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Leanne:

Hi everyone. Leanne Tellnotales here with a bit of background information before we dive in. This episode is a backer reward for Citrus Jr., who pledged to our season two crowdfund at the highest tier. It is canon, and slots into the timeline somewhere around the middle of season one. Enjoy the episode, and thank you again to everyone who supported our crowdfund.

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Wasting Company Time presents Tell No Tales. Bonus episode, Unfinished Business.

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[SFX: Recording begins]

[Music: Carol of the Bells playing]

Leo:

Audio diary of Leo Quinn, assistant to Frank Williamson, director of Better Place. So, we got an email a few days ago, telling us that the work Christmas Party has just been cancelled. Well, not the official Christmas party. That’s some stuffy formal event where everyone’s too afraid of their boss to have a good time. It’s the unofficial pub night that’s been cancelled. It’s like, sacred tradition – we’ve been doing it for years, always hosted in this one bar called The Spirit of Shoreditch. I know, fitting right? It’s not big enough for the whole company, so it’s mostly research and survey teams that come along. Dispatchers do their own thing, usually. Well, except… I mean, Riley’s been telling Julia all about it, and she was going to come along, which, like, I was being completely normal about. But…

Anyway, none of this is the point. The point is actually why the party’s been cancelled. Apparently, they’ve shut down for health and safety reasons. Which Riley of course looked into. That’s like, the go-to bar for Better Place employees, if they’ve had rats or something this whole time, we obviously want to know. Not rats though, it turns out. Ghost. They’ve apparently opened a case with us. And they’ve shut down the bar itself while the case is still ongoing. And, I mean, things get a little slow around Christmas. Half the company takes time off, practically nothing gets done. So… I thought I might speed things along a little. Like, maybe, if I go speak to the bar owner and find out a little more about their ghost, then they might be able to re-open in time for me and Julia to both… I mean. For the Christmas party to still go ahead. Yeah. So.

[SFX: Case file being opened]

CaseJT#22107, Category Three, Case Status: Active.

[Music: Carol of the Bells ends, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (piano version) [performed by Half Giant] begins to play]

Alright,

[SFX: Pages turning]

so, the case was logged by a Chris Farley – the owner of the bar – a couple of months ago. They sent out a surveyor to check out the property as soon as the case was raised, and the EMF readings showed that the haunting was limited to the bathroom. It kind of looks like the spirit’s haunting the sink actually, rather than the space itself. Which, I mean, far be it from me to judge a spirit’s afterlife spot, but a sink in the bathroom of a bar? It wouldn’t be my first choice. Not that they get much of a choice, I suppose. What’s interesting though, is that while the survey found EMF readings that suggest a category three, there aren’t any manifestations reported. He’s got to be capable of them, but apparently, they’ve never been observed.

[SFX: Pages turning]

The owner did seem to know who it is though, and it wasn’t hard for research to find either. A patron at the bar slipped and hurt himself in that bathroom a few years ago, hitting his head on the edge of the sink, and eventually dying of his injuries. His name was Andrew Prie, and…

[SFX: Pages turning]

Ok, so, looking through this case file, the suddenness of his death might not be the only reason he stayed behind in the bar. His girlfriend worked there. Her name’s B’jolanth Arie, and she’s a bartender. And it looks like Andrew spent a lot of time there while she was at work.

[SFX: Pages turning]

Oh, that’s something… so, B’jolanth must know it’s him haunting the place, because she’s been calling us repeatedly asking us to cancel the case. They obviously couldn’t cancel it without the owner himself requesting it, but just based on these transcripts she seems really distressed about the whole thing. So obviously, I’m going to look up the number and call her. If anyone’s going to be willing to let me in to speak to him, it’ll be her.

[SFX: Recording ends]

[SFX: Recording begins]

[SFX: Extractor fan whirring, occasional dripping sound throughout]

Leo:

(WHISPERING) Okay, so this isn’t exactly legal, but it’s not technically breaking and entering, so I count that as a win. I’m in the bathroom of Spirit of Shoreditch. Bar’s not open yet, but B’jolanth came and dropped a key off at my office, she couldn’t risk losing her job by coming with me but she was pretty uh… strongly affected by my call. She says she’s known right from the start that it was Andrew’s spirit hanging on here, and has been trying to convince her boss not to remove him, but with no luck. Apparently she comes in here on her breaks to talk to him. And he does have manifestations, but only when she’s around. Like, there’s a song they used to love, it was their song apparently, and it plays quietly when she’s in here, drowns out the sound of the bar. Plus it uh, apparently smells nicer when she’s in here too. Wish that was the case for me- oh! (SHORT PAUSE) Oh, uh, thanks, Andrew. Is that lavender? Sorry, I shouldn’t be making notes in here, talking about you like you aren’t in the room. I haven’t even introduced myself, sorry, I’m Leo, and I – hang on, let me get my recorder.

