The Wedding

The Case

It's been a while friends, but I didn't feel inspired to write and I didn't want to write bullshit, but here we go! Thank you for all the nice comments and votes btw!
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Lucy's POV:

I was pissed to say the least. So my mother could make snarky comments about how I never visited because of my work etc etc, but as soon as she needed something from me it was all smiling and 'I'm so proud of my daughter'.
Of course we still listened to Mr Sheppard, but I bit my lips sore unconsciously.
Lockwood was his usual cool controlled self (definitely the whole contrast to the moaning mess from yesterday night) and massaged the back of my hand with his thumb.
I knew that he was trying to get me to calm down, but to be honest I didn't even want to. I hated fakeness (which is ironic since Lockwood himself was the fakest person ever... But not to me) and I especially hated it in my mum.
"Sir, how did you find out about the visitor?" Lockwood took a sip from his tea.
Sheppard had sat down with us, apparently he was the new priest of the town and he felt as if his new home, the vicarage, housed an unwanted guest.
"I mean, you're not the first vicar here, how did the others not notice it?" Lockwood went on.
"Well you are quite right with that. The way I see it, it hasn't been there for long. I could not find any mentionings of possible phantoms from any of my predecessors, but since Vicar Thomas had passed away in such a gruesome way, I'm afraid it must be his soul still trapped there." the elder man chewed his muffin with a furiousity that would have made George jealous.
" Can you elaborate on that?" Lockwood requested, his warm hand slowly rubbing mine sweaty.
"Well, you know, the suicide." Vicar Sheppard stopped chewing for a second, "I'm afraid that's a detail I shouldn't have let out."
"He killed himself?" I asked, "In the vicarage?"
"Jumped from the third floor, broke his neck. Terrible blood stain on the terrace. " Susan shook her head, "How desperate do you have to be to do that..."
Lockwood eyed her, pondering, "Indeed... So how does the visitor manifest himself?"
"Well, I've seen him jump off the roof a few times now, every time with this terrible cry. He walks up and down the stairs, blocks the entry to the house etc. I tried spreading lavender and praying for his soul. During the day of course. But he is quite the stubborn type I'm afraid. Of course I could call the town intern investigators for this little problem, but why would I if I can have the great Anthony Lockwood solve the case?"
"And Lucy Carlyle." Lockwood remarked.
"I'm sorry?"
"And the great Lucy Carlyle." Lockwood smiled and winked at me.
The vicar nodded offhand, "Sure."
I enjoyed how my mum's smile froze on her face.
"And I would like to bring in the rest of the team if you don't mind waiting another day, we'd rather work together." Lockwood added, watching Sheppard down his coffee in five seconds.
"So you'll take the case? Lovely, very lovely." Mr Sheppard beamed at us.
"How could I say no? If you would be so kind and forward us the documents about the history of the building, that would be splendid. My colleague will view them just to make sure we won't miss anything." there was something off about my friend, I watched his face closely, but as always his thoughts couldn't have been more secret.
"Sure. Would you like to talk about the payment?" the vicar was finally done with his breakfast and looked at us.
"I'm sure you can make discount, Anthony, since Vicar Sheppard is a family friend." my mother suddenly remarked.
Lockwood spoke before I could, "Obviously. But we shall discuss that later, I have to estimate what we need first. Lucy, we should contact our headquarters so that George and the others can be here as soon as possible."
We got up, said a quick goodbye and headed to the lobby. Lockwood dragged me basically, he didn't waste more time, I knew he wanted to get me out.
As soon as we arrived in the lobby I shook my hand free from his,"Can you believe her?!"
"Lucy, it's not a big deal, we can easily afford a discount..." he tried, but I interrupted him, "That's not the point and you know that very well! All this time she acts as if I'm the family's outlaw for actually making something out of my life and now..." I took a deep breath since my lungs were out of air from yelling, "That's so... Argh, is it really that hard to say 'I'm proud of you Lucy for saving England'?! She is so incredibly disrespectful, seriously! No, don't say it, don't tell me to calm down!"
Lockwood smiled, "I wasn't going to. You're right, it's unfair, but what else should I have said?"
"Oh, I'm not blaming you for it and you know that." I ran a hand through my hair, "It's just so frustrating! Be glad that you don't have family like that."
I immediately regretted saying that. I could see it hurt him although he tried not to show it, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
"I know."
"No, really, that was stupid, I'm sorry." I shook my head and massaged the bridge of my nose, "I know you're not glad at all."
He shrugged, "Well, right now..."
I couldn't help a dry laugh, "At least I made you feel better, that's great."
He chuckled, "Come, let's call George, I'm sure it will be highly entertaining to see him meet your mum."
I laughed, "I can't wait to see that indeed."