thief - lw&co [anthony lockwood]

19.

First-person (Erin)

We rushed out of the cab to find George.

It was an act now, asked questions later kind of situation.

From what I understood George had disappeared from the house after we had completed the job.

Both Lucy and Lockwood seem to know where he was.

The both of them seem also quite fidgety around me. I wondered why.

Maybe it has to do with the job we had just done?

But like I said it's an act now ask questions later situation.

We needed to hurry.

We headed for the large building in the centre of the cemetery we were in a few hours ago.

Lockwood pushed the doors open and stepped in, Lucy and I shuffled behind him.

"Where right here." Lockwood huffed, out of breath.

"Ah!" Kipps exclaimed.

It's always a pleasure to see him.

"Good evening Inspector," Lockwood said to Inspector Barns while walking through the group of Kipps's agents.

"Anthony Lockwood and a case gone wrong." Barns mocked. "Nothing seems to change."

We stood ourselves next to George, face to face with Barns and the Fittes agent.

George looked at me with concern as I stood next to him.

"You alright?" He whispered.

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?"

He furrowed his brows at me.

"What?" I whispered back at him. I was genuinely confused.

But my attention was cut short by Lockwood bickering with Kipps.

"Nice to see you here Kipps. What is it? Three times this week?" Lockwood chuckled.

"Twice by my count," Kipps said unfazed.

"The mirror's gone." George interrupted the conversation. "This is big."

Both Lucy and Lockwood seemed perplexed by that my only question was:

What the actual hell is going on? What mirror?

I'll have to ask later.

"It is yeah." Lockwood agreed with George. Rare occurrence anyway. "And it's our case."

"Not anymore. We've already made a preliminary report." Kipps gave us a fake smile, then stepped back and let some other guy speak.

"The first question is, why and iron casket a century before the Problem?" He said.

Who the hell is this nerd.

I eyed George wondering if maybe he knew.

"Well, the Fittes database confirms it to be a still." The boy continued. "Used in breweries in the late 19th century. It also confirms that 1886 saw a violent labour dispute, at Hildrew's Ales at Kilburn." He turned around with a proud smile.

"There you go, sir." He handed Barnes his report.

"We believe this well-dressed man was the owner." Kipps nodded as he spoke. "Murdered by his workers and buried in the first thing they could find."

"An accidentally murdered brewer?" Barnes didn't seem convinced.

"An awful way to die, sir"

I snorted at Kipps answer.