E-Liza: Hi Shelly. Can I help you?
Shelly: Yeah. Are there any files regarding Robin Jaeger? Ones I don’t have already, I mean.
E-Liza: I found thirteen files containing the phrase ‘Robin Jaeger.’
Shelly: Okay… aggravated assault? Nasty. Two. Fucking hell, this guy. He… he tried to bite off a man’s ear. But… hang on, these are a decade old. This is before. E-Liza, order these by most recent.
E-Liza: Okay, Shelly.
Shelly: A missing person’s report. A closed missing person’s report. From four years ago. I’m pretty sure that’s before he was on billboards. Way before… Alice.
Right. So, report filed by… Noah Davies. Who?
Hang on. Dave closed the case. He closed it because.
Because Robin Jaeger was already dead.
Shit.
It’s real. There’s a copy of a death certificate and… god. Robin Callum Jaeger, died January 2026. Fifteen years ago. He was thirty. Well. Whatever they did to him he certainly aged well. Cause of death…
Suicide.
He… took his own life.
[breath]
E-Liza: Is there anything else I can help you with, Shelly?
Shelly: Yeah. Can you check if DI Dave closed this case?
E-Liza: This casefile was closed by Detective Inspector David Hughes.
Shelly: He knew Robin was dead. He saw the death certificate. But then why…
E-Liza: I’m afraid I can’t help you with that, Shelly. Is there anything else I can help you with? I can give a list of-
Shelly: No. Thanks, E-Liza. That’s fine. What’s the attachment on the file?
E-Liza: It’s an audio file called ‘Untitled27’
Shelly: Super organised Dave, as always. E-Liza, can you play it for me?
E-Liza: Of course I can, Shelly.
[scratchy sounds]
Noah: Hello? Who is this?
Dave: Is that Mr Noah Davies?
Noah: Yeah.
Dave: Right. This is Detective Dave Hughes. You called us, about a missing person’s report you filed [flicking through paper] three weeks ago? For Robin Jaeger.
Noah: Yes. Have you found something?
Dave: No. Mr Davies. I’m very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I’m afraid Robin Jaeger is dead.
Noah: I know.
Dave: I’m sorry?
Noah: Didn’t you read the report? I know he’s dead, but he’s missing.
Dave: Are you reporting… a grave robbery? That’s really not my department, but-
Noah: It’s not a grave robbery. He donated his body to science. Specifically, to a company called U-Co.
Dave: Right. So. You reported him missing because…?
Noah: Because I want to know where he is.
Dave: I don’t think we can help you with that. You could try calling the company, but as it’s been several weeks then, I suppose they’d be… he’d be disposed of.
Noah: No, that’s the thing. I saw him.
Dave: [deep breath] Right. Okay, Mr Davies, I’m going to-
Noah: Don’t hang up! I’m not mad. I saw him. At the beach on Huddau Bay.
Dave: I’m not a paranormal detective, Mr Davies, I’m a real detective, and you’re wasting my-
Noah: I know what it sounds like, but I he wasn’t a ghost. It was him, it was Robin. He was there, in this woman’s car. I recognised her, from the day he signed the forms. Her name is Dr Sophie Bennett.
Dave: And he was… dead? When you saw him?
Noah: No, I. I don’t know. But I need to know where he is and what they’re doing to him.
Dave: I really don’t think this is a job for the police, Mr Davies.
Noah: What am I supposed to do? I’ve tried calling U-Co, but they just hang up. I’m not. I’m not registered as family or next of kin or anything so they won’t give me any information. Please, I really need your help.
Dave: [sigh] Sounds like you need help alright.
Noah: No! Look. Robin was. He signed the forms but he was conned. The whole thing is just. It’s wrong. I don’t know why they came to him, specifically, but he was just back from his tour in… I don’t know where he was, but he wasn’t right when he came back and they knew. They knew exactly what to say to him, and they got him to sign those forms and now he’s theirs.
Dave: Unless he was medically insane or his family opposed this, there isn’t anything I can do.
