Porterhouse Pete

"Changed?"

"Yeah, from the bubbly, confident junior, who was always up to and into everything, she turned into a strange, quiet girl, quiet we later found out because she was being abused at home."

"Sexually abused, by the family you think?"

"Yeah, I mean, I don't really know, but certainly outside of school anyway. I mean, both her parents were the local doctors, so you'd think they would've noticed the signs, if we kids could see something was wrong with her. She lived next door to this house actually, 'Westward House', when it used to be the 'Westward Surgery', where both her parents worked. I think Ann's mother came from around here originally, so they moved here from London when Ann was about 7 or 8, along with a baby sister, who I never really knew." Tracie smiled. "That's how we girlfriends all knew Pete Porter, who lived next door to her. You should've seen Pete then, Rebecca, I mean, other than the scar on his head where his father tried to crush his skull, and his gammy leg, he was scrummy. I mean he was every girl's dream when he was 17 and 18. He lived here in what was then a restaurant."

"Pete told me that he lived here once."

"I think he lived here from birth until 18, it had been a restaurant for a long time. He and Ann Jackson were great friends, despite the five-year difference in ages, and after she was 11 she only really sparked and was her old self again when Pete was around, she introduced him to us as her best friend and he called her his 'biddy buddy', but affectionately like, with that great slow smile of his that he still has."

"I guess he'd known her from when she moved in here, age 8 was it?"

"Yeah, about that's when she joined the local school. It was a small primary school then, all closed up now and converted into flats, so my Annie has to catch the bus to town even when she was rising 5."

"Is your Annie named after your friend Ann?"

"Yeah, named after Ann and my mother for Anna's middle name. I missed Ann when her family left town shortly after she was attacked. Huh, she always used to hate the name 'Annie', she insisted she was 'Ann, just Ann, Ann without the E', she used to say. But when I held Pete's newborn baby in my arms, knowing how we both loved Ann as a dear friend, I wanted to call her Ann too, but it didn't feel quite right, so although I had her birth registered as Ann, I've always called her Annie. I don't think Pete even noticed, at least he didn't say anything."

"So how did you and Pete...?"

"Oh. Well. We girls all had a crush on Pete from the age of 11. Well, we all said we did, except Ann. She always insisted that Pete was her best friend, that if they ever got together as boyfriend/girlfriend it would put a strain on their friendship, which she valued above all else. Besides, Pete always had a crush on April Dunlough from the Lighthouse Cottage. I still can't get over how nice April was, letting me shop for clothes on her account, I'd never spoken to her before I knew Ann and then saw her rarely. Anyway, from about the age of Pete being 15 and April 13, they were inseparable as a couple, the two most beautiful guys in the town being together was just natural. So Ann and I, with me only there as a hanger-on, knew April as she sang, danced and acted in all the plays at school, then appeared in the West End in a couple of shows and also appeared twice weekly on television. She was popular with the public from the outset and was becoming a rising star at the time."

"How did Ann take it when April and Pete became an item?"

"She loved it, she thought they were more and more suited to each other the more famous they both got to be locally. You see, Pete was a tremendous footballer, and signed on Exeter's youth forms and was training with them as a full-time apprentice as soon as he left school. He had played a few games in the first team and several clubs were rumoured to want him, including both the Manchester clubs and Liverpool, which was his father Bob Porter's home town. Liverpool FC was the side supported by both father and son I think. Transfer fees of several million were mentioned, with Pete's share of the fee being in six figures. Pete's girlfriend April was a fresh-faced starlet, a local girl already appearing on one of the popular soaps and tipped for stardom as the girl next door pin-up, so the local paper was therefore full of their relationship week in and week out. I suppose everyone in town knew them individually for their specialist activities and together as a couple of lovebirds. Ann kept a scrap book, not just of Pete, but of April too."

"So what was this attack all about?" Rebecca asked.

