See No Evil (Anthony Lockwood)

chapter 16

Violet watched as DEPRAC hauled the body out of the water and others snapped pictures of the scene.

"Danny Clough was one of the older agents when I was starting out. He helped me out. Got me out of trouble a few times. He was one of those people who had no idea how cool he was," Lockwood explained, his eyes trained on the corpse.

"How did he from from that to...a relic man?" Lucy asked.

Lockwood stayed silent, just staring with pained eyes as he felt the loss of yet another person in his life.

Violet stepped forward to put a hand on his arm, "Hey, it's gonna be ok. We'll figure this out, Lock."

Lockwood nodded, "Let's just keep this to ourselves. We need to find out who his partner was."

"Let's see if Barnes has found anything," Violet said, hesitantly creeping closer to the canal.

"We dredged the whole stretch. No mirror," Barnes told them.

"Any idea who the body is?" Lockwood asked, feigning ignorance.

"Still working on it. But going off the tattoos, definitely a relic man."

"Who do you think did that to him? His eyes, I mean?" Kipps wondered, purposefully not looking in Violet's direction at all.

"No one. We found ocular tissue under his fingernails. And injury suggests it's his own. Whatever he saw in that mirror made him do that to himself. You need to make a breakthrough. If that thing gets into the wrong hands..." Barnes trailed off.

"We won't let you down, Inspector," Kipps said before walking away, throwing a glare in Lockwood & Co. direction as he did so.

Violet sent him a nasty look right back, "Prick."

~

"Fittes will go wide. They'll round up every relic man until they find something. We need to move faster. Smarter. George."

"Yeah, archives. I know. What about you three?" George asked, almost annoyed.

"No time to explain. I'll fill you in later. Meet you back at the house at midnight for an epic breakfast," Lockwood said before heading up the stairs.

Violet gave George a small smile and a nod, "Thank you, George. I know you'll get us what we need. Stay safe."

"Yeah, you too," George muttered as he went his own way.

"Are you sure you're all right? About Danny?" Lucy asked carefully.

Lockwood brushed her off, "Hardly knew him."

Lucy shared a look with Violet and the red-head sighed, "Alright, well, if you need to take a breather at any point, we can give you a few minutes."

Lockwood ignored her words, "I know someone who can help us. An old friend, works on the river."

Violet groaned, "The river? Are you serious? Can I just go with George then?"

"No. We won't be going in the water. You'll be fine," Lockwood said.

"Don't like water much, Vi?" Lucy asked her.

Violet sighed, "Hate it. Let's just get this over with."

~

It was dark out by the time they got to the river and began walking over the rocks.

"I hope they still work this patch. It's been a while," Lockwood said with a small grin.

"Who? The relic men? Don't you think they'll be in hiding, with Fittes all over town?" Lucy pointed out.