In the offices of Cardinal Loans, Matthew Cardinal sat at his computer checking the latest accounts of several of his clients. Matthew had always been called a loan shark but his office has never been as busy as at the present moment, the credit crunch has been hitting hard and people have been using his services to pay off overdue mortgages or credit card payments. He smiled to himself as he saw one of his son's teachers, Mrs Drake, had fallen behind in her payments again. He decided it was time to call and confront her.
He waited until after school had finished for the day and then called her mobile.
"Hello?"
"Hello is that Mrs Drake?" he asked.
"Yes it is."
"Hello Mrs Drake, this is Matthew Cardinal from Cardinal Loans, it seems we have a problem. You are now two months late with your payments and unfortunately this will push your interest rate a lot higher. Can we arrange an appointment to discuss your account and we can go through the revised payment structure?"
There was silence at the end of the phone.
"Mrs Drake?"
"Yes, sorry," her voice wavering, "I can come by tomorrow after school but I really can't afford to pay you anything until my next pay day, I'm really sorry."
"Tomorrow is fine, we can go through your account and I'll try to help you if I can."
"Thank you for your understanding, I'll see you tomorrow at 4.30 then?"
"Look forward to seeing you then."
Her hands were shaking when she finished the call. She had been so stupid, borrowing from a loan shark to pay off her mortgage arrears and now she was behind on both again. Oh God, she thought to herself while sitting at her desk in John Walters High School, what am I going to do? She couldn't afford a scandal here in the leafy suburban shires, she was well known in the village and the gossips would have a field day if news of her debts were to get out.
Add to that what her husband would think about her borrowing money without his knowledge she didn't want to even contemplate. She'd not be able to look anybody in the eye anymore and shuddered just thinking about it. And what if the school board were to find out? Her shoulders sagged as she buried her face in her hands and sobbed quietly to herself.
Matthew smiled again as he checked the numbers on his screen. Mrs Drake was now two months behind on her loan of £5,000 which triggered the increase in interest rate he had mentioned on the phone. She was already paying 25% on the original loan but now this would increase to 50%, this would push her monthly payment up from £500 to around a thousand and he knew there was no way she was going to be able to pay that.
A devious plan was forming in his head. Mrs Drake was an attractive woman, shoulder length brown hair, sparkling green eyes and an apparently voluptuous body. He couldn't tell what her body was really like because every time he'd seen her, she'd been wearing dowdy clothes, thick jumpers and long skirts but the promise was there.
He had noticed her large breasts even through the woolly jumpers. As he thought of making her expose them to him he smirked to himself. His devious plan forming in his head. He loved nothing more than humiliating people who couldn't pay back their debts and this was going to be a good one!
At 4.30pm on the dot the following day Matthew heard a gentle tapping on his door; he waited a couple of seconds then got up from his chair and opened the door. There in front of him was the lovely Mrs Drake still in her teaching clothes of a dark blue baggy blouse and dark trousers. He noticed she seemed to be shaking a little.
"Mrs Drake, nice to see you, would you like a coffee or tea maybe?"
"Just a glass of water would be nice" she said softly.
He came back with a couple of bottles of ice cold mineral water.
"Well then Mrs Drake, straight to business, because you have now failed to make your last two payments the premium has gone up so your payments have now increased to £975 a month. Do you understand that?"
She let out a sharp intake of breath at the new figure and looked down at his desk, she didn't want to look at him it would be too embarrassing.
"Yes I understand but.......I can't pay anything just at the moment, I have to use all my money to pay this months mortgage otherwise we'll lose the house."
"Well then we have a problem don't we?" he said assertively. "I have to receive a payment of some sort this month otherwise your premium will go sky high. You don't want to be having to make payments of over a thousand each month now do you? Can your husband help you with the payments?"
A tear formed in her eye and she sniffled, still unable to look at her creditor she sobbed. "He doesn't know" she said timidly. "I really can't do it, he'll kill me if I tell him but the other option is to risk losing the house. Please......isn't here some other way? Maybe once I'm back on track with my mortgage I can give you extra?"
"And how long will that take?" he asked.
Mrs Drake's face brightened momentarily, "in a couple of months?" she asked hopefully. Matthew tapped at a calculator on his desk, sighed and then looked directly at the poor, shaking beauty in front of him.
"If you don't pay me anything for another two months then your monthly payment will rise to £1,600 a month. Can you afford that?"
There was a sharp intake of breath again from the scared school teacher. "No....." she said softly and started sobbing again.
"Then you'll leave me no option but to take you court or.....take the money from you some other way." he said ominously.
"No please, there must be a way we can work this out without involving my husband or the authorities?" She whimpered.