𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐀 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓 || lockwood & co.

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 || PROLOGUE

It was 8:32 PM on a Sunday night when the telephone at 35 Portland Row rang.

Lucy Carlyle looked up from the newspaper she was looking over and stared at the phone. She looked over at the kitchen entrance where Anthony Lockwood was sitting inside.

"Can someone get that?" He asked, not coming out.

Lucy now looked over at George Karim, who sat in his usual chair across from the sofa, his face buried so far down into his book that Lucy could only see his hair line. He seemed determined to not have to be the one to get up and answer the call.

"Please?" Lockwood called from the kitchen again, this time sounding a little annoyed.

Lucy sighed and stood up, setting the newspaper down. She crossed to where the telephone sat on its table and picked up from the receiver. "Lockwood and Company; your hauntings are our business. How can we help?" Lucy answered, reciting the Agency's motto as she had a hundred times before.

"Hi, who's this speaking?" Responded the person on the other end. It was female, Lucy could tell by her feminine voice.

Lucy was a little taken aback by the caller's question. Clients didn't normally ask for her name, and usually got right down to business. So she was a little slow on answering. "Uh, this is Lucy Carlyle."

"Is Anthony Lockwood there?" Asked the caller.

"Yes, he is."

"I need to speak with him."

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. "Ma'am, if you're calling about a haunting, I can-"

"I'm not calling about a haunting." The caller interrupted, her voice sounding stern and impatient now. "Tell Lockwood this is Matilda. He'll know who I am."

Lucy paused before answering. "Give me a minute." She brought the phone down from her face and turned toward the kitchen. "Lockwood!" She called. "There's someone on the phone for you!"

"Did they say who they were?" Lockwood called back, his voice echoey from his distance away in the house.

"She said she was Matilda. And that you would know who she was."

There was a momentary pause. Then there was the sound of a chair shooting across the hard kitchen tile and then footsteps as Lockwood walked out of the kitchen and across the living room to Lucy.

"I'll take it, thank you." Lockwood said as Lucy handed the phone over. He waited until Lucy walked away before putting the phone to his face and speaking. "What do you want?"

"You don't miss me?" Responded the caller, whom was allegedly named Matilda.

"No, not remotely." Lockwood said. His voice had a tone of resentment, much alike in how he would speak to Quill Kipps of the Fites Agency.

There was a short pause across the line before Matilda sighed. "Anthony-"

"Dear God, don't call me that." Lockwood muttered, shifting on his feet irritably.

"I'm not one of your little work friends, Tony."

Lockwood didn't say anything for a moment, but stared at the floor with a scowl. "What do you want, Matilda?" He said quietly.

He could hear Matilda take a deep breath across the line. "Something happened, Anthony. I-I don't know what, but I was just..." She took another breath. "Tony, my apartment complex burnt down."

Lockwood paused, trying to thinking about what she had just said. "What." He said, sounding more of a statement than a question.

"It's gone. Went up in flames."

"How?"

"I don't know. DEPRAC and the police is still rooting around to see if it was staged, but so far there's no evidence that someone started it."

Lockwood sighed and looked around; Lucy and George were watching him quizzically. He turned back to face the wall. "Alright. Where are you now?" He asked.

"You know that hardware store down the corner from my complex?"

"Yeah."

"I'm calling from there right now. But Barnes is at the scene," Lockwood scoffed quietly as Matilda spoke. "and he wants me back there asap. Has to question me or something."

"Bloody man has no sympathy." Lockwood muttered, walking away from the wall with the phone still in his hand. "Alright, do I need to come to you or...?"

"Oh, God. Please don't do that." Matilda mumbled.

"Why not?"

"Barnes is already annoyed with me wanting to call you. You being here would just make it all worse." Then she made a little huff of a laugh. "The guy really hates you and you're friends, Tony."

"Stop calling me that." Lockwood said, trying to pull the telephone's cord further across the living room so he could reach the coat hanger where his coat was. "And tell Barnes he can suffer at least twenty minutes in my presence."

Lucy and George watched Lockwood pulling the cord and reaching out with his free hand to struggle to grab his coat with a strained expression on his face.

Matilda laughed a muffled laugh again. "I thought you didn't miss me?"

"Oh, I don't. But you're still - you're still my - goddamn - you're still my bloody-" The static noise of the running line cut off in Lockwood's ear suddenly. He looked back and saw he had pulled the phone cord so much it had become unplugged. He sighed and sagged his shoulders. "-sister."

"Lockwood,"

He turned to where Lucy and George still sat, staring at him.

"Lockwood, what was all that about?" Lucy asked.

Lockwood sighed, put his hands on his hips, and turned away to stare at nothing in particular. He was silent for a short moment before he clicked his tongue and turned back around. "Either of you fancy visiting the scene of a burnt down apartment complex?" He asked bluntly.

Lucy and George both opened their mouths to question him but never got to speak before Lockwood answered for them.

"Good! Because we're leaving now! Grab your coats."