The oil-covered man behind the desk lifted his head from the ancient desktop monitor he was staring at and looked at her.
‘Mornin’, lass. How can I help you? Car troubles, I’m guessin’?’
Bex stepped further in. ‘Actually no. I’m not here because of a car. My name is Rebecca Barker. Bex. I?—’
‘I know who you are,’ he said, cutting her off. His face crinkled into a frown. ‘You’re Duncan’s lass, ain’t you? The one that helped with Fergus’s stuff, right?’
Bex wasn’t sure how she felt about being referred to as ‘Duncan’s lass’, but now was hardly the time to bring up the complexities of her relationship status.
‘So if it’s not car problems, whatcha doing here?’ There was a hint of hardness in his voice. Nervousness, perhaps. Still, there was no point in beating around the bush.
‘Fi asked me to come,’ Bex said. ‘She told me you’re having difficulties. Financial difficulties, and thought I might be able to help. Just to take a look at things and see if I can do anything.’
Mr Foster’s expression tightened. Bex felt her own tension rise in response, but before he said anything else, he sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh.
‘It’s just a cash-flow snag,’ he started. ‘It’s the way it is with businesses like mine. Folk pay me when they can an’ sometimes it takes a wee bit longer than I’d like. But she’s fussin’, she is. It’ll pick up soon.’
Bex didn’t want to push, but she’d also assured Fi she would try to help. And taking Mr Foster’s word without any evidence things would pick up wouldn’t be doing that. She’d never forgive herself if they lost the garage when she might have been able to help.
‘Maybe I could just have a look at your books? All confidential, of course. Just to see if there’s any way of freeing up a bit more of that cash for you.’
Mr Foster let out a slight grunt. ‘Fine. But I don’t have long. Couple of hours at most. Couple of cars coming in later.’
‘An hour is plenty,’ Bex said with a nod.
He gestured towards a drawer. ‘All the bank statements are in there. Big book’s in the one above.’
A spark of hope flickered in Bex’s mind. If all the statements were in one place, there was a chance some kind of organisation existed. But that hope quickly faded when she picked up the first statement and her stomach dropped. It was for a high-interest credit card. So was the second. And the third.
‘Mr Foster,’ she said, holding up one of the papers, ‘why are you taking out these credit cards? What are they for?’
‘That’s what they tell you to do, isn’t it?’ he replied defensively. ‘Buy stuff online with a credit card. I pay them off straight away?—’
‘But the interest on these is astronomical,’ Bex interjected.
‘I didn’t think they were that bad. They said something about 0 per cent,’ he muttered.
‘Only for the first month,’ Bex said, flipping through the statement. ‘This one’s over a year old. You’ve paid more in interest than the original spend.’
‘Dad!’ Bex spun around to see Fi standing in the doorway. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’
‘I didn’t realise,’ he said, rubbing the back of his neck. ‘I just thought it came out of my bank account or something.’
‘Right,’ Bex said, resisting the urge to roll up her sleeves. ‘First step, we consolidate these. One business loan to pay them off, so we can get rid of these high-interest rates. If we do that, you’ll already be in better shape. And if you don’t need all these piles of paper, get rid of them. They’re giving me hives.’
For the next hour, she combed through his paperwork, explaining what needed to be done. When the first cars of the day arrived, Mr Foster excused himself, leaving Bex and Fi alone in the office.
‘So?’ Fi asked nervously. ‘Do you think he’ll be able to keep the business? It’s all we’ve got. It’s our livelihood.’
Bex exhaled, glancing outside. ‘Looking at this, there are some pretty straightforward fixes. But he can’t keep getting into this kind of mess.’
‘I know,’ Fi said quickly. ‘I didn’t realise it was this bad. If you tell me what I need to do, I’ll take over. I’ve been thinking about training in accounting, you know. They run courses in the city. But it’s so far, and even when I finish the training, I’d still have to stay there if I wanted a job. And I couldn’t imagine Roddy ever living in the city.’
‘There’s nowhere closer you could work?’ Bex asked.
Fi shook her head. ‘I wish. That would make life so much easier.’
Bex paused. She’d heard the same thing from others in the village several times. All saying how small businesses could use someone with her expertise to help them out. With that much demand, it was surprising no one had opened an accounting office nearby, though it would be years and years until Fi had the skills to do something like that. Assuming she even trained in accountancy, that was. It was sad, given how much business potential the idea had. But hopefully someone would see that soon.
