Page 121 of Unalive On Air

“Three.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

. . .

thirty

Beyond the Veil

Sike!

We didn’t “move on.”

Honestly, I’m not sure what it will take to move on. Perhaps it’ll be a lifetime with Trystan before either of us sees the light at the end of the tunnel, as it were.

But we did fuck some more. Just a few hundred times. We fucked for days and days. Lost track of time completely. The sun rose and fell, and rose and fell, and we held each other and rocked into each other, and came together over and over.

Jeanie finally figured out where we were, or possibly Magnus told her.

“Boys, I hate to interrupt, but we have a visitor!” she yelled from the end of the gorse pathway, not daring to step closer to the hut.

PC Jazmin Zhou sits on the patched‑up cabriole. On the coffee table beside her knees, she’s set up what appears to be some kind of nasal decongestant steamer and a dresser mirror. Items most likely brought from her own house.

“Hi, Gary,” she says. “And everyone else. Hopefully, you’re here and you can hear me okay.”

Helga bows out of the honeymoon suite and closes the door behind her.

“I don’t have very long,” Jazz continues. “There’s a bridal couple due to arrive very soon and check-in was at three.” She looks around the room, her gaze landing on nothing in particular.

What she can’t see is the ragtag collection of ghosts gathered round to listen in. Josh, with his eyes still fixed to his phone screen. Stove lying belly down on the plush rug as though he’s a kid at a sleepover. Pixie and Jeanie lounging together, arm in arm, like mother and daughter. Camille, sitting cross-legged because they’ve finally mastered it. And Trystan, beside me, his hand on my thigh.

“I just thought you might appreciate an update on what’s happening with the case. Cases. And since I’m alone in this room, I’m not breaching any data confidentiality agreements, but please don’t broadcast this on your podcast.”

I nod, not that she sees it.

Jazz takes her notepad from her pocket and flips through it until she finds a page almost entirely filled with shorthand scribbles.

She clears her throat. “As you probably already know, Kelsey Cobbledick has been released from custody. There wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge him with the murder of Jean. Suffering dog bites around the same time someone who had dogs went missing is, at best, an incidental coincidence. The forensic officer in charge has said that Jean’s skull fracture is consistent with an impact from falling, but we couldn’t find this gnome that Pete . . . Peter’s ghost spoke of.

“I took the liberty of wiping the prints from the ExorSquad gun under your pillow. I could lose my job, I understand that, but the alternative is to watch an innocent woman get sentenced for a crime she was not consciously aware of. I hope you’ll forgive my actions there. Please, please do not tell my supervisors.

“Davies is suspended on garden leave while they investigate his many transgressions. It wasn’t just with the deaths at The Paragon, it was with everything. Not filing paperwork properly, contaminating or losing evidence, et cetera. He’s in a world of shit right now and possibly looking at jail time.

“The police are still examining your death, and Jean’s, by picking through the old case files, but no additional evidence has presented itself. There also seems to be a general belief that your podcast is real, like . . . I know it’s real, and I know you’re real, but there’re a lot of naysayers about who think it’s all a prank. Currently, the police efforts are focused on trying to find out who’s doing the pranking. So far, what they understand is that the server traces back to this hotel, and the computer IP is registered to Gary Runcorn, so they’re not getting very far with this.

“But the good news is that everybody else loves the show. Helga’s going to move your laptop and all your stuff to a dedicated studio space that she’s soundproofing or something . . . I’m not quite sure. She said she’s gonna hire a guy from the business who knows what he’s talking about.

“She’s also said they’ve had loads of new enquiries to stay at the hotel since the podcast, and so many requests for the honeymoon suite that there’s now a waiting list. Everybody wants to catch a glimpse of the famous Paragon phantoms.

“If it’s okay with everyone, Helga would like to turn the trophy room into a museum of sorts, so that the ghosts in the hotel can live on through the memories displayed there.”

Everyone shrug‑nods. Jazz can’t see this, so Pixie drags the word “sure” into the steam clouds on the mirror, startling her.

“And if it’s okay . . .” she says, pausing and looking down at her notepad. “I have been trying to get in touch with families and the like, and I have a few messages to pass on . . .” She waits, clearly nervous.

Pixie writes “OK” on the glass.