Noah: I don’t know what they’re doing to him but I know they didn’t want this.
Dave: You say you’re not family or next of kin, why are you the one on the phone about this?
Noah: The family don’t care. They never liked him. He tried to. They opposed his will, you know, given the circumstances of his death, how soon before he died that he made it. They came out of this pretty well.
Dave: But why do you care?
Noah: I was his. I was his friend.
Dave: Right. Okay, Mr Davies.
Noah: Oh, fuck this.
[line bleeps]
Dave: ‘Bye Detective, thanks for your time’. [scoffs] [writes something in pen] Understandable. Poor kid. Anyway, where was I-
[recording cuts off with crackles]
E-Liza: End of recording.
Shelly: That can’t be it.
E-Liza: Would you like me to play it for you again, Shelly?
Shelly: No. It’s fine, thanks E-Liza. [pause] Noah Davies. E-Liza, can you search for Noah Davies and see if anything comes up?
E-Liza: I found four hundred and six case files containing the name ‘Noah Davies’.
Shelly: Jesus. Wait, common name. E-Liza, how many of those files are from the last… ten years?
E-Liza: Thirty two.
Shelly: Okay. And how many of them are from the Huddau Bay area?
E-Liza: The only case file mentioning ‘Noah Davies’ and ‘Huddau Bay’ is the case file you already have open, Shelly.
Shelly: Right. Great. [pause] What about other stuff? Not case-files, just everywhere on the system from the last ten years.
E-Liza: I found the phrase ‘Noah Davies’ on seven documents. Can I help you with anything else?
Shelly: Why aren’t you showing me the files?
E-Liza: The files are marked ‘private’ and are password protected. I can open the files if you tell me the password.
Shelly: Who marked them ‘private’?
E-Liza: The files were marked ‘private’ by Detective Inspector David Hughes.
Shelly: Right. Great. Thanks for that one, Dave. [sigh] E-Liza, take me back to the Sophie Bennett stuff.
E-Liza: Okay, Shelly.
Shelly: Play the next recording I haven’t listened to.
E-Liza: Playing file Bennett PC 36 dot Sam
[interference]
Sophie: …and to be honest, I’m not even sure what you’re asking.
Alice: Well. If you’re going to keep prying into my personal life I thought you could do a little caring and sharing of your own.
Sophie: It’s none of your business, what happened between Sam and I. It was years ago.
Alice: I thought you wanted a full record, map the whole thing out, start to finish? Or are you going to try and say that it’s not relevant at all? We both know that’s a lie.
Sophie: You’re right. It is relevant.
Alice: So you were fucking him?
Sophie: We were… seeing each other. Yes.
Alice: Like you were ‘seeing’ me?
Sophie: Yes. Like that. [pause] It was different with him.
Alice: I’ll bet.
Sophie: I don’t mean. Obviously it was different, but the circumstances, too. I was just starting out. I’d only been in research a couple of years and Sam had been working for U-Co for getting on a decade. I won’t say he took advantage because that’s not true, I went with him because I wanted to. We were both consenting adults, I knew what I was doing. But he was my senior, in age, at work. And I was new here. Maybe if that wasn’t true it wouldn’t have happened.
Alice: [scoffs]
Sophie: I already told you he convinced me to keep on working with Robin, tried to tell me it was all reflexes. I don’t know what else you want me to tell you.
Alice: I don’t know either.
[interference]
E-Liza: End of recording.
Shelly: Sam. Dr Samual Maxwells. I was wondering when you’d show up. Still, didn’t think it’d be like that. I’m afraid I’m with Dr Sophie on this one; I don’t really see why this is important, Alice. Unless this is Dr Sophie trying to convince me she’s innocent.
Or, I suppose it could be Alice trying to convince us that. If she was sleeping with her.
God, Alice, you got in so over your head, didn’t you?
E-Liza: I’m afraid I don’t understand the question, Shelly. Can I help you with anything else.
Shelly: No, E-Liza. I don’t think you can.
Hanging Sloth Studios 