A few days passed, and Alison, Egad, and the ghosts were no closer to proving Derrick guilty. Thomas had been having little music dates with Elizabeth whenever they could, and it helped keep her mind off her death.

But, despite their best efforts, the team had hit a wall, and Egad grew more frustrated by the day. "God, this bastard went through a lot of trouble to cover his tracks. We don't have anything we can use against him, other than the words of my dead bloody sister!" He huffed, sipping from the cup Alison had given him.

Elizabeth was resting her head on her hand, sitting next to Alison. "Guys, I think it's time we face it that this isn't going to work. You can't use me as a witness for obvious reasons, and considering we wasted the first two days going off of the advice of a dead Tory who was literally just setting us up for fraud, things aren't looking too good" She groaned, starring daggers at Julian from across the table, who raised his hands in defence.

"Oh come on Liz, we can't just give up. We can figure this out. Ok, let's go over the events of the party again" Alison suggested, only to be met with a groan from the others at the table.

"What good will that do? We've been over it many times before, and all it does is cause Lizzy unnecessary grief!" Thomas chided, holding Elizabeth's hand tightly.

"No it's fine" Elizabeth murmured, clearing her throat to re-call the events of that awful night.

"The night started with me, Markus, and two other friends at a table drinking, before the other guests arrived. We were holding the party as a break from recording, and I knew that Derrick wouldn't be happy about it. Anyway, the guests arrived, and the party started to get lively, but Derrick returned early. I went to the front door to calm him down, knowing he'd be pissed, but he was drunk, really drunk. How he drove back I'll never know. He started yelling at me, I yelled back. And that's when-" Elizabeth stopped, gesturing to her neck. "You know what happened. Anyway after that I became a ghost, and Markus came looking for me and found my body. He called an ambulance, they took me away. And the next day the crew packed up and left. For weeks there was forensic teams here, and apparently they came to the conclusion I killed myself".

Thomas squeezed Elizabeth's hand, laying his head on her shoulder.

Alison let out a deep sigh, looking over the notes on the table. "Well, there's something we haven't tried."

"What?" The others said in unison.

"Markus is still alive. Why don't we ask him a few questions about what happened? What he saw".

Egad hummed, picking up his phone and smiling. "That might be a good idea, and I still have his contact details. I could reach out to him."

"Great! We've just got to have he's willing to talk about it" Alison smiled.

Elizabeth smiled back, slightly uplifted by the thought of seeing her old friend. "Sure, what have we got to loose?"

———————————————————————

A day passed, and Egad had been in touch with Markus, who surprisingly was more than happy to help.

"It seems he hates Derrick as much as you" Alison joked, Elizabeth standing next to her as they waited for Markus to arrive.

Although, Egad did warn them about something Markus had told him.

"Apparently he got into a bad car crash about three weeks ago and was in hospital for a good while. He said that was the reason he could't visit Elizabeth's tree this year."

"I hope he's ok" Elizabeth stressed, fiddling with the buttons on her jean jacket.

"I'm sure he's fine Liz, otherwise he wouldn't of come out to help us". Alison reassured.

Elizabeth nodded, stuffing her hands into her pockets. Not much later, a car pulled up on the driveway. A man stepped out, nervously looking around. It was Markus.

"I'm sorry, I need a minute" Elizabeth muttered, going back into the house. Seeing Markus up close like this was something she hadn't prepared herself for.

Markus spotted Alison, and walked over to meet her. "Hey, I'm Markus, I don't think we've met"

Alison nodded, "no we haven't, I'm Alison, I live here now with my husband, Mike" she said awkwardly. "Would you like to come in? We can talk things over with a nice cuppa" she offered.

"That sounds great thanks. I've only just got out of hospital, but as soon as I heard what you were trying to do I just had to help. Elizabeth was my best friend, and what that asshole did...I'll never forgive him". Markus looked disgusted just thinking about Derrick.

The two entered the house, Markus hanging his coat up by the door. "Wow, I haven't been back inside here for a good while now. It's weird" he stated looking around.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, and his body stiffened.

Elizabeth was standing at the end of hall, talking to Captain.

Alison placed a hand on Markus' shoulder, concern lacing her features. "You alright mate?"

Markus slowly raised a hand and pointed to Elizabeth at the end of the hall. "H-holy fucking s-shit" he stuttered, terror in his eyes.

He proceeded to crumple to the floor, unconscious.

Alison looked down to the man now at her feet. "Oh fuck" she cursed, turning to Elizabeth then back to the man on her floor.

"MIKE!" She shouted "I MIGHT NEED SOME HELP".