Chapter 5: Wednesday 28 December

Pete rose early the next morning. As far as he was concerned, this was a working day and he had turned over a new leaf. It was going to be a busy day. He was expecting a delivery of the wall boards that they had ordered from the builders’ merchants. He had checked that the empty dining room where he wanted to store the boards was easily accessible through the French doors. He needed to see his lawyer, Craig Connor, regarding possible repercussions of his treatment of the press photographer; although his office opened at nine, he knew he was usually in by eight-fifteen or so. Then he had to go with Annie round to her mother’s flat to collect her clothes and anything she needed for school when the term started next week. He started the coffee going and put some toast on to grill. The smell of coffee must’ve roused Rebecca, as she came down about the time it was ready to pour. She grabbed one of Pete’s toasts from his plate and started munching it dry while Pete fetched an extra mug and poured her a coffee.

“Morning, Pete, thanks for the coffee,” she said, “You are a lifesaver.”

“No, Rebecca, you are the lifesaver,” he said, looking serious, “In just these last couple of days you’ve turned my life around, got me somewhere to stay, a job with decent prospects, my daughter back in my life and living with me at least temporarily and ... even talking to April again.”

“Reading between the lines of your reminiscing at dinner last night, I assumed that you and April were an item once?”

“Yes, April was my first, make that only, serious girlfriend. I had known her since she was 13 and I was 15, we were just close friends to begin with. Then we got closer as we grew up, until I got to worship the ground she walked on,” Pete admitted, “Even once she got involved in the acting business and her career really took off, she was determined to keep her feet on the ground. We both were. I was looking forward to a career as a professional footballer, I was on the watch list of several top clubs as a potential ... Then it all went pear-shaped and I lost everything, April, career, reputation, the lot.”

“Was this about some allegation about an under-aged girl?” Rebecca asked as Pete’s head looked up sharply, “One of the nurses mentioned something and the senior doctor, on shift with me when you were brought in, also mentioned some scandal. Was that anything to do with April?”

“You don’t know me that well, Rebecca, so if you want to kick me out once you’ve heard the story, that would be fine, but please don’t kick Annie out too.”

“Pete, I know you. I know you as you are now. I’ve seen how you are with Annie, the respect you have for Tracie, the respect that April’s mother has for you, and she has known you for years, living around here as she has. Even your ex-girlfriend April is still comfortable around you.” Rebecca, breathed out. “I never told you that I used to live around here, did I?”

“No. Were you around here back in 1993?” Pete asked.

“Yes, I was six then but left the town around then. What age were you when it happened?”

“I was eighteen and living in Exeter most of the time, playing for the local football club in the city. I had been on their academy books since I was about eleven and I started my apprenticeship with them at sixteen as soon as I left school. By the time I was eighteen I was a first team regular, having made my debut halfway through the previous year. We were struggling as a team and almost got relegated from the league, but big clubs were sniffing around and I was being tipped to be sold on for a significant sum. My transfer fee was supposed to save the club from financial ruin. My Dad was so proud of me. Then the proverbial hit the fan.”

Just then Annie put in an appearance, wiping the sleep from her eyes, still in her PJs. That stopped their conversation immediately.

“Morning,” she yawned, “I could smell toast.”

“I’ll put some more on, Princess,” Pete smiled, giving his daughter a cuddle, “Want some orange juice to drink?”

“Mmmm, thanks, Dad. Hi, Rebecca.”

“Hi, sweetheart, did you sleep well?”

“Yeah. Like a log. I wonder how Mum slept in a strange but luxury apartment?” Annie grinned mischievously.

“We’ll call her later,” Pete laughed, “and find out.”

“Well, I must go and get showered and ready for work,” Rebecca said, getting up from the kitchen table, “I’ve got surgery this morning and, with the holidays, patients store up ailments, so I’ll probably work through lunch, get home 5-ish.”

“I’ll cook us dinner, I checked your fridge earlier, so how about chicken breasts in a wine and mushroom sauce?”

“Wow, you can cook too?”

“I was brought up in a restaurant, I had to do wash up, veg prep and lay tables every day until I started my football apprenticeship.”

“Yes, Dad can cook virtually anything and make it really tasty.”

“I’ll try not to be late, then,” Rebecca grinned, “Oh, Pete, the contractors digging up the car park are due to restart this morning and need the second of three cash payments, which is in an envelope in the cutlery drawer.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, Doc,” Pete said, “Have you got the quote handy for that job?”

“Yes, it’s in this folder,” she pulled a loose leaf folder from another kitchen drawer, “All the quotes for the work on the house are in here. I even kept the ones I didn’t accept just in case I was let down by the first choice, they’ve got a diagonal line across them. I’m quite well organised.”

“That’s great. I’ll have a look through that quote, as I have a couple of issues with what they’ve done so far.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Well, it’s clear they are pulling up the old tarmac from the old restaurant car park, so they have easy access to the whole of the empty car park using the wide drive, yet they dumped the skip to collect the broken up surface right in the middle of that drive, which is inconvenient for you, so you can’t access your garage. Also, the skip’s full, so it could’ve been emptied before they quit for the Christmas break, so they could start filling it as soon as they started today; as it is they will be hanging around waiting, and why only one skip, when the company they are using have 2-skip trucks and they need at least 10 skips for the job.”

“Well, I’ll let you have free rein to get the best out of them, Pete. They were reluctant to start last week, because of the Christmas break, but I wanted them to have it all broken up, cleared, rotovated and ready for the new turf to go down in late February.”

