Porterhouse Pete

"I don't know, Rebecca," Pete sounded doubtful, "this sounds too much like ... family stuff."

"I suppose it is very much a family thing, well, friends-and-family stuff really. My mother Sheila changed her name back to her maiden name of Durham, especially after being abandoned by my criminal father who disappeared off to Yangon in Myanmar, which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the UK, while my sister is still known as Ann Maria Jackson, who was once your neighbour and best friend."

"Ann? Oh my god!" was all Pete Porter could say.

Chapter Eight

Saturday 12 January

Of course Rebecca's mum Sheila Durham recognised Pete immediately she saw him and put her arms around him, even if she couldn't quite get her arms all the way around the giant.

"Even though I was expecting you, Pete, sweetheart, I'd still know you anywhere. As soon as Ann was moved to Great Ormand Street, we moved here from Sandmouth Bay to be close to her. It never occurred to me that such a mess leading to what happened to you was left behind us. I knew Gerald went back to Devon to give evidence at Bob Porter's trial, but I was too tied up in the vigil waiting for Ann to wake up from her coma that I never really gave a thought to what the trial was about. And Becky here was only six years old then and needed looking after."

"And then your husband moved abroad, Mrs Jay? Sorry, that's what I always called you. I feel disrespectful calling you by your first name."

"Why not call me Mrs D, Pete?" Sheila suggested with a smile, then continued after Pete smiled his slow smile and nodded, "Yes, Gerald must've known he was living on borrowed time, or else stuck it out hoping that Ann would never wake up. So, as soon as Ann did wake up, some six months after the coma drugs were stopped, she ... well, I think some part of her didn't want to wake up and some part of her mind never really did." She paused for a moment, "Of course, as soon as she started talking it was, 'Daddy did this to me' and 'Daddy did that to me' and then 'when I told Daddy I was going to set Pete on him, Daddy lost it and punched and kicked me until I couldn't feel anything anymore'."

"I bet that was a shock all around," Peter said, "I presume no one had any idea it was him that attacked her?"

"No, of course not. I assumed when Gerald spoke about Bob Porter's trial, that it was him. He was always a truculent fellow who liked his drink, it was your mother at front of house that ensured the success of the restaurant. Gerald was there with us and even before Ann's vocal chords had been moistened with iced water, she was pointing accusingly at him and he ran out of the room. He must've had a bag packed ready as he had his passport with him, he cleared out as much ready cash from the nearest bank as he could and caught the first plane out, to Amsterdam. The police found him, eventually, several years later, working in a Yangon hospital. He refuses to come home and Myanmar refuses to extradite him."

"Ann was very seriously damaged and had to have an emergency hysterectomy," Rebecca explained. "Imagine that at the age of 12! She had to have a lot of treatment over the years and in her mind I suppose she will always be a little girl instead of a mature woman nearly 40.'

"Your father ... he was —"

"We know, a beast, a monster," Rebecca interjected, "we have all but expunged him from our lives."

During the weekend Pete did a couple of handyman jobs around Sheila's house and she accepted his recommendation of putting thermostatic valves on all the radiators to bring them up to modern energy efficient expectations, to help in selling the house when she came to put it on the market and would get a plumber in to do that.

On Sunday Rebecca and Sheila took him to Southend to a mental institution, where Ann Jackson, the girl who 26 years earlier was traumatised by the original attack by her own father, was confronted by the first sight of Pete since then.

"Pete?" Ann asked hesitatingly as she snapped out of her listless, near-catatonic state almost as soon as she saw Pete and told her mother that it was Pete who she confided in about being continually interfered with by her own father the doctor. Ann couldn't live with the guilt of her treatment by her father without sharing it with someone and who better than her best friend?

As they reacquainted themselves, Pete talked to her and held her hand, before she put her arms around the neck of her childhood friend and cried into his broad chest.

