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Leanne:

Wasting Company Time presents Tell No Tales, Episode Twelve: Nothing Left

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[SFX: Recording Begins, Classical music playing]

Leo:

Audio diary of—

[SFX: Incoming Text]

Leo Quinn, Assis—

[SFX: Incoming Text]

(CHUCKLING) Assistant to—

[SFX: Incoming Text]

To Frank Williamson, director of—

[SFX: Multiple incoming texts]

Christ, Riley, no, I will not tell you every intimate detail of my date.

[SFX: Typing, outgoing text is sent]

Er… right yeah, Frank Williamson, director of Better Place

[SFX: A frankly absurd number or incoming texts]

Alright! Enough of that thank you, you’re going on do not disturb and in the drawer.

[SFX: Drawer opens, clattering, then paper rustling]

And you, case file, are coming out the drawer because you, sweet sweet case file…

[SFX: Drawer closes]

…are not going to interrogate me for every embarrassing detail from last night. You are not going to ask me if we kissed, and you are absolutely not going to ask me if there’s going to be a second date. Because you, case file, are polite like that. Right, so. Case JH#20106, Category one, case status-Unresolved. Reported by David Lowell via email, initial report:

To Whom it May Concern, I’m writing to report a haunting on some property I have just acquired. I bought a plot of rural land as part of an upcoming business venture at a highly discounted rate due to there being an old defunct railway track running through part of it. My plan was to tear up the old tracks to build on the land, but it appears there is a stretch of it that we are unable to remove. Construction workers have removed as much of it as they can, but for this specific stretch, they report a feeling of… Well, it sounds utterly ridiculous when I try to put it into words. But they described a feeling of melancholy, too strong to continue working. And you have to understand that these are very, let’s say, stoic working class men. I do believe the situation would have to be somewhat extreme to warrant a complete refusal to go anywhere near the tracks again. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help to speed this process up, and do get back to me with a quote as soon as possible so that I can re-work the construction budget around this new cost. Kind Regards, David Lowell

Okay, so, classism and toxic masculinity aside…. I mean, yeah, sounds like the perfect case for me right now. Remember Montgomery Whitley, buried in the Better Place Mausoleum in Highgate Cemetery? Well, remember how I promised to come back to him once I got the recorder working? Yeah, I still haven’t done that yet. Mostly because he was a category one, or at least he was until he went absolutely bonkers and somehow spilled over into category two territory while I was speaking with him. But either way, if he’s a brand-new category two, I don’t know what kind of effect that’ll have on the recorder. The quality was noticeably better with Stephen than with Edna. So, maybe it’s not up to scratch for Mr. Whitley yet. And, I really need it to be up to scratch. Whatever he had to tell me, it was a big enough deal to push him over the edge after about a century of sitting quietly as a category one. So, I’m not taking this recorder to him until I’m sure it works. And the only way to know is to try it out on some category ones. And this one, well, this one has the added bonus of sounding an awful lot like the kind of ghost that needs a chance to have their voice heard.

Josh was the lead on this case, looks like he found a handful of suicides that took place on this track over the course of the nineteenth century when this train line was active. But once it was narrowed down to the very specific part of the track that can’t be removed, it looks like there’s just one spirit it could be, a Mary Barker, in 1858. There’s not much else on her except the record of her death. Looks like she was a relatively poor unmarried woman, so, no surprise there, I don’t think the nineteenth century was exactly kind to any women who weren’t already wealthy. Seems the case was dropped by David Lowell a few months after he made the initial report. Keeping the construction crews on standby had been costing too much, so he dismissed them, then couldn’t find room in the budget for the dispatchers to come out, so put the whole thing on hold while he regrouped. It doesn’t seem to have been reopened since, so seems as good a time as any for me to go. It is a fair distance outside London, but Frank’s calendar is once again blocked off all day with this mysterious workshop, and answerphones exist. Plus, it’ll give me something to do this afternoon other than sit in the office and stress out about the date and field Riley’s calls. I’ll hopefully report back from home tonight. See you on the other side!

[SFX: Recording Ends]

[SFX: Recording Begins, Classical music playing]

Leo:

Well. That. Went. It went, for sure. I have been… Trying to process it all night. I listened back to the recording, edited it as best I could, and just couldn’t bring myself to make my notes on it until today. So I’m back in the office, Frank’s in a meeting, and I’m going to try to just start from the beginning. It all started off pretty standard. I took a train over to the nearest town, then a smaller train over to the nearest village, then took a long walk into the countryside to find the lot that David Lowell bought back in 2019. It really was in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, knowing that he’s kind of abandoned his work on it meant there was less risk of being done for trespassing, so I wasn’t in any rush. It was kind of nice being out of the city, anyway. I just wandered around for a while until I found the old railway line.

