Chapter 4

Once the girls realised that I wasn’t at death’s door and, of course, that they’d pumped me for all I knew, they left promising to call around later that day. I rang my work and explained what was happening. Obviously, as my attack was public knowledge at work, it came as little surprise that I’d be taking a few days off, though our beloved CEO thought that I should at least be working from home and it was only me pointing out concussion and pain killing drugs that he accepted that it wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had. My next port of call was my bed. My head was spinning; take your pick as to the source, whether from the police interview or the drugs. At least I knew exactly why my body ached.

With the able assistance of our pharmaceutical industry, I slept for most of the day. If it wasn’t for my mobile phone ringing, then I’d probably have managed to out-sleep Tuesday altogether. It was Penny and she was concerned, worried and irritated, all at the same time. Concerned about my health, which was nice though not unexpected, worried because the police were coming to interview her and her mother. The irritation was because I hadn’t rang her all day and she couldn’t understand why the police needed to speak to her and, especially Marion. I thought about whether to explain or not. No doubt the police Inspector would prefer me not to, but then again, he’d assume that I had, so in the end, I told Penny everything. Soon she was no longer just irate, she was very angry. She could not believe that the police thought that I was a rapist, simply because I’d had an argument with the victim and they thought I was either having or wanting to have a sexual relationship with her, who happened to be a teenager. She wanted to know how, or even why, I would have driven back to Crewe after the taxi dropped me off.

In the end I got her to calm down a bit, mainly reminding her, that however bad it was for us, it was a lot worse for Fliss. Her anger bubbled up again for a few moments when she realised that the police didn’t seem at all interested in my assault.

After she’d hung up I decided to get up. Ouch! ‘Try again only slower this time’ I told myself and managed to make the bathroom without too many grimaces. The sight of my face in the mirror was daunting, with its various blue hues, though I could see some white skin there, which was more than I could say for my arms. I vaguely recalled that they, along with my back, had taken the brunt of the attack. Feeling more than a little self-pity I completed my ablutions, pulled on my dressing gown and limped downstairs, although I couldn’t remember limping up them.

Amy and Vicki were in the living room talking when I entered.

“God you look a mess Dad!” My youngest exclaimed.

“I know, I’ve just looked in the mirror for the first time.”

“Not out on the pull tonight then?” Amy asked with a grin.

“Thought I might give it a miss tonight, although I thought that maybe some of the young Goth girls might go for my current look.” I said.

They both laughed. Vicki looked at me than at her sister. “You know, with a bit of makeup no one would notice. What do you think Amy?”

“Hold it there.” I laughed, only slightly painfully. “I’m prepared to laugh about going on the pull,” I grimaced theatrically, “but makeup is no laughing matter.”

That set the tone for the next hour. They’d never had much sibling rivalry, happily sharing clothes and gossip and their favourite team sport, ganging up on Dad. Of course I loved it and could usually hold my own. I had managed a coffee and had required a couple of painkillers but had also politely declined their offer of cooking tea.

Just gone eight o’clock that evening Penny and Marion arrived. As I had expected, it had been D.I. Seagrove that had been to interview them, along with a young WPC. He had started by asking Penny if I had been pestering her and if so he’d be quite happy for her to press charges. He didn’t buy the ‘Just Good Friends’ bit and even suggested that they could protect her if she felt threatened. Marion laughed when she told me about what happened next. Penny had ignored the Inspector and had asked the WPC if he was always so obnoxious and if he had hearing problems. She had then looked him up and down and said that it was probably jealousy.

Penny continued the story. He’d then tried to use the severity of rape as the reason he needed the truth, only this time it was Marion that went for him, saying that yes, it was bad, so why wasn’t he trying to find who did, it instead of wasting everyone’s time with the obvious misconception that I’d had anything to do with. She’d then asked whether my own assault was been investigated. He’d initially ignored that until pressed when he mumbled that there was no real evidence to follow up on so more important issues had taken priority. Eventually he’d got around to questioning them about Friday evening’s events. He wanted to know the taxi firm that I’d used so he could verify my story.

“So we’ve both told you we all returned together, David and Vicki have both said the same, but you still feel the need to check it, meaning you thing that me and my mother are lying. Is that about right?” Demanded Penny.

“He clearly has some hold over you, which you won’t admit to.” He answered, gain ignoring the question.

It was only when Marion mentioned that her date had been lured away by Penny that he actually started to take an interest. After that it appeared to be as normal an interview with the police as the women could, without prior experience, imagine.

