0e8-5d70-8fe7-e5eaff862ce6)
Chapter Forty: Stephanie (#u82b6a5b3-ee0a-5392-9467-233771f8e6c3)
Chapter Forty-One: Maggie (#u793045ac-5fa6-507d-94c0-65c380cb7ba3)
Chapter Forty-Two (#u6e5f7cc5-8cec-5423-8c6b-8bda346ac3d2)
Chapter Forty-Three: Maggie (#u794454b5-0a06-5cd9-b0da-2b80bcf1b687)
Chapter Forty-Four: Stephanie (#u7e028711-50ab-56ee-be11-3b9ca189e719)
Chapter Forty-Five (#u5f5aa887-ae6f-5f2e-9b6d-5aa515343012)
Chapter Forty-Six: Maggie (#ud953203f-4948-514d-a7c2-e30d77b1c797)
Chapter Forty-Seven (#u46d0fdcc-fe25-5d98-b56a-e893b368bb12)
Chapter Forty-Eight: Stephanie (#ud78f417d-5b0d-5eb8-95b7-aa1bc7502979)
Chapter Forty-Nine (#u246e1705-86d9-5ef0-aa43-6548889d22d1)
Chapter Fifty: Maggie (#uf6f2dd84-2cd7-5736-a8d0-e728080edebf)
Chapter Fifty-One: Stephanie (#u6de14d35-4ef7-5dda-a412-d147ce9cc464)
Chapter Fifty-Two (#u343f9a42-f8e7-5342-876c-6f46eddc743b)
Chapter Fifty-Three: Stephanie (#u8ad9a0bc-b837-5be3-880f-77a113c09abe)
Chapter Fifty-Four: Maggie (#u4f22a628-af7e-5652-9fd6-96c7225a0252)
Chapter Fifty-Five (#ueb9bc0f3-7b67-5505-83f1-1542a464ecc5)
Chapter Fifty-Six: Maggie (#uca460003-22b0-5b9d-bfca-23aa3214e038)
Chapter Fifty-Seven: Stephanie (#u230e01ba-8e3f-5fef-8e28-9fd97411f425)
Chapter Fifty-Eight: Maggie (#ub061643b-c607-585b-8260-6a57e5691414)
Chapter Fifty-Nine: Stephanie (#u9bf4bf04-2378-53bd-b960-517c031d53a6)
Chapter Sixty: Maggie (#u6be93baf-c5c0-522b-b598-9d90344926bf)
Chapter Sixty-One: Stephanie (#ueea0a93f-8f4c-5ac2-98af-96401b9e3345)
Acknowledgements (#u3855e353-ff11-5a10-9661-c78cb6528118)
Keep Reading… (#u43507479-19cd-52f0-a35a-360be7bde94c)
About the Author (#ua9fa24d5-16c1-5b40-b92b-725e0641ecc4)
About the Publisher (#uc7becde2-ad43-5d59-8ec3-092c20ac967e)
Chapter One (#u56ce724e-b8f8-55b8-af88-60fbddb6ef0d)
I squint at him. The sun’s in my eyes and he looks like a shadow monster.
‘I can’t,’ I tell him. ‘I’ve got to get home. I’m only meant to be getting sweets from the paper shop, then straight back.’
He crouches in front of me. He’s wearing a woolly hat, which is funny as it’s really warm today.
‘But your mum asked me to fetch you.’ His eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles.
I fold my arms. When I tilt my head, his face blocks out the sun.
‘You might be lying,’ I say. ‘Mummy warned me about men with sweets and puppies.’
The man laughs, like Gramps does when he’s Father Christmas.