[Atmospheric: Classical Music fades out, Melancholy atmospheric music fades in]

The tracks had been torn up, but the ground was still untouched, still a clear path of pale, sickly dirt through the surrounding fields. Cleared of gravel and wood and metal but not quite yet able to bounce back from a century of pressure. It took a long time to follow that trail, but I didn’t mind so much. It was a clear, warm afternoon, and it had been a while since I went on a good long walk. Walking always helps me, you know? I don’t know if it’s the sun or the exercise, but I always feel lighter after a walk. Which is why it was so obvious, I think, when I started getting closer to the spirit. All that lightness fell away. A heaviness started to sit on my chest. And at first I thought it was just me getting back in my own head, but the closer I got the more it grew, and it became overpowering, a darker feeling than I’ve known for… Well for years, not since… Well, it was bad. Not something I ever wanted to experience again. But I knew this was her, Mary Barker. And I won’t lie, the feeling was kind of comforting, in a horrible kind of way. It made panic impossible. Maybe it helped that she was a category one, but I felt the presence of a ghost and for the first time since Whitechapel, I didn’t feel my heart race. I didn’t feel anything but gut-wrenching misery. And I couldn’t help but think that maybe, after nearly two centuries of being alone out here, feeling this awful awful desperate feeling, what she needs is someone who won’t run from it. Looking back, now that I’ve heard the recording, I don’t think I was wrong exactly. It sounds like she hasn’t spoken to another person for a very long time. Maybe it did help, but… I don’t know. It was weird. I can’t even explain, you know what, I’ll just play it back.

Leo (On recording):

Hi, Mary- Miss Barker, sorry? You here? I understand you’ve been trapped here for a while, I… I feel your grief. I know there were some construction workers her a couple of years ago who felt it too. I’m… Not going to run from it though. You feel whatever you need to feel, and I’ll feel it with you. Just, in the meantime, if there’s anything you’d like to get off your chest, I have a recorder that can capture your voice. Could you start with some basic details first?

Mary (On recording):

So… Far away. So… Far apart. it has been so long, so empty… alone. I don’t know, I don’t remember. So out in the open, my mind over there, my thoughts over here. Who I was out of reach, who I am too far away. Don’t know. Can’t remember. Not… not a person.

Leo:

Great, thank you. And normally here I’d ask why you believe you might be tethered here, but I understand that this is where you died, is that right?

Mary:

Is it? Yes, yes it is. I died here. I don’t remember living, but I do remember that. The dying. Twice. Dying twice. The first, under the train. The second, when I lost it. Lost the…. What was it. The hold. The power. It went away. I died again. No, not died. Dispersed. Faded. Drifted. Too big a feeling for words. Not… Concrete enough. I am not concrete enough. I am not enough. Not alive enough. Not… enough.

Leo:

And can you tell me a little about your afterlife so far?

Mary:

No life… Not for a long time. For a while, yes. Dead, but alive. Gone, but here. Present. Over years. Decades maybe, clawing back together. So far apart but getting closer. Becoming…. Stronger? Becoming me again. But it went away. The hold I had. it slipped. I slipped. Not growing together any more, falling apart. Falling away. Nothing to draw on, all gone. No power. Nothing left.

Leo:

Thank you for sharing this with me, Miss. Barker. There’s a company called Better Place – you might have known them as Mortui Non Morden during your lifetime. They remove ghosts, I wanted to ask if this is something you’d consent to, this removal?

Mary:

Please. Please, take me away, all of me if you can. Rather be… gone than… here but apart. Rather be gone entirely, no thoughts… better than thoughts just out of reach.

Leo:

Okay, and before I go, I know that a lot of time has passed, and it’s unlikely there’s anyone left for me to pass any messages on to, but is there anything else at all you’d like to say?

Mary:

No… Please… Just… Help me.

Leo (No longer on recording):

So, for one thing I’ve really got to find a way to get this recording to play back in real time. There’s me just nattering on about “thanks for sharing, got anything to add?” and she’s going full tortured soul. And for another thing, what in the ever-loving hell was that? I can’t tell you how long I’ve pored over this recording. From what I can tell, this has something to do with the spirit’s progression between categories. This bit, right? “clawing back together. So far apart but getting closer.” That fits the current theory of how the progression works, kind of condensing, their consciousness and power becoming more concentrated as they reform over the years to more of a human shape. Which, okay, yes, this could be absolutely groundbreaking if that’s the case, right? Because it’s actual confirmation from a real spirit that the current theory is correct. Which is more than we’ve ever been able to get.

