‘Chrissie?’ she asked anxiously. She always sounded apologetic on the phone, as if she expected to be rebuffed. ‘I hope this isn’t a bad time?’
‘Not at all,’ Chrissie assured her. ‘I’m just sitting here in the sun with my knitting while Gav’s off flying a kite.’ Yvonne said nothing, so she went on, ‘What is it? Is something wrong?’
‘There’s this letter come through the post today …’
‘What sort of letter?’ Chrissie asked. ‘I mean, what was it about?’
‘It’s from a lawyer – at least I think that’s who it is.’ Yvonne sounded even less sure of herself than usual.
‘Is it about the trial?’ Chrissie demanded at once. ‘Have they fixed a date? We haven’t heard anything?’
‘No. It’s nothing to do with that. Its … Well, you see, we didn’t have the money for Harry’s funeral. We never knew how much they cost! And we didn’t want …. We wanted him to have a decent …’
Chrissie felt a pang of guilt as she realised that, at the time, she hadn’t given a thought to this other family who were also grieving the loss of a son. She hadn’t known Yvonne and her husband Trevor then, but even so, they ought to have gone to the funeral to show solidarity with …. But Yvonne was speaking again. She pressed the phone closer to her ear and tried to concentrate on what she was saying.
‘Trev didn’t want to worry me about …. Well, to be honest I was in too much of a mess at that stage to take it in if he had told me. So, he took out this loan. I thought it’d all come out of our savings: we had nearly two thousand in the building society, saving for when Trev’s taxi needs replacing. I never knew that wasn’t enough!’
‘And the letter?’ prompted Chrissie. ‘Was that about this loan?’
‘Yes! It says we’re in arrears on the payments and … I can tell you exactly: I’ve got it here. It says “unless the outstanding sum is received within thirty days of the date of this letter, we will have no choice but to take legal action.” What does that mean exactly? What’s going to happen? We don’t have the money to pay. Trev hasn’t been earning since Lockdown started and the agency’s only been paying me eighty percent while I’m on furlough, and the internet’s been costing more since Leo’s been home schooling, and-’ Yvonne’s voice rose and Chrissie was afraid that she was becoming hysterical.
‘Let’s try to keep calm and think it through.’ She hoped that she sounded firm but not patronising. Craig, their lodger, had sometimes accused her of treating everyone like a child in her class. ‘It says you’ve got thirty days from the date on the letter. Can you see when that was?’
‘The seventeenth.’
‘Of June?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then that means they won’t do anything until the seventeenth of July, which is a fortnight off.’
‘But we haven’t got the money!’
‘How much is it – if you don’t mind telling me?’
‘It says “two thousand four hundred and seventy-three pounds”. Trev says he only borrowed two thousand and he’d paid some of it back before … but the interest’s been mounting up and there’s something here about debt collection fees and surcharges for late payment and … He’d have paid it all back by now if it hadn’t been for this coronavirus.’
‘I think you need some proper debt counselling.’ Chrissie was starting to feel out of her depth. ‘Have you tried Citizens Advice?’
‘No. How would I …?
‘Their number will be in the phone book or you could Google it or – tell you what,’ Chrissie added hurriedly, suddenly thinking of the potential for an unwary user to stumble across sites on the internet that might make her situation even worse. A novice like Yvonne could easily be taken in by unscrupulous “advisors” offering to consolidate her debts into one easy-to-pay loan, or some other scam. ‘I’ll do a bit of digging and ring you back with some numbers of people who’ll give you advice without charging anything.’
‘Would you?’ Chrissie could feel the relief in Yvonne’s voice. ‘I’m sorry to be a bother; I just didn’t know who else to ask.’
‘Of course! It’s no bother. I’m sure there must be someone out there who can he-.’ She broke off suddenly as a thought struck her. ‘You have had your compensation from the CICA, haven’t you? That should’ve covered most of the funeral costs.’
‘I don’t think so. What’s that? Trev did everything to do with the funeral. Like I said, I wasn’t up to thinking about money when Harry was killed.’
‘It’s the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. Someone should’ve told you about it and helped you to apply. We got two and a half thousand for Kenny’s funeral. Mind you, it only came through last week due to “delays in the system caused by COVID”, which is only an excuse because we sent the form off back in January.’
‘There was someone came round – family liaison, I think she said she was – with lots of forms to fill in. Would that be it?’
‘Yes, probably. Did you send them off?’
‘She came back for them, but Trev told her we could manage and we didn’t want charity. That’s what makes me think they were to do with money.’
‘I think you ought to fill in the form,’ Chrissie advised. ‘It’s not charity; it’s just what you’re entitled to. Tell Trevor it’s like compensation because the police didn’t keep Harry safe the way they should’ve done.’
‘I don’t think we’ve still got the forms,’ Yvonne faltered.
‘Don’t worry. I expect I can find them for you – or Gavin will. There’s probably an online version that may get the money quicker. I’ll ask Gav and get back to you. But you still need to talk to a debt advisor to find out what you can do about that threatening letter in the meantime, while you’re waiting for it to come through.’
‘OK, I’ll try.’ Yvonne still sounded unsure of herself. ‘But I don’t think Trev … I think he didn’t want to admit the forms were too complicated for him. He might not like it if I …’
‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,’ Chrissie declared decisively. ‘I’ll talk to Gav about it and I’m sure we’ll be able to help. Now, how are you in yourself?’ She knew that Yvonne’s main way of coping with stress was to turn to alcohol.
‘I’m doing OK – or I was until this letter came. Are you sure they can’t come round and take our things away?’
‘If the letter says thirty days, then they can’t be intending to do anything before that,’ Chrissie told her firmly. ‘The main thing is to get proper advice now, so you can do something about it before then. Try not to worry. I’ll talk to Gav and get back to you this evening, OK?’