I told them of my threat to complain about the Inspector but that I had decided against it, partly because of the type of case he was investigating but mainly because I thought it would do little good. Both women offered their support if I did decide to take the matter further. Another hour was spent discussing my injuries and being forced to display some of the worse ones.

The next few days passed in a bit of a painkiller induced haze. I had numerous guests, more than I’d had in the entire fifteen or so years since I’d lived on my own. Josephine came a couple of times to check up on me as my self-appointed health Inspector. She also ensured that I was showered properly and had my ribs re-bandaged. We joked about old times, but in truth some of the memories of my then happy marriage hurt more than I cared to admit, knowing too well that it was my negligence that had allowed that happiness to dissipate. I learned that Josephine was separated from her long-term partner and hadn’t up until then felt the desire to ‘put herself back on the market’ as she called it. The evening after her first visit I wondered if this was an invitation on her part or was I reading too much into two old friends talking. My initial concern with Josephine was her height or to be more precise the height difference. I now realised that that was not insurmountable so on her second visit I paid a little more attention to her as a woman. That second visit was also when we relaxed a bit more in each other’s company and past incidents mentioned. That evening I still had no idea whether there were hints there but knew that I couldn’t be with Josephine without thinking of Jan. I wasn’t prepared to live with that nor did I think it fair on my little nurse.

Early Saturday afternoon Amy rang sounding excited. “Have you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“I’ll take that as a no then shall I?” She laughed. “The police have made arrests over the rape. No details yet though about who.”

“That’s great news.” I said sharing in my daughter’s excitement.

I went online immediately I’d put the phone down and checked out the BBC local site. Sure enough, the news headlines were of two arrests, both men in the twenties; no further details supplied. I kept checking over the course of the evening but only the bare details were forthcoming from the police. I still went to bed a happier man.

I woke up less than happy though, as some time during the night I’d managed to get my arm under my cracked ribs and undone some of the good work. More pain relief required for the soft old man I’d become. Sunday was recovering, relaxing and guests. Penny came around, mid afternoon, and started talking about the arrests. She thought that it had to be the Mitchell brothers. When I looked puzzled at the name she went on to explain that Mitchell was the surname of Adam and Mark. I was still trying to place the names when she gave an exaggerated gasp and told me that they were her and her mother’s dates on Friday. I shrugged and said I would have got there in time and blamed the tablets I was on. When I had asked her why she assumed it was the two brothers, Penny couldn’t understand why I didn’t think it was obvious too. We checked the news again but there had been no further updates.

Just then my mobile phone rang, showing ‘Number Withheld’ on the screen. I answered and was surprised to discover that it was the young police constable who had been with the D.I., on the line. I listened intently as he first apologised, even after I’d told him that he had nothing to be sorry about. He then confirmed that the two arrested men had admitted to the rape and also more surprisingly to my assault. As Penny had already guessed, the culprits were the Mitchell brothers. The officer went on to say that he felt he owed me an explanation due to the way his fellow officer had treated me.

It seems that as soon as Marion had left, Fliss, true to form, had dumped Adam, telling him when he complained that he was just a pawn and that his usefulness was over. His brother Mark was already quite well known to the police for affray and assault though nothing sexual, which was why his name hadn’t cropped up earlier in the investigation. Given this history and all the alcohol that the pair had imbibed it was not too surprising that they thought they should teach the ‘stuck up bitch’ a lesson. The original plan was to slap her around a bit but even through the alcoholic haze they realised that she’d probably recognise them so they decided to knock her out and leave her somewhere strange and disorientating. Somehow they managed to do the first part without anyone noticing. The Hall staff were all busy cleaning up and most of the guests leaving or like us already left. They drove back — much to the obvious disgust of the policeman — and ended up outside Hanley Park, which was pretty much on their way home. Somewhere on the road back they’d decided that as she had used sex to make fools of them that they would rape her too. He did say that they didn’t use the word ‘rape’ they said ‘fuck’. Miss Cartwright had regained consciousness during the rape by Mark and had tried to fight, which was why she was so badly beaten. Once they’d sobered up the following day they realised what they had done and although they felt little remorse Adam reckoned that there was a good chance of being caught. They looked back on what had happened and decided that it all stemmed from my argument with Fliss, so if they were going down for rape, then before that happened, then I would get what they thought I was due. If nobody linked them to the rape then no one would ever link them to me and I got a deserved beating for what I’d put them through.