"Ann only told me that she had been sexually assaulted by a relative and that it still affected her with bouts of chronic depression that she thought it might lead to suicide," Pete explained to Sheila and Rebecca. "Even though she always appeared outwardly cheerful, there was always those dark thought there in the background like a bad dream and she told me that she needed to tell someone about it, explaining that she couldn't tell her parents about her depression and death wishes. She never admitted to me who the relative was, but I understood this was the reason why the family moved to Sandmouth Bay."

"No," Sheila interjected, "we moved to Sandmouth Bay because I had a great aunt who live in Westward House which she left me in her Will and the town needed another doctors' practice. We had no idea that Gerald was grooming his own daughter."

"Well, I assumed the assaults were historical only," Pete added, "not that they were continuing and actually instigated by her father."

"I had sworn Pete to secrecy to protect me and the rest of my family," Ann said to Rebecca and her Mum once the tears stopped, "and I especially feared for my young sister Becky. Daddy started paying his attentions to me when I was about 8 and Becky was approaching that age and I knew she was going to be his next target."

"And as I had promised not to say anything about her being assaulted, nor knowing who it was, I couldn't say anything, even after I was arrested." Pete said, tears in his eye, as they all group hugged.

"And look what it personally cost you, Pete," Sheila said.

"But look what at I got back, my best friend again and her sister turns out to be a great friend too and she has got me back on my feet."

***

April Dunlough called her mother Alice regularly through the first quarter of the year, at least once a week.

"My divorce is going through the French system as that is both where we were married and where the adultery took place but we divorcing by mutual consent rather than for any specific cause, like adultery, really to try and make the process go through as smooth as possible. However, Jacques has now decided to play hardball, so rather than us both using the same French lawyer I have now appointed my own."

"Why have things changed, what is that French bugger playing at?"

"When we married four years ago, we agreed to keep our complicated finances separate, that I would pay the mortgage, insurances, taxes and utilities on my London flat, he would, meet all the costs of his Nice apartment, but that we would equally share all the expenses of his Paris Apartment by each contributing to a joint bank account. We agreed to leave the assets as they were before we married, so I keep my London flat, Jacques keeps the two French apartments, no compensations, no payments, just a quick simple financial break."

"So that was too simple for Jacques, dear?"

"Yes, I cancelled my contributions to our expenses at Christmas but it seems I jumped the gun. As we are only separated not yet divorced, we are both liable for sharing the expenses until the divorce is finalised. Our French lawyer pointed this out a month ago as bills where not being paid, including the mortgage, in arrears for a month. So, once I was informed of my obligations I set up my standing orders again and asked for a statement of accounts just so I could confirm that I was paying a fair rate."

"So before that you were taking it on trust that your cheating husband was paying his fair way?"

"Yes, Mum. I was too trusting by half. Four years ago he told me how much the expenses were and also that every few years there is usually a large extraneous cost for building maintenance. Like roof repairs every ten years or so, and repainting the public areas every five. So, we pay in an agreed amount to cover both the basics and the extras, which I insisted gets paid into a joint deposit account to earn some interest. The statements reveal that for the last couple of years I have been the only one paying into the account. Now Jacques appears to have run out of money, has not kept up the payments and he could lose the apartment and I could end up having to pay him alimony for the next few years because he cannot afford to live in Paris and Nice is too far away for his involvement in the French movie business."

"Why don't you speak to my solicitor, give him the facts and see what he suggests?"

"Your lawyer Mum? When do you need a lawyer?"

"I don't really dear, but I think you do. Remember Pete Porter's friend Graig Connors from when you were younger?"

"Sure, Craigy from school, he was always around us as Pete's best friend, he's a lawyer now?"

"Yes, and he's still Pete's best friend, that's why we see Craig so much, because we see Pete all the time."

"Er, how's Pete doing? Still living with his doctor friend?"

"Of course he is, dear, but they are just friends. I don't think there's any spark there between them other than simple friendship. We see them all the time, because Pete does most of the cooking and we never turn down an invitation for a meal. Julian and I invite them over to us all the time too. Besides, I think Craig gets invited to Porter House so often because he and Rebecca seem to get on so well together, so we include Craig, Tracie and Annie all the time when we entertain at home."

"Really? So the doctor's not after Pete?"

