[ Glow ] ~ Anthony Lockwood x OC

X - A Ladder

"We've been looking at it the wrong way around." Lockwood told the three of them. They had all changed from their sleepwear and were now headed out to the archives to do research on Annabel Ward. "It's not about us helping Annabel. It's about her helping us." Though, Daniel still wasn't quite sure why Lockwood wanted to look the girl up. How would a dead girl help them now?

"Really? How?" Lucy voiced.

"It's all about media exposure. Annabel's disappearance was a big story. It's far bigger than us burning a house down." Lockwood explained. Daniel shifted her hoodie, trying her best to release some of the tension on her shoulder. It didn't work. "If we solve her murder, the headlines we'll get will cancel out all our bad press overnight."

"Unless we fuck that up too." Daniel smirked, gaining a scoff from Lockwood.

"I thought you said no more pet projects." Lucy looked up at him.

"It's not a pet project anymore. It's the main event."

"It won't make us sixty grand." George told them, he had his hands shoved into his coat pockets.

"It could make us more." Lockwood shot back. "I mean, think of the millions of old people sat at home, nothing to do but reminisce and read the papers. They love murder mysteries. It's a bona fide front-page splash. And Barnes won't dare make a move against us."

"Leave me out the media bit. I don't like my name in the papers. Had enough of that crap back home." Lucy told him.

"Me too, I. . .Don't like the attention as much as everyone thinks." Daniel piped up. It was true, she hated attention. But not in the normal way. In reality, she didn't care for her name to be known, but the part she didn't like was being used to gain publicity. It happened a lot more at Fittes than it should have, especially for how big their company already was. 'Survived girl of two of London's best agents who has some of the best talents ever recorded' brought media attention to even the biggest of names though. It was the worst when people would get a single word out of her and then advertise it as an 'interview' on the front page of the papers.

"Just have to know how to deal with them. Leave that to me." Lockwood shrugged it off.

"I mean it. Keep me out of the spotlight." Lucy stopped her walking, grabbing the other three's attention. She continued again. "The most important thing is solving the case, right?" Daniel simply stayed quiet, hoping that he would listen to both her and Lucy.

Once they made it to the archives, Daniel could immediately tell George was in his element. He looked confident, calm; it was strange to see. "This is where it all happens." He beamed up at the large building. "Quietly. So behave yourselves, okay?"

Daniel let out a faux gasp of offense, dramatically bringing her flat palm to her chest. "Rude. I'm practically always quiet."

"Yeah, but you're a psychopath. So you need to behave too." He nodded to himself, the words spilling out his mouth easily. It was like he didn't even have to think of them, they were just there.

Lockwood looked down at Daniel with a smirk, following George inside. He lead them in with ease and up a glass elevator to the fourth floor of the building. They ended up pulling out all George's previous research on 62 Sheen Road along with some other files he had gone to grab with Daniel's help. They were all reading through the seemingly endless papers when George broke their silence and concentration. "This is it. She was in Hamlet, playing Ophelia." He looked between his colleges, none of whom were looking back beside Daniel, who had put down her paper to focus on him.

Lucy lowered her own article, looking over to George. "What does that tell us?"

"Ugh. Why must I me surrounded by philistines? Wait there." George got up to presumably go find Hamlet. Lucy slid her chair over, along with George's article, in order to read what he had.