The Haunter of the Dark Episode 1

## Synopsis

Three years on from Heawood's dramatic disappearance at Pleasant Green, Kennedy has lost hope of ever seeing him again.

Following the dramatic end to The Shadow Over Innsmouth, she has travelled extensively, following apparent leads, and there is no trace of him. But then a mysterious man leaves a message on the Red Hook Stories answerphone. Perhaps the story isn't over yet.

## Plot

Over two years after the disappearance of Matthew Heawood from the village of Pleasant Green, Kennedy Fisher is still visiting their recording studio regularly to check the post and voicemails. However, after hitting a number of dead ends, she is beginning to consider how best to move on from Heawood and the Mystery Machine podcast they did together.

However, at the start of 2023, Fisher receives a phone call from a man called Marcus Byron and they arrange to meet in the café across the road from the studio. Byron is a somewhat dishevelled figure who appears to be living and sleeping in only one set of clothes but he explains that he’s been told to contact Fisher by Parker. Byron tells Fisher about Theo Martin, a 19-year-old man who apparently committed suicide recently. Fisher is not interested in helping Parker with this unless it connects to Heawood’s disappearance. Byron can’t make that guarantee but when he mentions Robert Harrison Blake and suggests asking Dr. Eleanor Peck about him, this piques Fisher’s curiosity.

On a phone call, Peck explains that Blake was a journalist who was killed in the Great Storm of 1987, supposedly from a heart attack. Peck also explains that Blake’s notebook likely contains his research and field notes about a cult he was investigating called the Church of Starry Wisdom. The church was founded in Britain in the 1930s and was a combination of mysticism and fascism. It was this connection with fascism that drew Blake’s attention as he sought to root out fascist groups that continued to exist beyond the Second World War.

In her second meeting with Byron, Fisher learns that the Department of Works has been shut down and that Parker and John Silence, along with a number of other operatives, have had to go into hiding. Byron then explains that those operatives who are left are now trying to continue the work on their own and this has led them to investigate a possible connection between Theo Martin’s death and Robert Blake’s notebook. Byron explains that Theo’s grandfather was Phillip Gibson, a man who ‘probably’ died in 2010. Being the most likely person to have last had possession of the Blake notebook, Theo Martin’s death becomes all the more suspicious.

Fisher interviews Theo Martin’s aunt, Laura Gibson, who is devastated by her nephew’s death. She explains that Theo’s demeanour was not that of a man who wanted to kill himself.

Talking with Byron again, Fisher shares her suspicions that Theo Martin was killed for the notebook, a theory supported by Martin’s flat being burgled two days after his death. However, Fisher believes Martin never had possession of the notebook in the first place. The two of them travel to Canewdon, Essex where, according to Laura Gibson, her father had a storage facility unit.

While searching for Gibson’s storage unit, Byron connects some of the dots for Fisher by explaining that Phillip Gibson is the same man who was the first husband of Amelia Fenner’s daughter, Destiny.

They find a light switch and what they discover in the storage unit surprises them both.

## Cast, Characters, Crew

* Jana Carpenter as Kennedy Fisher
* Ben Crowe as Marcus Byron
* Nicola Walker as Dr. Eleanor Peck
* Catherine Kanter as Laura Gibson

## Notes and Trivia

* Laura Gibson refers to Ernest Gladwin having a son who was largely responsible for losing the family fortune. This would suggest that Elizabeth and Emily had a brother.