"No, sweetheart, Rebecca's genuinely a lovely person who had a heart big enough to give a homeless injured person a bed for the Christmas holidays and then found out that they could help each other out simply as friends. No, April, you only have to look at Rebecca and Craig and know that they are attracted to each other. Well, a woman knows, I don't suppose Craig or Pete have cottoned on yet, but they will."

"Now I come to think of it, Craigy was always a smooth talker as a teenager and he and Pete were as tight as best friends could get. Set something up for me with your lawyer, Mum, I could come down Thursday morning to talk to Craig and show him the paperwork I have, but I do need to get away first thing Friday for read-through rehearsals at the studio."

The meeting with Craig didn't take that long once he had all the facts and figures at his fingertips.

"Why don't you take over ownership of Jacques' apartment, April? Looking at the valuation he has had for his assets, you should be able to buy the apartment with the usual discount for keeping Jacques as the sitting tenant. Then you agree that he can lease the apartment from you for a fixed short term, say two years, with his right of renewal for a further two years and maintain continued renewal rights every two years, with independent lease price reviews, which would bring the price down. From the income you already enjoy, you could afford to pay enough for the apartment for Jacques to settle his mortgage and have enough over to meet the lease payments for several years. If you can't afford to buy the apartment outright, you could still get a much smaller mortgage than Jacques is paying, so that his rental will pay for the repayment of the mortgage and all of the ongoing costs of ownership, taxes and maintenance, and you will still have an investment in a very smart part of Paris that can only go up in value in years to come."

Chapter Nine

Spring

After that weekend visiting with Ann in her sanatorium, Ann started to come out of her depression, take a lot more interest in her surroundings and more involved in conversing with the nurses and visitors, looking forward to visits. Her mother and sister noticed an even more marked improvement when they told her the plan was for her to leave where she had been for almost three-quarters of her life and be able to see Pete, his daughter Annie that she had heard so much about and her Mum and sister all the time, she became quite excited. Ann so looked forward to moving back to Sandmouth Bay to live together as a family again for the first time in so long.

"With my father completely out of the picture, surrounded by people I know like Pete and the Dunloughs, I would be very happy as the place would hold no more terrors for me. I'm so looking forward to meeting little Annie, Pete's told me so much about her."

To a degree Ann was still quite institutionalised and remained on a strict and intense treatment of various drugs and antidepressants, but Rebecca was confident that in once familiar surroundings, with family and friends around her she would eventually build up more confidence in meeting more people and that some of the medications could be reduced.

In the light of Sheila Durham's affidavit that the police and Crown Prosecution Service had for so long known about her ex-husband's arrest warrant for the long-term sexual and one-time physical assault on Ann, Pete's solicitor, Craig Connors led the compensation claim on his best friend's behalf. Pete claimed criminal compensation for Pete's criminal injuries, the long period that he had spent on remand in a hospital prison on what was even at the time considered very circumstantial evidence, along with the long-term suffering for his disability, his claim through the courts very ably aided by the eminent QC Hector Okinowu.

The court case was a walk-over and Pete was awarded what he believed was a fantastic award, that everyone else felt was justifiable and long overdue. Pete insisted that he pay his solicitor and QC the going rate, both having worked his case pro bono, but Craig and Hector insisted that they had taken his case on as a favour to a friend and refused payment. So, having consulted with Rebecca, Hector and Jason was invited to Porter House for the weekend and Pete cooked them breakfast, lunch and dinner over the two days for them, stressing that they were welcome to come back for regular repeats.

On the Saturday night Rebecca and Pete hosted a lavish dinner which included guests Jason, Hector, Craig, Tracie, Annie, Alice Dunlough and Julian Golding, all the cooking and serving by Pete and Tracie.

During the conversation, Tracie mentioned her ambition to own a restaurant, she even had the perfect unoccupied building on Sandown Bay's seafront picked out and a financial plan to do it. They all poured over her plans on the Sunday morning and by the time they sat down to enjoy lunch in the newly laid Porter House garden, she had Pete prepared to invest a quarter of the finance that she needed, and Rebecca, Craig, Alice, Julian, Jason and Hector were willing to invest enough to raise over half of the balance that she needed, all confident that with that degree of backing she could get the bank to supply the rest.