[SFX: Recording ends]

[SFX: Recording begins]

Leo:

Right. That was… it’s been a day. Exciting, though. Really exciting, I spoke to Andrew, then I had to go… no, y’know what, before I explain, let me just play back the recording.

[SFX: Mouse click as playback begins]

Leo (on recording):

Okay, so this recorder will pick up your voice, Andrew, if you’re willing to speak to me. I want to ask you a few questions, partly for my own research, but also to help B’jolanth make her case to let you stay, if that’s what you want. Could you start by telling me a bit about yourself, name, date of birth, that kind of thing?

Andrew (on recording):

Hi, Leo. Please don’t apologise for talking about me like I’m not here. I don’t get a lot of people acknowledging me at all these days, except B. Sorry about the smell in here, by the way. I hope the lavender helped. To answer your question, I’m, uh, I’m Andrew Prie. My date of birth is the 14th of July, 1988. I died in 2015, I remember the date exactly, actually, because it was our anniversary. Mine and B’jolanth’s, I mean. It was the 22nd April 2015, I died. We’d been together for five years.

Leo:

Great, thanks Andrew. And can you tell me a bit about your life, and why you think your spirit stayed behind here?

Andrew:

Well, I mean, I was here a lot. Not like, here here. I wasn’t always in the bathroom. Though I did spend a lot of time here. Nervous stomach, you know (AWKWARD LAUGH)… it doesn’t matter. I was at the bar a lot, because my office was around the corner. Accounting firm. It was… so boring, but it did mean I got to hide in my office all day, which was nice – I was never exactly good with people. B’jolanth, though, she’s good with people. She’s good at her job, too. Everyone likes her. And she enjoyed it. She loved forming a rapport with the regulars, meeting new people every day. She wasn’t a fan of her boss, or the pay, or the hours. But she did love the people, most of the time. The hours were the hardest part though. Because of me, mostly. She was always a bit of a night owl, so it would have worked for her, if not for me. The problem was, she’d usually be starting her shift just as I was leaving the office. We lived together for about three years before I died, but even still, we could go days without properly seeing each other. And I missed her. So I usually came here after work. If it was busy, she couldn’t exactly spend her shift talking, but when it was quiet… It was nice. Sitting at the bar with B during a quiet shift, it was one of my favourite places to be.

Anyway, that’s why I was here so often. Sorry for waffling. Though… I actually think I know why I stayed here. It’s really embarrassing, but… is unfinished business a thing? I was never sure if that was real or just one of those urban legends they made up for TV and films. But if it is, I think that’s why. Maybe it’s just because I spent a lot of time here, maybe it’s just because I died here, but… I think it’s because… Okay, this is really stupid. I’d say promise you won’t laugh, but I suppose you can’t hear me yet, so maybe just promise you’ll wait until you’re listening to this somewhere else to laugh. I died because… So, we had a date planned for our anniversary. And I went all out, really fancy restaurant in Mayfair, it’s that one with all the flowers on the outside. We could never afford it, but she always talked about how pretty it was, so I saved the money for it because I was… I was going to propose. Except it was all a surprise! I kept joking about how I was taking her to Nando’s or something. So when she got a call in to work, like her boss properly begging her because everyone was off sick, she thought it wasn’t that big a deal. I came in with her, because it was still our anniversary, and I was trying to decide if I should still do it, fancy restaurant or no, but um, like I said, I have a nervous stomach. So I was in here a lot. And at one point, I just- I was washing my hands, and I looked in that mirror, there, and just thought. If not tonight, when? And I took the ring out, just to look at it again, just to make sure it was perfect, except my hands were still wet and I dropped it, god it was so stupid. It went down the sink. And that’s how I slipped, panicking and looking for something long to try and claw the ring out. And I am really very glad you can’t hear me yet, actually. Er, so, uh. Yeah. That’s your answer, I think.

Leo:

Okay, thanks Andrew. And what about your afterlife, how’s that been?

Andrew:

Oh, you know. Pretty abysmal in all the ways you’d expect from being trapped in a pub bathroom. I spend most of my evening facing the corner so I don’t accidentally peek at customers. But it’s nice when B comes to visit. She’ll talk to me, tell me about her day. I always loved hearing about her day. She’s… She’s amazing, you know?

