Buried Within (Lockwood & Co Fanfic)

No Theoretically

Theoretically, he knew Anthony Lockwood showed up at DEPRAC the day before, which meant trouble.

"Except, there is no theoretical when it comes to Lockwood & Co. As that particular agency even attracts trouble in the form of the agents they take in."

Inspector Montagu Barnes sighed; looking at the information, he turned up from looking up the bright yellow car parked just outside of the Lockwood & Co. agency. He leaned back in the chair, wondering what he should say to Lockwood regarding what he found, of the trouble that the small agency yet again managed to find simply because the situation decided to walk through the door.

"Inspector Barnes?"

"Sergeant Wade?" Barnes said, sitting up straight. "What is it?"

"Lockwood is on the phone for you," Sergeant Wade said.

Barnes sighed, reaching out for the phone on his desk and shaking his head as he did so. He lifted the phone up to his ear. "What is it, Lockwood?"

"We're dealing with a particular issue involving property scams that DEPRAC will be interested in," Lockwood said."

"What you mean to say is you want me to interfere so you can continue doing what you're doing?" Barnes said.

"Well, we do get the job done,"

"That's highly questionable," Barnes said. However, ignoring the trouble surrounding Lockwood & Co. was never a good idea. As such, he arrived at the property office where a woman stood looking around as if she saw things, yet because neither George nor Lockwood was reacting meant there wasn't a ghost there that she was looking at. "What's going on?"

The woman in question jumped, resulting in Barnes narrowing his eyes at how jumpy she was, remembering what he had discovered. He took a deep breath as George frowned. "Should we tell you, though? If it means that you will be taking the case from us and assigning it to Rockwell or Fittes."

Barnes glared, knowing how untrusting of adults the Lockwood & Co. agents were even though he didn't have all the details. "If you could only understand that adults like me are here to keep your kids safe." Instead of saying those words out loud, he folded his arms. "It depends. I need to look into the details of what is happening here."

"Well, we can't leave this woman's house with a body in it, can we?" Lockwood asked.

"DEPRAC can just remove the body," Barnes said.

"That only works if the body is the source, though, and we all know that's not the case," Lockwood said. "That a ghost could have latched onto something else that, if it's not taken care of, could result in the client or clients losing their lives. That's why even when a body is found, we're called in. Agents, that is."

"As a DEPRAC agent, I'm fully aware of that, Lockwood," Barnes said. He nodded his head to the woman. "What is with taking in a potential client with a missing person's report on them?"

"They what?" George said, turning to look at the woman, pushing up his eyeglasses in agitation. He turned to Lockwood. "Really?"

"You're not acting on this missing person's report?" Lockwood said.

Barnes lowered his voice. "I've already talked with the person who filed the report, and they want to know they're safe." He frowned. "Where's the daughter?"

Lockwood glanced over at the woman, then at George, who sighed before walking over to distract the woman. However, whatever George was saying resulted in the woman staring at the teenager as if he'd grown a second head or a ghost was coming out of his mouth. Lockwood turned, keeping his voice low. "Ms. Pascal's daughter is with Lucy, looking for the property because Ms. Pascal isn't sure she's going to hire us."