Chapter 8
Bex hadn’t been to the garage herself, though she had passed it dozens of times if not more on the way in and out of the village.
Not only that, but she’d once needed their services to pump up a flat tyre.
But given that Lorna had deliberately let the air out of said tyre, Bex had insisted that she was the one who stayed with the car and got it sorted. Unsurprisingly, her friend agreed.
That memory felt like a lifetime ago now.
It had been during her first visit to Scotland when Bex’d been sent up to sort Fergus’s accounts, and against all her better judgement, she had found herself falling for Duncan.
Hard. But when his ex had turned up out of the blue, pregnant and wanting to talk to him, Bex’s emotions had got the better of her.
Needing to get away from the situation, she packed up her car with boxes and folders, intending to continue the work on the accounts back in London.
And so as part of a ploy to keep her in the village a little longer – in the hope she and Duncan might sort things out – Lorna had let the air out of Bex’s tyres, stopping her from going anywhere.
As it happened, it had worked. That extra time was all that was needed for Duncan to get back and explain the situation. The rest, as they say, was history.
When Bex finished her breakfast, she asked Fi to wait outside with the plate of eggs and bacon for Ruby, who gobbled down the food in record pace.
‘Wow. Your dog’s got some appetite,’ Fi commented.
‘She does. It’s good,’ Bex replied. ‘She went off her food not long ago, but she seems to be putting on weight now. Quite a bit of it.’
At least that was one relief. She wasn’t sure how she would have coped with Ruby being sick with everything else she had to deal with. Badly, she suspected.
As soon as Ruby was done, the three of them began the walk to the end of the village, during which Fi told Bex yet more about her father, and how the garage was a family business that he’d inherited from his own dad.
Fi also told Bex how her younger sister was training to be a mechanic too and had all these plans for when she took over the place.
Assuming their dad hadn’t run it to the ground, that was.
The workshop was big enough to hold four cars, with two hydraulic lifts and several shelves filled with tyres and other tools. The closer they had got to the building, the quieter Fi had become. As they stepped into the workshop, she was almost completely silent.
‘He’ll be in there.’ She pointed to an office door, just off the workspace. ‘But I’m not sure if he’ll be happy about this. Maybe I should have told him.’
Bex drew a long breath in. ‘From what you’ve said, I guess he’ll be even less happy if he loses the business. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.’ She glanced down at Ruby. ‘Is she okay to stay with you?’
Fi nodded. ‘Sure, I’m not going anywhere.’
With a quick squeeze of her shoulder, Bex handed Fi Ruby’s lead before crossing the garage and knocking on the door.
‘Mr Foster?’ she called before opening up the door and stepping inside.
Her throat dried as her stomach dropped.
In some ways it reminded her of Fergus’s study, when she’d first arrived, with endless paper files, lever-arch folders and a couple of metal filing cabinets.
Only this space was a tenth of the size of Fergus’s room, and the paper was floor to ceiling.
It was a miracle none of the towers had toppled over, and Bex could only imagine what a fire officer would say if they saw the place.
Still, she could see plenty of flyers and newspapers among the clutter. So hopefully, a fair bit could be binned.
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.