But I mean, what does the rest of it mean? Like, if she’s describing the process of coming together, of becoming stronger, becoming a category two, then what was all that about the hold “slipping”? Something about “falling apart, nothing to draw on?” I have never heard of that happening. The progression to category two should be a straight line, not something that you can just lose a grip on. I know I wanted a distraction but this feels like, maybe, too much. I just wanted to prove that ghosts have feelings, I didn’t-

[SFX: Door Opens]

Leo:

Knock much?

Riley:

Yeah, well you’ve been ignoring my texts for two days, thought if I knocked you’d end up hiding under your desk. Like a coward

Leo:

Not a bad idea, actually. Thanks, I’ll bear it in mind for next time.

[SFX: Chair rolling out, Riley sitting down]

Riley:

So….

Leo:

So?

Riley:

Come onnnnnn, don’t be like that. Give me something, anything. Any indication. Good date, bad date? Are you betrothed or ready to quit your jobs to get away from each other?

Leo:

(GROANS, THEN SIGHS) I had a good time. I think I embarrassed myself a few times, but no surprise there. And I honestly… still kind of think she wasn’t there because she likes me

Riley:

Not this shit again…

Leo:

No really, she was like, really pressing for information on Frank and what he does all day and what I’ve been working on. And sure, she seemed flirty on the surface but… I don’t know there were a few times where, when I didn’t give her anything, she seemed really frustrated.

Riley:

Yeah, I know the feeling.

Leo:

I just… God she’s so gorgeous Riley, there’s no way she… I can’t let myself… You really think she’s genuine?

Riley:

Leo, hun. You’re hardly CIA. How is it possible you have such low self esteem and such an inflated ego at the same goddamn time? Consider that maybe you’re worthy of love but also not nearly cool or important enough to be investigated.

Leo:

(STAMMERING)

Riley:

Hey, do me a favour will you? When you see her for a second date, ask her what her big three are

Leo:

Her… big three?

Riley:

Yeah. Sun, moon, and rising. I’m getting Scorpio energy which isn’t ideal but maybe if she’s a Scorpio rising I could look past it.

Leo:

(SOUNDING, IN FACT, INCREDIBLY UNSURE) …Sure

Riley:

Soooo, think she’ll say yes?

Leo:

To… telling me about her big three?

Riley:

To a second date, you dickhead.

Leo:

Oh, er, I don’t know. Paranoia aside, I don’t know if I… did I mention that she’s really pretty?

Riley:

No I don’t think that’s actually come up before.Leo:
Yeah, well, I mean… I’m not… I’m not exactly smooth, am I?

Riley:

(LAUGHING) I mean, so? She knew that going in. We went out for drinks her first day and when I said “Julia, this is my friend Leo,” you just blurted out “Hi, Leo?” then put out a hand for her to shake. And she still asked you out, so she’s clearly into weird. It’ll be that Scorpio rising, probably.

Leo:

Must be, yeah, er, that thing for sure. You know I was working a case file when you came in here, can I like, get back to it?

Riley:

Go ahead, I’m not even here.

Leo:

I meant… Nevermind. The category one didn’t work anyway, not really. It was… weird. I was going to go through the audio, clean it up a bit, but I don’t want to use it on Mr. Whitley until I’m sure it’s ready anyway.

Riley:

He’s been a category two for a couple of months now though right?

Leo:

Yeah I just… He seemed like he had something really important to say. I don’t want to go there, have him answer all my questions, only to find out it didn’t take.

Riley:

A refreshingly risk-averse take, Leo, is this… growth?

Leo:

You’re funny

Riley:

I am. Speaking of growth, you gonna call Julia?

Leo:

I hate you

Riley:

Love you too! Don’t throw things at me, I’m leaving.

[SFX: Office chair rolling out, footsteps as Riley’s voice becomes more distant]

Riley:

Have fun cleaning up audio or whatever. Call her!

[SFX: Door opens then closes]

Leo:

(SIGHS)

[SFX: Recording Ends]

Closing theme begins

Leanne:

Episode Twelve of Tell No Tales, Nothing Left, was written and performed by Leanne Egan. You also heard the voices of Jess Kadow as Mary Barker, and Phil Thompson as Riley. If you enjoyed this episode, the best way to support the show is to spread the word. Leaving us a rating and review in your listening app of choice is a huge help, or you can follow us on Twitter or Tumblr @tellnotalespod 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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