Pete sat down and read though the contracts for all the work that Rebecca was considering doing to the old house, starting with the contract to break up the tarmac, break up the subsoil, lay down a weed membrane, 200mm of topsoil and lay turf on top.

As soon as Annie had finished her breakfast, Pete chased her up the stairs to get dressed, so they could walk around to her mother’s flat. While he was washing up the breakfast dishes, he noticed that the first of the workmen had arrived and was standing on the old tarmac and talking into his mobile phone. Pete knew the man’s brother, Jason Denhope, he was two years older and had signed the contract Pete had just read.

Pete dried his hands and stepped outside.

“Hey Mickey,” Pete called, “you on your own today or giving Jason his wake up call?”

“Oh, hi Pete, nah, Jace should be here any minute.”

“So who’re you talking to?”

“My girlfriend Beth, doesn’t go back to work ‘til after the New Year.”

“Mind if I have a word with Beth?”

“Er, yeah, sure, help yourself. It’s Pete from the club, Beth,” Mickey Denhope handed over the phone.

“Merry Christmas Beth ... yeah, great time ... look, it’s eight fifteen, so Mickey’s gotta work. He’ll ring you after 12 when he’s due a break.” With that Pete hung up and powered the phone down.

“Hey!” Mickey protested, “I was in the middle of—”

“You were in the middle of your working day and you haven’t started working yet. You’re contracted for three men to work here eight through to three thirty with a half hour break for lunch, to make the most of the winter light. It’s now ... twenty past, there’s only you here on your own, so altogether that’s an hour’s work lost that you’re going to have to make up.”

“But—”

“But nothing, Dr Simon’s appointed me her project manager and I mean to see the job’s done right. You might as well make a start until the others get here.”

“Merv’s stayin’ with his missus’ family in Leominster this week, so’s just Jace’n’me for today an’ tomorrow.” Mickey said as he put his gloves on and pulled a pick-axe off his wheelbarrow.

“Send Jason to the kitchen door when he turns up, and you don’t dig the tarmac up here next to the driveway, you start at the furthest point and work towards the driveway entrance, otherwise you’ll be wheeling over broken ground. Look, it’s harder work, will take longer and more chance of injury, like turning an ankle or tripping on a tree root.”

“Yeah, you gotta point there, Pete. I’ll make a start in the corner.”

“Well, you’ve got a full skip already, when are they collecting this one and dropping off a couple of empties?”

“Dunno, Pete, Jace looks after the business side, I just do the labour.”

“OK, son, make a start and get your brother to see me sharpish as soon as he gets here.”

“Fair do’s, Pete,” Mickey said, pointing at his head, “heard you had some trouble Christmas Eve, you alright?”

“Yeah, the Doc sorted me out, gave me a job, so no more late nights standing in doorways for me.”

Mickey picked up the handles of his wheelbarrow to start off to the corner of the car park.

“Mickey, this is a hard hat area, there are some dodgy old trees in that far corner, and that scaffold-board run up to the lip of the skip looks dodgy from here.”

“Bugger, Jace’s got the hard hats in his pick-up.”

“You better make a start in the other corner over there, then, it’s more open. I’m taking Annie home to get some clothes, so I’ll be gone for twenty minutes or so. Just send Jason over as soon as I get back. You can get your phone back at twelve.”

“Thanks, Pete. Sorry to mess you about mate.”

Pete and Annie made short work of collecting a few clothes and some colouring books, crayons and reading books to bring back to Porter House.

Jason Denhope was waiting at the kitchen door holding his hard hat in his nervous hands. Jason wasn’t as big as his younger brother and was supposed to be the brains behind the small landscaping business.

“Go upstairs and unpack, Pet,” Pete told Annie and he let her through the kitchen door. After she scampered away with the light holdall, Pete turned to Jason and waved him though into the kitchen. Pete picked up the contract on top of a pile of contracts.

“Did Mickey tell you that Dr Simon’s appointed me to manage her projects?”

“Yeah,” the man nodded with a sour look on his face.

“Well, I’m not impressed. For a start you parked the skip in the driveway in front of the garage, so the Doc had to park outside in all weathers and it’s mid-winter—”

“So?”

“So, she’s a doctor, so she might be called out in the middle of the night and have to scrape the ice off before she can answer what might be a life and death call. And you had all the bloody car park to put the first pair of skips down.”

“Yeah s’pose,” he muttered.

“And you’ve estimated 20 skips, whereas any idiot can see you only need 10, I would allow 11 or 12 for a bit of leeway, especially as you are using Calloway Skips, who are more expensive but sticklers for not overloading. What is it with Gubby’s that you usually use, have you upset them?”

“Owe them too much, they won’t let me use them again until I settle the account.”

“So, I’m going to knock eight skips off your quote.”

“Hey, Pete, she accepted the quote as it was.”

“So, Jason, tell me. You use her surgery, so does your missus, and your two kids and your Mum and Dad and most of your local customers, so how’s it going to look on social media when everyone knows you’ve ripped off our new Doctor, who’s only been here a few months, knowing how hard it is to attract decent doctors to this neck of the woods?”

“Yeah, OK, I’ll knock off the eight skips.”

“And what’s with having only one skip, and not getting it collected before Christmas, Calloway’s mostly have two-skip trucks and 12 skips over three days is a steady four skips a day and all done in the three days you’re supposed to clear the tarmac surface.”

“Well, we thought it might take a few extra days—”