Opening theme (short version) begins

Leanne:

Wasting Company Time presents Tell No Tales, season two. Episode 11.5: Start of Something

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[SFX: music and chatter fade in, a door is opened and three sets of footsteps step through. The door is closed, and the music and chatter become muffled on the other side]

LOUISA

Thank you both, again. Not just for coming today, but for the last couple of weeks. I know you didn’t exactly sign up for the role of messengers for two long-lost-lovers.

JULIA

Seriously, you have no idea how good it feels to be useful, after the shit-show of these last few months.

RILEY

Yeah. I got… kind of a pep talk, a while back. Reminded me where my priorities are. This is just as important as any grand plan.

JULIA

Who gave you a pep-talk?

RILEY

Don’t worry about it.

LOUISA

Well, we’re still grateful. I know Arthur tells you all the time in his recordings, but I’m telling you again. Between visits, I replay all the old recordings for Arthur, and I don’t think he ever gets sick of hearing them.

RILEY

Really? How many hours of recordings is that now?

LOUISA

With today’s update? It’s got to be coming up on six hours in total. These last few recordings have been long.

JULIA

(LAUGHING) Yeah, it was sweet though. It’s nice to see them moving past the intense first-reunion stage and straight into the “let me tell you about my day in minute detail” stage.

RILEY

So what’s up with the secretive backroom meeting?

LOUISA

Right, yeah. So, I’ve been speaking to a friend of mine, Patrick. He’s a solicitor, specialises in discrimination law. He was helping us out as much as he could with this place, but there’s not really much for us to do, legally-speaking.

RILEY

There’s a but coming, I assume.

LOUISA

Yes. I told him about Arthur, just in passing, and he’s very interested. He doesn’t want to get any hopes up, because there’s absolutely no human rights for ghosts enshrined in law. From a legal standoint, ghosts aren’t even human, but he wants to try.

JULIA

Try? With Arthur?

LOUISA

As in, he wants to take Arthur’s case.

RILEY

Does Arthur even have a case to take?

LOUISA

That’s what he wants to find out. But he seems to think there’s a chance. He’s considering a few avenues – one of which is something similar to squatter’s rights. I don’t understand it all, but there’s some rule about being able to register for ownership of the property after ten years of living there. Let me pull up the article Patrick sent me-

[SFX: Tapping and scrolling on phone]

Right. So, yeah it’s ten years. It is easier, legally speaking, to squat in a non-residential property, but the squatter commits a criminal offence if they refuse to leave after a formal request. Nobody has made a formal request. Not to Arthur. They’ve raised a case with Better Place, but that isn’t the same. And Patrick thinks there’s an argument to be made for Arthur’s inability to leave if that does come up. And… where is it… yeah, here, it says that after ten years, a squatter can apply to become the registered owner of the property without the owner’s permission, and if the owner challenges it, there are options. One of which is to prove it would be morally wrong to refuse the application.

This is what Patrick thinks is our biggest chance for making a landmark case in defence of ghost rights. Even if it fails, it gets people talking, considering. And that alone is worth it, right?

RILEY

Right. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere, just the act of attempting to stand up for a spirit, that’s something.

JULIA

This could be the start of something huge.

LOUISA

And it can help the Carnation Club too. I’ve already asked Arthur if he’s interested, obviously I don’t know what he thinks yet, but I think we can ask him again next time the recorder’s on. And Stephen, too. His testimony could help humanise Arthur.

RILEY

This is… right. Yeah. This is really something.

LOUISA

There’s one problem though. Julia, what you told me about Better Place and their warehouse-

RILEY

(INTERRUPTING) You told her?!

JULIA

Was it a secret?

RILEY

Yes!

LOUISA

I haven’t told anyone. And I still won’t, if you tell me not to. But it could help Arthur’s case a lot if we go forward with it. If we can argue that Better Place’s treatment of spirits is inhumane.

JULIA

What have we been doing all of it for, if not this?

RILEY

We’ll be fired for sure.

LOUISA

How attached are either of you to your jobs?

RILEY

(LONG PAUSE, THEN SIGH) Our days at Better Place were numbered either way, I think.

JULIA

I think we should do it.

RILEY

Every instinct in me is screaming that this is a rash and deeply fucking unwise decision. But honestly? I think we should do it too.

Closing theme (short version) begins

Leanne:

This episode of Tell No Tales was written and produced by Leanne Egan. In it, you heard the voices of Josie Thomas as Louisa, Shannon Kelly as Julia, and Phil Thompson as Riley. Thank you for listening, and remember: the dead don’t bite.

Closing theme (short version) ends