8
“You have to come. Please. My brother went out to get the money, but he can only get cash.”
Mickey suppressed a sigh, eyeing the clock on the car dashboard. He was halfway to London for a meeting with Dom Ramos, his other boss at DOSHA Housing, heading in the opposite direction to Barnfield Court and Mrs De Luca’s pleading daughter. “I’m not available for a home visit today. I can come on Monday if—”
“But you said it has to be today. Or our account would go back to the council.”
Mickey didn’t have the heart to tell her it probably already had. Isha was in that meetingright now, and Mickey had already told him the De Lucas had failed to make a payment. The five o’clock deadline was a formality. “Even if I can get there,” he said gently, “there isn’t much I can do with a handful of cash. You have to make the payment on your account. Is there a way you can do it online?”
“I don’t know. It’s my brother’s money.”
“What’s your brother’s name—”
The call ended, signal cut off in a black spot on the M1. Cursing, Mickey banged his fist on the steering wheel. He’d been hanging on for a sign from the De Lucas all damn day, and now it was too late. Isha hadn’t wanted to hand their account over any more than Mickey, but his hands had been tied.“I’m sorry, Mickey. I can’t compromise our relationship with the council when we have so many other families to worry about.”
Mickey had understood. He still did. But the guilt in his heart was heavy. His eyes burned and his chest hurt.Fuck this.
He pulled off the motorway into Toddington Services and called Dom Ramos. “I need to reach Isha,” he said before Dom could speak. “The account he’s passing back to the council has come through.”
Paper rustled at the other end. Dom was less technologically inclined than Isha and worked out of a leather-bound notebook, a much-sharpened pencil tucked behind his ear. “Which account?”
“The De Lucas.”
“At Barnfield Court?”
“Yeah. They had until five o’clock to make a payment, but I jumped the gun and told Isha they hadn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because they haven’t reached out since this started and I let that cloud my judgement. It’s my fault. I should’ve waited.”
“But Isha knows they have until five?”
“I think so, unless he’s forgotten.”
“He won’t forget,” Dom said. “If they have until five, he won’t give them up until Monday morning. It’s why we schedule these meetings on a Friday. It gives us more time for shit like this. How much did they pay?”
“I don’t know yet. They want me to go over and collect cash.”
“So I can stop freaking out that I’m never going to make our meeting in time?”
“I’d say so. I’m about to turn my car round and burn in the opposite direction.”
Dom’s dry laugh filtered through the car speakers. “Of course you are. Okay, I’ll ring Isha and let him know. He’ll take my call in the meeting.”
“That’s what I thought, or I’d have called him myself. Sorry to bother you.”
“You didn’t. It’s me that should be sorry you’re facing the wrong direction for no good reason. But listen, Mickey?”
“Yeah?”
“I know it’s hard,” Dom said. “But you need to be clear headed about this. If you rock up there and they hand you fifty quid, it’s not enough. They need to make a substantial paymentandcommit to a repayment plan on top of keeping up with the rent going forward. If they can’t do that before Monday or give us a plausible reason why not, it’s over for us.”
Mickey breathed through his nose, long and slow. “Isha said two thousand. Can we budge on that if they don’t have it all?”
“That’s up to you.”
“Since when?”