[Music: The Birds Will Sing for Us (by Staffan Carlén) fades in]

She has this way with people, she’ll talk to you and it’s like you could listen to her talk forever. She was always more outspoken than me anyway, so not much has changed in the dynamic (LAUGHS). It’s not completely one-sided, though. We’ve worked out a system. I’m, uh, I’m pretty new to this whole ghost thing still. I can touch stuff, but I’m weak. But we’ve figured out that if she turns the hot water tap on, the mirror fogs up, and I can write messages. It’s not much, but it’s something. So she knows I’m here, that I’m listening. That’s how I told her it was me, actually. The first time I managed to do something like that. She was in here and… well, she’d been crying. Rough shift, I think. And she let the tap run so noone would hear her, and the mirror fogged up and I wanted so badly to cheer her up, so I reached out and… It was the first thing I could think of. I drew a bird. We had these matching tattoos done a year or so before I died, two little rosy-faced love birds, you know, the parrots? Hers said love, mine said bird. It made sense, when we put our arms side by side, but it was always really funny, whenever she wasn’t around and people thought I was just really into ornithology or something (LAUGHS). It worked though, I drew it on the mirror and she just knew. Now, I get to talk back to her sometimes, leave her messages, have a conversation. So it’s almost like it used to be, me sitting at the bar, her coming over whenever she has a quiet moment to tell me about all the gossip she’d overhear. It’s nice. So yeah, not a big fan of the location, but I’d never swap the company for anything.

Leo:

And I’m sure you’re aware, the pub’s owner has opened a case with Better Place, which B’jolanth is trying to fight against. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Andrew:

Yeah, I feel bad. I want to keep spending time with B, she’s the love of my life, but she’s putting her job at risk for me. I don’t want her to do that. I’d like to stay but… I don’t think that’s going to happen, and I can’t have her put her job on her line to fight a losing battle.

Leo:

Thanks for talking to me Andrew. Before I go, is there anything you’d like to pass on to anyone?

Andrew:

Just, if you see B, tell her she’s allowed to let me go, if she has to. That I love her, and I miss her, and I need her to keep doing what she loves.

[Music: The Birds Will Sing for Us (by Staffan Carlén) fades out]

Also tell Chris he needs to clean this bathroom more often. No, wait, don’t do that. No, wait, do – if I can’t be a bit brave after death, when can I? Just, the priority is telling B I love her, ok? And not to feel guilty. I’ll always be with her, either way.

Leo (no longer on recording):

Right. So.

[SFX: Mouse click]

[Music: A Christmas Miracle (by One Man Quartet) begins playing]

This is why it’s been a day. Because once I got back and listened to that, aside from thinking it’s, y’know, very sweet, I also started to wonder something. Maybe it’s not the sink Andrew’s haunting. If the ring went down the drain, and he’s right about his reason for staying behind being the proposal he never got to make… it was just a hunch, but I picked up some tools and went back to the bar just in case and I, uh, dismantled the sink. It took forever, I do not understand how plumbing works, but I was RIGHT. The engagement ring was still there. Covered in gunk, and caught on something truly heinous in the u-bend. But still there! And the EMF readings got so much stronger when I took it out. Which means B’jolanth doesn’t have to let him go.

I brought her the ring. And the recorder. And I left for a bit, to let them talk, just sent her the file right away without listening to it. Whatever they had to say to each other was one of my business anyway. But she did tell me one thing, afterwards. (EXCITEDLY) She… said yes! I have no idea how that’s going to work, I’m not sure they know either. But I’m not sure they care? B’jolanth even told me they’d already decided to hyphenate their surnames. Arie-Prie. It’s cute. And the rest, the legalities, the details, I mean… they’ve got time to figure it out now, at least. And, in the meantime, he’s with her, wherever she goes now. I dunno, maybe she’ll carry a mirror around with her, so he can communicate. Maybe soon he’ll even be strong enough to hold a pen, he can write her longer notes, like Stephen does to his family. Sometimes I really do love my work. And, as a bonus, with the ghost now gone from Spirit of Shoreditch, Julia can come- I mean, uh, the Christmas party is back on. So, yeah! I should get some sleep. It’s late, and today has been long. But one of those days where it’s all worth it, you know?

[SFX: Recording Ends]

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Leanne:

This episode of Tell No Tales, Unfinished Business, was created with Citrus Jr., who backed our season two crowdfund at the highest tier. Huge thank you to Citrus for your generous support. It was written and produced by Leanne Egan, based on a concept by Citrus Jr. In it, you also heard the voices of Asher Amor-Train as Andrew Prie, and Leanne Egan as Leo Quinn. If you enjoyed this bonus episode, there is more to come very soon. We are hoping to have a season one recap out within the next week or so, just in time for season two to start airing on the 8th January. So keep an eye out for those on our feed and on our Twitter and Tumblr, @tellnotalespod. As always, links and information about transcripts can be found in the show notes. Tell No Tales is distributed by Wasting Company Time Productions, under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 4.0 International License. Thank you for listening, and remember: the dead don’t bite.

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