Chapter Text
I had known that Jessica had had a hard childhood. It could be seen in her big, empty house, the locked attic, the coloured spots on the walls where photos had once hung. But what had happened, I didn’t really know. Jessica Lockwood was a mystery to me.
I joined Lockwood & Co when I was about 14. I had just run away from my home up north after my whole team had died because of a job gone wrong. Everyone blamed me, even my mum. I couldn’t stay, so I ran. I spent two weeks being rejected by what felt like every agency in London before I stumbled across the ad for Lockwood & Co. It was owned and run by Jessica Lockwood, with her deputy George Karim and her boyfriend Quill Kipps. Jessica was lovely from the very beginning. She’s quite a bit older than me, by 7 years. Me and George didn’t get on very well at the start, but we’re good friends now. Kipps irritated me to no end for months. He’s okay now, but I still don’t see what Jess sees in him. The four of us live at 35 Portland Row, which is also our base of operations.
I was very happy where I was. I was surrounded by people who I cared about and who cared about me. But there was one thing. The room above my head. I was sleeping in Jessica’s old room. It was a nice little room, with a view of the garden and the apple tree out there. There were still old stickers on the wall of giraffes, balloons and animals. And right above it was the attic. On my first day, when Jessica was giving me a tour of the house, I noticed the door one more flight up from my bedroom.
‘What’s up there?’ I pointed up the staircase. Jess turned her head to follow my hand. ‘Oh, that’s private, if you don’t mind. Nothing interesting.’ After that she immediately changed the subject. The room hadn’t been brought up again after that, but it was always something that I was very curious about.
We all worked together well and we quickly became quite well-known within the agency circle. We booked more jobs, gained more fame, we were even approached by Penelope Fittes herself after our treacherous case at Combe Carey Hall. Everything Jessica wanted for the agency. After we completed the aforementioned Combe Carey Hall case, we had a bit of a slump in our case stream, but we didn’t mind. We really needed a bit of a break. Although it didn’t last long.