"One night, Pete was home after a big game, while April was away filming. During the week, what with team training every day, Pete was living in digs in Exeter, but after a game they always had the next day off training so they could relax. So he usually drove home Saturday evening and again very late Tuesday or Wednesday nights, depending on when they played, and Ann would wait up to speak to him, even if it was a school night. Then she'd tell us what he did on Monday and Wednesday or Thursday lunchtimes at school, because he was the star player, he was always in the thick of the action. One late Tuesday or Wednesday night, I can't remember which, Pete took Ann into the hospital accident and emergency department, but not the one here in Sandmouth Bay hospital, but he drove her up to the bigger hospital in Torquay."

"What had happened to her?"

"She has been smacked around and beaten up and it was also rumoured at that stage that she'd been raped. She was still in Year 7 so she was only 11 or 12 years old at the most. We were told that her internal injuries were so bad she had been put in a coma so she could be immobilised while healing in order to survive. She was in intensive care with only a 50/50 chance, so we heard. Naturally, with such a high profile local celebrity involved, the rumour mill was in overdrive."

"And because Pete was an adult and big and perfectly fit, they thought he'd be the one that done the dirty deed?"

"Yeah, Pete was accused largely on circumstantial evidence of having under-age sex with the girl next door, and so he was immediately arrested and kept for questioning overnight by the police in Torquay. Well, the police in Torquay didn't know him like the police did here in Sandown Bay, I mean, everyone here knew he wouldn't have hurt a fly let alone Ann. He used to get stick on the field all the time, but he was so collected and in tune with his emotions and temper that he had never been booked on the field in eleven years of playing either at amateur or professional level. But then we heard that he had refused to say anything to anyone in Torquay, except telling them that they had to ask Ann what they wanted to know, but they couldn't ask her because she was completely like, out of it."

"I wonder why Pete didn't say anything. What about forensic evidence?"

"Another mystery that was. It all disappeared at the lab. Swabs were taken apparently, but everyone lost, never even logged in at the lab. Even the back-ups disappeared. Rumours were that it was a football fan who idolised Pete and, somewhere along the chain, 'lost' the evidence to cover for him. Anyway, because of April's fame as an actress, the story made the National newspapers and the television news. The TV studio persuaded April Dunlough to drop her boyfriend like a hot potato. They were both very young, I think Pete must've been 19 then and April just 17, so engagements and marriage was still a long way off. Well, April has since gone on to be a household name in a soap opera, and is now a confirmed stay-at-home single girl after three failed marriages, if this current one appears to be in the dumpster."

"Who was it who beat up Pete?"

"His own father and some of his drunken mates from the bar here in the restaurant. His dad bailed Pete out of the remand centre in Torquay, brought him back here to the car park near Lighthouse Point and beat him up. They hit him with cricket bats, kicked him, fractured his skull, half blinded him in one eye, broke his leg and dumped him on the beach to take his chances with the incoming tide."

"Oh my god, his own dad did that?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah. His dad was disappointed that his son had ruined his father's plans, to play for his favourite team and I suppose he was looking forward to getting his son to buy his season ticket, so he could boast about his son playing for the team. I guess his dad thought he'd die of his injuries or exposure and get away with it. But Pete being Pete, crawled from the beach to a phone and 999'd for help. He was so badly hurt, it would make you cry. Then, at the hospital here in Sandmouth Bay, Ann's father took over Pete's treatment and reset his leg so badly that it mended crookedly, with damaged tendoms. He also botched his head wound so he has that ugly scar, all in revenge for the attack on his daughter. Should have been struck off but nobody stood up in Pete's corner and asked the right questions. Yeah between them, Pete's dad and his best friend's dad, the doctor, they ruined his life. He couldn't play professional football again, so no big transfer fee, no career doing what he loved doing and he lost both his girlfriend and best friend. As soon as he was out of emergency he was shipped to the hospital wing of the prison back in Torquay, because the bail cheque from his dad bounced."

"Poor Pete, he never had an even break."

