Lost in Plain Sight

Stevie Strang

Description

Doug Clement is a very happy man; his life is great. His wife, Julie, is due to give birth to their first baby in a few weeks' time. They have recently moved into a new home; Doug has done most of the work himself. He's driving home in the rain after a workout at his gym and looking forward to seeing Julie when a car comes speeding out of a side street and smashes into him, hurtling him onto the path of an oncoming bus. The collision changes his life forever. Doug awakes from a two-month coma and is soon in conflict with his family. He cannot remember his wife, new baby, brother or his parents. He's convinced someone is trying to con him. Surely, he would remember if he had a baby? He disappears and is soon roped into an underworld of illegal fighting and gambling. Due to a devastatingly heart-breaking family tragedy, it's imperative the family he ran out on finds him in time for the funeral he really should not miss.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528969734
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Lost in Plain Sight
Stevie Strang
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-06-30
Lost in Plain Sight About The Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Three months earlier 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 Mum Love, Julie 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
About The Author
Lost in Plain Sight is Stevie’s first book. He has had the idea for a good few years but decided to put this on hold to concentrate on raising a family with his wife, Angela.
Unfortunately, their youngest son, Craig, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and looking after him consumed most of their time. He has now managed, with Craig’s encouragement, to find the time to finally get it into print. Hopefully, the reader will find it a gripping tale with an enjoyable storyline that will leave them hungry for more.
Dedication
I dedicate this book to my two wonderful sons, Scott and Craig Strang. Craig sadly passed away at the tender young age of 28, on 3 rd January 2019, without having the opportunity of seeing through to fruition the book he encouraged me to write; especially in the days I doubted myself.
His disability, DMD, did not stop him from leading a very full and productive life. He achieved a degree from Stirling University as well as various other honours from NL College. His inspiration was second to none.
Copyright Information ©
Stevie Strang (2020)
The right of Stevie Strang 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 unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528938860 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528938877 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528969734 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
My wife, Angela, and especially my oldest son, Scott, who reminded me of his and Craig’s childhood times when I had the ability to pull captivating stories from thin air. Without their support, I’m sure this book would not have been written.
Chapter 1
They arrived at an unassuming two-storey building in Hackney, East London, where the old powerhouse nightspot used to stand. The entry was barred by four, very big doormen, who were all very smartly dressed in suits with ties. They amounted to a seriously big unit between them, no one, uninvited, stood a chance of getting past them. They seemed to know the smaller of the two and let them enter.
Once inside, the sight that awaited them sent a small shiver down the spine of the bigger man. He’d never experienced anything like it before, the noise was deafening. He could just about see a boxing ring through the crowd and it was the ring he was soon to be climbing into and it was starting to hit home now, just how real this had become for him.
A very anxious Doug Clement was soon to fight a maniac of a man, Tam Cranston, he’d never laid eyes on him before, but his reputation was fierce. This was no ordinary boxing match, it was an on the cobbles, illegal underground and unlicensed fight and it had been arranged by moneylender and unscrupulous businessman Big Jim Cassidy. Cranston was a crowd pleaser, and he was expected to make short work of his opponent, but Doug had other ideas.
How in the name of Christ did I end up here? he asked himself. The answer to that question was standing right next to him, his new best friend, Johnny Wilson, a work colleague from his recently acquired job as a building site security guard. Johnny was in debt to Cassidy for a small fortune and Doug had foolishly allowed his new pal to rope him into this fight. All because he’d somehow managed to knock out Cassidy’s two main intimidators who were beating up Johnny for not paying an instalment on a loan. Far from being unhappy when he discovered his two goons had been hospitalised by Doug, Cassidy propositioned him to take the place of a fighter that’d been injured and couldn’t face Cranston. He’d agreed to take him on primarily to help Johnny pay off some of his debt, and to earn himself some cash into the bargain.
The place was packed, and the crowd was thirsty for blood, it was almost feral. There was a fight already in progress, it looked brutal as there also appeared to be bloodstains on the ring floor. The place stank of stale sweat and urine. Doug also sensed, by their reactions, that the hostile crowd had already picked the winner of the fight that they were watching, and it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out that most of them had their money on the smaller of the two fighters. He was a dumpy guy, and he was getting all their cheers every time he landed a blow and he appeared to be winning. Doug’s fight was the next one.

Three months earlier
It was on the 28 th of June 2012, in Walthamstow, East London England, around the corner from the old closed down bus garage. Doug Clement, was as happy as he’d ever been in his life, 31 years old, married for just over five years to Julie, their first baby on the way due in six weeks’ time. He had a great job he loved as an electrician. He and Julie had just moved into a fantastic new house, and all his dreams had come true, or so he thought…
***
Doug was driving home from the gym where he had just finished his Thursday night work out; he did this two night a week, Monday and Thursday. Doug was a keen and very competent amateur boxer; he was a super heavyweight at just over 6'2" and seventeen stones. He’d had 15 fights and won them all, twelve by knockouts, and the other three going the distance, him winning easily on points. Doug knew he was too old to turn pro, but he enjoyed the fitness aspect of it and the respect he had around his gym.
He was listening to the car radio, Skyfall by a young British singer was playing, he couldn’t remember her name. Julie would know the singer’s name straightaway, she was more up to date than he was with current music. He liked seventies and eighties stuff, the song was the theme song to the new James Bond film of the same name starring Daniel Craig, his new favourite Bond. He liked all the actors that played Bond, but his particular favourites were both Sean Connery, and Roger Moore, but he thought Daniel Craig brought a rougher and more ready aspect to James Bond 007. He liked the way he looked after being involved in the usual scrapes and this made Doug think he was probably more believable.
Doug went to Raynes Park School in Merton, London and the only classes he liked were PE, art and woodwork. He was no academic by any stretch of the imagination, but he somehow managed to leave school with three O levels in, English, maths and Woodwork all by the skin of his teeth. His dad, Robert, had tried to convince him to stay on for another year or go to college but Doug was having none of it. He got a lucky break and started working straight from high School. He got a rare apprenticeship as an Electrician. His dad’s best mate, John, had told Robert his dad’s firm was looking to hire a young boy to train as an electrician. John’s dad owned a small Electrical Contracting Company, Robert asked Doug if he would be interested in becoming an electrician.
“Yes, I would be interested,” he had said with much enthusiasm.
“OK, let me speak to John and see if he can arrange an interview with his dad.”
John had his own business as an accountant and looked after the books for a good few businesses, including his dads’ company. After speaking with Robert, John called his dad and arranged for Doug to go in the next morning at nine o’clock. Doug had always liked tinkering about with things, trying to fix his mums broken hair dryers, curlers and the like. He went along for the interview with Richard Smith the owner of Smith Contractors. Richard was around sixtyish, Doug thought, they were based in Wimbledon, not too far from his house.
Richard liked what he saw in young Doug and offered him the job, he would be working with his dad’s pal’s brother, Ricky, Richard’s oldest son. He was the electrician, there were four other employees, Pete and Chas, they were joiners, Gaz and Jamie, were the painters and decorators. Doug seemed to get on well with them all, they mostly worked on the same job, at the same time, usually a renovation of a house or small office. Doug liked the variety of his work. Sometimes, just he and Ricky worked together, rewiring folks’ houses, or extensions, but mostly, it was full renovations.
As time passed, Doug became more proficient, he attended college one day a week and five years later, Doug was fully a qualified electrician. Two years after that, Ricky gave up his tools to take the helm of the family business after his dad, Richard, had sadly passed away from cancer.
There was talk of Doug getting a young apprentice of his own to train up,