So, by the time the compensation money came through, Pete in turn helped Tracie as her most active business partner to completely overhaul the large empty shop and open a steak restaurant called "Pete's Porterhouse Steaks".

Tracie insisted the name was good for business, with the townspeople in support of Pete's new standing in the town after his recent proven innocence was a major talking point in the town and surrounding area.

"Tracie had spoken about the old amusement arcade that had been shut down for more than twenty years, was a perfect place for a new restaurant specialising in surf and turf," Pete explained to the next dinner party that Rebecca hosted.

After her weekly call to her mother and catching up with all the local news, April Dunlough decided she wanted to invest in the restaurant business, which further reduced the amount Tracie needed to borrow.

Although a silent partner in the soon popular restaurant, because Pete still wanted to build his thriving carpentry and building business, he was the stand-in chef a couple of quiet nights a week when the permanent chef at the restaurant had his nights off. Those quiet nights were soon the busiest nights, especially since after Pete's innocence and the suffering he had to endure for so long was revealed.

On the launching night, a quarter of the diners were there by invitation enjoying a pre-meal aperitif and appetisers half an hour before the doors opened to the general public. They were all friends and relatives of Tracie and Pete. Most guests applauded Pete on the building conversion work and Tracie for the beautiful; presentation of the interior as a welcoming place to dine either in celebration by a group, by families or something more intimate by couples.

Pete stood to make a toast, his glass filled with straight orange juice.

"Friends, I want to thank you all for the support you've given to Tracie's dream of running her own restaurant. Tracie and the chef have put together a very interesting menu which covers a broad range of tastes, including vegetarian, even if this is by definition a steak house. A toast to Tracie for bringing her dream into fruition and the wish for every success in this venture."

Everyone applauded and Pete remained standing. "On a personal note, I would like to extend a personal thanks of gratitude to so many of you for being my friends and helping me through my trials and tribulations, in particular Doctor Rebecca Simons, who rescued me from my lowest ebb, my friend Craig Connors, who has also supported me for over 30 years and helped Hector Okinowu QC to bring the compensation which has enabled Tracie and I to open this restaurant, my dear friends Sheila Durham and her daughter Ann Roberson who have also suffered greatly from the same source which blighted my life for so long. It is wonderful having these dear friends close to my heart again. Finally my thanks go to my beautiful daughter Annie, who is undoubtedly the best ambassador I could possibly wish for. Please raise your glasses for another toast, 'Friends!'"

Chapter Ten

Summer

Pete enjoyed those stand-in nights, he always said those nights reminded him of his teenage years in his dad's restaurant as well as the evening meals he prepared for long term residents at his mum's lodging house in his twenties.

As Alice Dunlough predicted, Craig and Rebecca hit it off together romantically and Pete considered moving out of Porter House, especially after the rapidly recovering Ann and her mother Sheila moved in, but Rebecca insisted on him staying at least while they had the room before considering starting a family of their own. Besides, Rebecca (often with Craig visiting) baby-sat Annie on the two nights a week that both Pete and Tracie were working together at the restaurant.

April Dunlough heard the news from her mother Alice that Pete had opened the steak restaurant with Tracie as a business partner and later that summer she booked a table for one for 10pm when the very last orders are taken for the kitchen.

"Hello, April," Tracie said, welcoming the actress as 10pm approached, "I wasn't expecting 'table for one or possibly two for a Miss Smith' to be you, but you are very welcome here, I'll tell Pete —"

"No, don't tell Pete, not yet. Tell me, Tracie, are your porterhouse steaks big enough for two?"

"Yes, they are traditionally larger than T-bone steaks, at least 6mm thicker and we find that they are often shared by two diners together."

"And do you have those baby turnips that Pete used to love to cook as a kid?"

"At this time of the year, baby turnips cooked in garlic butter are virtually standard fare in this steakhouse," Tracie laughed.