thief - lw&co [anthony lockwood]

15.

Edited : 22/08/24
First-person (Erin)

Once back from the funeral, the group separated, Lockwood and George went to DEPRAC for who knows what. While Lucy and I went home, once inside we immediately went to the kitchen for a nice cup of tea.

Lucy and I sat in silence at the table. I don't really think I ever had a face-to-face conversation with Lucy before. I could feel the awkwardness in the room and it was making me uncomfortable, same for Lucy apparently because she decided to speak up.

"So..." she started. "Are you and Lockwood dating?"

"What?" I said bewildered.

This is definitely not what I was expecting. Was that the best she could come up with?! Not a 'how was your day?' Or 'How are you feeling.'

No, it was immediately 'Oh, are you dating our boss?'

"No?!" I exclaimed. "What makes you think that."

"I don't know." She shrugged. "George said—"

"George told you I was dating Lockwood?!" I could only assume my face was bright red at the moment, I could feel the heat of my cheeks going to my head giving me and headache.

"No!" She shook her head. "Of course not! He just said—"

Lucy was once again cut off, this time by the front door slamming.

"This letter from DEPRAC is unbelievable." Lockwood huffed when entering the kitchen.

"It's better than it could be." George went to sit down next to us. "They're covering everything up." He explained

"Saying Fairfax died of natural causes." Lockwood continued.

"Well, they're trying to protect his name, but why? Whatever he was up to, killing Annabelle Ward was clearly the tip of the iceberg."

"Maybe he's part of a secret underground society?" I shrugged.

The boy's attention was now on me. They both seemed confused and George scrunched his eyebrows.

"Why is your face so red?" He asked

"What?" I flushed even more. I looked towards Lucy, knowing it was her fault but she just snorted.

Both boys seemed even more confused and shared each other a look, they both seem to just shrug.

"Still, at least we're getting paid." George continued on the previous topic.

"The whole 60 grand?" Lucy seemed ecstatic.

"Who cares? We can't talk about it. Combe Carey Hall should be putting our names on the front page of the Times." Lockwood complained as he sat down. "And now it's like it never even happened."

"Your name, you mean." George chuckled. "Lockwood this is great. The oversight's been lifted. We're debt-free!"

"We're client-free, we're reputation-free, and by the way, we've got a lot more depts than just that 60 grand fine," Lockwood argued.

George just shrugged and sighed. He then pulled out a magnifying glass and Fairfax's goggles.

"George. That's evidence you stole from the crime scene." Lockwood complained again. "It needs to be kept safe."

"I just wanna know what it is. Why would this insignia be on those crates and these goggles. It's fascinating." He said

I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

"Whatever these are, they were useless against that vicious ghost." He continued.

"She was brutally murdered, George. What do you expect?" Lucy argued. "And yeah, she was scary in the end, but I really felt like I knew her. Like she was... still alive."