"His father Mr Robert Porter was arrested and charged with GBH. He was convicted, apparently with previous form. He was a petty officer in the Royal Navy and been busted for bar room brawls long before he married Pete's mother. Then it was summer, the holiday season was soon at its height and neither Porter nor Pete was home helping in his parent's restaurant. During Mr Porter's trial it was stated that Pete age 18 had sex with his 12-year-old neighbour, the local doctor's daughter, who moved away immediately after Ann was stable in hospital but still not woken up. Doctor Jackson was ordered back as a witness to the beating, and gave evidence at the GBH trial, telling us that both his young daughters were traumatised by Pete and Ann was now locked away in a sanatorium for her own safety. Apparently Bob Porter found out from the police about the accusation of statutory rape, and had probably been drinking which fuelled his disappointment that led to the violence directed at his own son. So everybody knew Bob Porter was a drunk, and thought Pete was 'like father like son'."

"But Pete can't drink, he is seriously alcohol intolerant. I found that out from his medical records on Christmas Eve."

"I don't know if he knew that Rebecca, but it explains a lot, because people who wanted to make fun of him at the club used to spike his drink from time to time to get a reaction from him. He never drank as a teenager because it would've interfered with his training, and he stuck to soft drinks at the club. Anyway, Pete's father Bob Porter beat his son to a pulp and broke his thigh deliberately, ending his football career and leaving him with a pronounced limp and pain for life. Bob Porter was imprisoned for two years for the aggravated assault and after release he never returned to the town."

"Not even to see his wife?"

"Nope, Porter disappeared completely, no contact with either wife or son and vanished into thin air. Mind you, they had been divorced while he was in prison and the restaurant business had collapsed. About the same time that Porter was released, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there wasn't enough evidence to charge Pete with anything at all, no forensic evidence, no witnesses, presumably Ann, wherever she was, was either unfit to testify or she exonerated him, so it all fizzled out."

"And that was after he'd spent twelve months away on remand, with the charges hanging over his head?"

"Yes. While Bob never returned to the town, Pete did. Mrs Porter lost the restaurant business, the house, everything. This place was locked up for maybe five years, until a couple of new owners tried to re-open it, but it seemed the place was cursed as a restaurant. Mrs Porter ran a B&B for a few years, with Pete's help, but she now suffers from dementia, even though she's only in her sixties."

"She's currently in a nearby retirement home, Pete is taking Annie to see her before school starts. I said he could borrow the car."

"Pete knew a lot of people around the town. Everybody knew Pete and he managed to get a chance of learning a trade with some construction firm, Mac-Reedy's Builders I think it was. But this town has been dying as a resort without the pier, lost in a storm which caused an electrical fire some forty years ago and impossibly expensive to replace. So the town had become a bit of a backwater. The building company closed down about fifteen years ago and Pete ended up doing some part-time bouncer work at the night club, to supplement what his mum earned through the B&B."

"I wondered why he ended up living there?"

"When the dementia got so bad he couldn't leave his mum alone at home," Tracie said, "She used to wander about at night in just her nightie and bare feet, he had to put her in a home and to pay for that he had to sell her home."

"So he was homeless?"

"I think he was for a while. Some people used to spike his drink and see him react, even in his early days there and the owner let him sleep it off in the basement. One of those nights at the club I got drunk and I took Pete home and Annie was the result. Now, I like Pete, I like him a lot, but he doesn't love me. He was actually appalled when he woke up in my flat the next morning, but when he heard about the baby, he helped as much as he could, but he's just never had an even break until you came along. You're his lifesaver."

"I think Annie is, plus his friendship with you and Alice. You know, if he had stood trial and was formally acquitted Pete would have been so much better off."

"I know, that's the problem, for those that don't know him, they look at his size and his terrible scars and all the rumours about raping a poor girl, and they have those doubts."

Chapter Seven

Friday 4 January

The work on Rebecca's house continued apace the next week, with Pete working inside The Porter House and keeping an eye on Jason Denhope's efforts outside rotovating, laying the weed suppressant and spreading the topsoil ready for turfing after the frosts had passed.

While the schools were closed until the second Monday in January, Annie spent all day with her father, helping inside, going with him as people heard he was getting his act together and asked him to quote on maintenance jobs and visits to builders merchants, where he also found tradesmen willing to pass him work here and there. Now that he had a business account and credit card he was able to get a mobile phone contract for ease of contact. Soon he was working away from Porter House more often than the internal jobs Rebecca could find for him.

