Flying Too High (DI Angus Henderson 12) by Iain Cameron

Author:Iain Cameron [Cameron, Iain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-SEVEN

Lester Grange stood beside his car watching Adrian Chapman drive off. Both men had attended the Interpol meeting earlier in the day. While he went for it with a boyish enthusiasm most often reserved for football, women, and alcohol, he thought Adrian seemed a bit off the pace.

It couldn’t be the death of Roger bothering him, or was this him being disingenuous? It wasn’t as if Adrian and Roger couldn’t work together, they did at a business level, but Roger always held him at a distance. At heart, the reason for it was plain to him: his former boss’s racism. He had seen enough of it in the army to recognise it without too much trouble. Grange hadn’t objected to it at the time as he believed it served a purpose – stopping Adrian from getting too big for his boots.

He was an ambitious guy, Adrian; nothing wrong with that in his book, but as Roger would often say, he hadn’t yet earned his spurs. You didn’t just waltz into the MOD and demand a contract. It had to be earned and deserved. The product demonstrations needed to go well, the prices had to be competitive, and the promised delivery dates realistic. In addition, he had to spend time building relationships with all the key players. This didn’t happen overnight, as Grange found out when he first joined Vixen. It took years. Plus, Adrian would find it harder than say, himself, as they were also guilty of harbouring racial grudges.

He opened the car door and climbed inside. The smell of leather a constant reminder of how fortunate he’d been. When he left the army, he didn’t have a job or a clue about what he would spend the rest of his life doing. The vision of him being homeless, unable to re-join civilised society, had haunted him, but it had succeeded at spurring him on. A chance meeting with Roger at a regimental dinner changed his life. He didn’t want to go, despite still having his dress uniform, as he couldn’t afford to pay for any drinks. His wife borrowed the money from her sister and from then on, he never looked back.

He owed Karen big-time, but in the end she couldn’t adjust from the needy ex-squaddie requiring a leg-up to move into Civvy Street, to the confident businessman he had become. Perhaps her empathetic and giving nature meant she needed to help a victim to make her feel whole. The guy she’d left him for definitely fell into that category. A rock guitarist, he made a meagre living as a solo performer, this without a repertoire of decent songs, and a singing voice any hyena would be proud of.

Grange took time adjusting to living alone. In the army, his clothes were washed, his food cooked, and he was told when to sleep and when to wake up. Karen had assumed this role, and perhaps this had been a contributing factor to her leaving. When she did, it forced him to learn a whole plethora of new skills.

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