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Edith Cruller had only lived at 12 Portland Row for a handful of years before the agency popped up. It was quite unusual for an agency to find itself in such a residential neighborhood as theirs but she supposed it would come in quite handy if she ever found herself on the receiving end of The Problem.
She had been born long enough before the problem that she never even had the chance to best tested for the talent, and lived most of her life up in Birmingham before moving to London when she retired. The house she moved into was nice and the agent assured her that it was very decisively ghost-less, double, triple checked even. Which might have been a lie.
Luckily, there were those agents down the road. And they were likely a fair bit cheaper than any of the more prestigious agencies like Horriman & Bart or Fittes & Rotwell Agency.
Edith Cruller held her purse tightly under her arm as she rapped her knuckles on the door. She spared a glance over to the white sign hanging gently in the wind. Lockwood & Co. (Really, what was it with all these ampersands in Psychical Investigator agency names?)
The door was opened abruptly by a young boy in a slightly too large graphic tee.
“Hello.” He said, giving her a cursory once over. “Are you a client?”
Edith thinks it’s a bit of a rude way to greet a potential customer, but it’s not enough to send her out the door. “I suppose so.” She says.
“Alright –“ He says, “Come right this way.”
He leads her past the basket full of rapiers to a comfortable chair in the Library.
“I’m very sorry.” He says, “My name is Anthony Lockwood, we weren’t expecting any visitors. Could you give me a moment.”
He leaves her there before she can even introduce herself and she hears the thud of footsteps on the stairs.
After a few moments there’s voices carrying down from just upstairs, then more banging down the stairs. Edith takes the opportunity to look around. The library is scattered with artifacts that she’s mostly seen from advertisements or the telly. They at least do seem to be legitimate Psychic Investigators, at least. She catches more feet on the stairs and voices in the hallway. There seem to be three of them, all of them quite young.
Lockwood hurries back into the room, this time dressed in a crisp white shirt with a hastily tied black tie and takes the chair next to her, a moment later, a young girl and boy follow each other into the room and take seats on the couch. The boy places cups of tea and a plate of biscuits in front of them.
“These are my partners George and Lucy.” He points to each one of them, “Business partners.” He clarifies, as if she would have thought of anything else.
His eyes dart quickly between George and Lucy, who are sitting awfully close to each other, Edith observes.
“Could you describe what has been happening to bring you here?” The boy – George – asks, notepad and pen in hand.
“Well to start with,” She says sharply, “My name is Edith Cruller, I live not far down the road and I’ve come because I’m worried there might be a visitor in my home.”
“Apologies, Ms. Cruller.” The first boy says, “We had a late job last night. We’re all a little scattered. Tea?”
She takes the tea.
The visitor, or so she suspects, was in her upstairs bathroom. The one she never used, because she didn’t really need the space. Of course, she mentions, there had never been any sign of ghosts before.
The three of them share a look of silent communication – so she takes the opportunity to ask, “Is it just the three of you running this place. No supervision?”
“Yes.” Lockwood says, “But I assure you, we’re quite good.”
Edith gives them a pale smile. She isn’t very reassured, but they’ve been able to keep themselves open for a little while now so they must be passable.
The three of them discuss the details briefly and assure her that they can come by the house tonight. They ask a few questions as well, as well as if she has a place to stay for the night. She blinks at that – “In my house, of course, It’s only in the upstairs bathroom.”
The girl makes an attempt to convince her to stay with a friend, but she quickly brushes her aside. The three of them look at each other, obviously communicating something in their silent glances. Lockwood finally nods and says that it will be fine.
As she leaves the house, she thinks she sees Lockwood pull the other boy towards the basement by the hand. “What an odd little trio.” She mutters to herself after Lucy latches the door behind her.
At sunset exactly, there’s a knock on the door. The Lockwood & Co trio stands grinning outside her door decked out with the bags, rapiers and bombs of their profession.
She directs them to the upstairs bathroom.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to leave.” The boy with glasses, George, asks. “You could even wait down the street in our office.”
Edith wouldn’t dare intrude on their home like that. “Oh no.” She says, “I’ll be quite fine here.”
She hurries back downstairs to make them tea.
When she goes back upstairs to check on them. Lucy and Lockwood are holding hands and carefully watching as George explains something from his notebook. They quickly extract their hands when Edith appears – but not fast enough that she didn’t notice.
“Just checking in.” She says with a smile. “There’s tea downstairs. Everything all right?”
“Don’t worry Ms. Cruller.” Lucy says, “It looks like your house is free of ghosts. The source is likely in the connecting flat.”
Lockwood bursts to his feet – “it looks like we’re going to have to check in next door.” The three of them share a glance like they did before in their sitting room. Almost like they have telepathy, George raises his hand, “I’ll stay, you two go.”
Lockwood nods. “All right then.” They step over the iron chains they left on the threshold of the bathroom and start grabbing their bags to move next door.
She decides to move the tea from the kitchen to her little sitting room, passing through the landing by the front door where Lockwood and Lucy are just leaving. As she glances back, she spots George lean in to kiss Lockwood on the cheek. Her eyebrows shoot up and she quickly looks away, but she can still see the murmured “stay safe”.
A few moments later George joins her in the sitting room.
“I’d be quite all right to stay here on my own.” She says, “If you’d rather accompany your partners.” Edith now quite understands that the three of them aren’t strictly business partners.
“Oh I couldn’t do that Ms. Cruller.” George says, “Besides, I’m more of the researcher type.” To her, that sounded like a gross undervaluing of his talents.
“Mrs. Cruller.” Edith corrects, “My wife died a decade ago but I like to think I’m still married to her in spirit. Or you can call me Edith.”
“Oh – “ George seems to connect the dots. “You saw that then.”
I guess I’m not the only observant one here. Edith thinks. “You two make a lovely couple –“ She picks up on his slight hesitation to say anything “or you three.” She adds.
George swallows. “Err – yes.” He says, “I’m glad you think so.” He looks down at his tea.
“I hope you don’t think I’m being nosy.” Edith adds. “Not a lot of room for entertainment in an empty house like this.”
“Except for the ghost?” George adds.
“Oh yes – except for the ghost.”
George sets his mostly full cup of tea back on the table, having had a sip and deciding that it wasn’t worth it. “I don’t think you’re being nosy. I suppose I thought we were being discrete.” There’s a slightly blush that’s gathered on his face as he speaks.
Edith chuckles slightly. “Not very – although I was wondering, and forgive me for intruding – were you together before or after you started an agency together.”
“Oh after, considerably so.” George said. “Thought it might break up the agency for a second there too. But it’s worked out quite nicely.” He has a soft grin on his face that reminds Edith of the way her wife used to look at her. It’s quite sweet. She even picks up a cup of tea to take a sip – only to discover its gone cold.
“Oh dear.” She comments, “I’d better make a new pot.”
About an hour later, when Lucy and Lockwood knock on her door with news of success. George wastes no time in pulling both of them into a bone-crushing hug. Both of them tuck their faces into George’s neck and return the hug in strength.
It’s only when they pull apart that Lucy looks up and widens here eyes to see Edith at the end of the hall. Edith gives her a wink.
They do make a sweet trio.
They all straighten up like they’re mustering their professionalism back up.
Lockwood gives her a quick rundown of the situation at the other apartment. Edith is more than pleased to hear that it was resolved easily.
“I’m glad you’re all back in one piece.” She thanks them. “Please feel free to come around for tea anytime.”