On the Friday after new year, Rebecca rang her ex-husband in London. The call was answered by Hector, her husband's gay lover, Hector Okinowu. She wished him a happy new year and asked to speak to Justin Simons, wanting to get back on friendly terms as both confess that they still have love for each other and both want to lose the bitterness which crept in during the divorce.

"I am so sorry, Becks, that I ruined my marriage, our partnership, even our medical practice. I thought my attraction to men was just a phase, a young man at college thing, and I really loved you, I still love you, but when I met Hector in that bar, well, we just clicked."

"I know, Juss, I lost it when you confessed and, well, moving back to Sandmouth Bay and having that respite away from poor Ann and Mother... You know, I feel have a new perspective on life—"

"What, do you have a new man in your—?"

"No, nothing like that, Juss, it's only that I'm building new friendships and, well, now I just want to be able to right a few wrongs. Look, I would like you to ask Hector if he could do me a favour —"

"Anything, honey, he feels just as bad about this as I do."

"Hector is a top QC, and my lodger was ... well, he was in a lot of trouble in his youth twenty odd years ago and I hoped you'd ask Hector to meet my lodger and his solicitor and see what we can do for him, compensation wise."

"And you and this lodger are not..."

"No!" Rebecca exploded, "this is not about sex, or love, or even relationships, Juss. Ohh, I get so angry about this, it's like what happened to Mum and Sis, it's justice, that's what I'm after."

"Look, Hector's listening to the conversation and nodding. Come up here at the weekend on your own, tomorrow or Sunday, we've nothing on, stay here Saturday night, it must be like eight hours each way?"

"Six, maybe six and a half on the weekend, so yes, staying overnight Saturday would be good."

"Great. We'll go over the situation with your lodger and see if Heck wants to take it on. OK, Hon?"

"Yes, OK, I'll be up about lunchtime tomorrow."

***

The owner of the Starlight Club, Ted Rowntree was advised by the Fire Safety Inspector from the local Fire Service that he needed to replace a couple of internal fire doors that had been damaged through constant wear and tear and were no longer up to the job of holding back smoke or fire. He was faced with losing the Club's fire safety certificate if not carried out within a reasonable time frame. The fire inspector recommended using Pete Porter, the best carpenter in town and he just happened to have Pete's new mobile number on him.

Ted rang the number, "hey, Pete, it's Ted from Starlight, how are you doing?"

"Hi, Ted, I've been meaning to ring you, I need to collect my clothes and stuff from your basement."

"Yeah, Martine actually packed them up in plastic bags last week and asked me what to do with them. I've got them in the corner of my office. Look, I've heard you're good on doors, and I'd like you to —"

"I don't do bouncing any more, Ted."

"I know," Ted laughed, "I was just winding you up, but I do have some internal carpentry work for you. Ben Coles, the fire inspector, says I need two new fire doors between the main function room and the back corridor and between the kitchen and the side corridor. I'd like you to price them up for me and fix 'em pronto."

"Yeah, I can check 'em out this afternoon and order the doors for tomorrow or the next day."

"Great, got you the wages I owe you and the holiday pay you accrued, too. I'll see you later. Oh, and hey, I'm glad you're getting yourself together. Don't be a stranger, we serve coffee here as well as hard liquor drinks."

"Thanks, Ted, see you later today. Hey, they're wrong you know."

"Who's wrong?"

"Anyone who said you never had a heart."

"Yeah, well, don't spread no rumours like that, Pete, it's bad for my reputation."

***

In the middle of the following week Rebecca asked Pete if he minded driving her car with her up to London and staying with her Mum from Saturday morning through to Sunday morning and drive back Sunday evening.

"Is she selling up and moving down here?" Pete asked, "I know you mentioned it before when I asked why you bought such a big place."

"Yes, I forgot that I had told you that was my intention when I bought this place. Actually, she's not fully committed to it yet but I want to give her the push she needs to decide. She's got two spare bedrooms, and both have sticky doors and she has a couple of other jobs she'd like you to look at and price up for her. She cooks almost as well as you do, Pete, and I hoped that you could help us out, for a free trip and a couple of free meals. Then on Sunday morning, we're visiting my sister, she's been in a mental institution for the last 26 years and I'd like you to meet her."