"You may not know about what has happened at the concert hall," Miss Simpson said, "people have died on and off stage. I doubt it's only one ghost."
"I've passed that place during the daytime and it's not very pleasant," The girl beside her piped up.
"Is your daughter...?" Lockwood raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, she's got Sight and Touch," Miss Simpson nodded. The girl next to her also nodded her head.
"Do you have any more details about what has happened?" George pressed, thinking it unnecessary for them to talk about the girl's talents at this moment.
"No, sorry," Miss Simpson shook her head, "unfortunately, details on what has happened in that concert hall has been kept to a minimum. Yes the stories were publicised in the papers, however, there weren't were many details given. However, you might get something out of a certain gentleman. His older brother was ghost touched on stage."
"That may be helpful, yes," Lockwood nodded slowly.
"His name is Harold Paton. He lives in 68 Lexham Gardens," Miss Simpson said. Then she paused, "Does this mean you'll take it?"
Lockwood looked towards the other two who nodded.
"Yes," Lockwood gave the lady his charming smile.
Miss Simpson sighed with relief. "Oh thank you so much! Even though it will most likely be too late to save my son, at least I can know what happened to him."
"Of course, we'll keep you updated as much as possible," Lockwood said.
"What do I do about payment?" Miss Simpson dug her hand into her purse.
Lockwood raised a hand. "We can discuss that later," He assured her.
"Please, surely you need some payment before hand just in case you need to stock up on equipment or something? Transport expenses? Anything?" Miss Simpson's forehead creased.
"No, I insist that we deal with payments of any kind to a later date," Lockwood insisted firmly.
Miss Simpson sighed. "Thank you, Mr Lockwood. We really appreciate you doing all this," She said.
"We'll keep you updated from time to time," Lucy promised.
"Thank you again so much!" Miss Simpson looked very relieved as Lockwood walked the two clients to the door.
Lucy remained where she was as George cleared away the tray.
Lockwood returned. Sighing, he asked, "When's the final appointment?"
"In about an hours time," Lucy replied.
"I'll be in the library," Lockwood said, after several minutes. He disappeared into the adjoining room, muttering something that went along like 'might as well advertise we do police work as well now'.
Lucy giggled softly.
She picked up the latest True Hauntings magazine to amuse herself. From time to time she looked through into the library, the door connecting the two rooms had been left ajar.
Lockwood was lying on the ground with a book covering his face.
"Are you alright?" Lucy asked eventually, getting up and approaching him.
"Oh yes, absolutely marvellous! I was thinking about renaming. How about 'Lockwood & Co. Agency and Police services'?" He took the book of his face and looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.
Lucy couldn't help herself and burst out laughing.
"It's only this once, Lockwood, just this once," She said, joining him on the floor, "you heard what the said. DEPRAC refused to do anything because they believe Fittes already did the job properly."
They both lay there in a comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company.
"Definitely a Type Two, isn't it?" Lucy looked at him.
Lockwood nodded. "Most definitely," He agreed, "After the last client leaves, I'll send George straight to the archives to start on research."
"And what are we going to do?" Lucy asked.
"Up to doing some visitation? Mr Harold Paton make give us some more details of what is going on," He replied.
"Okay," Lucy nodded.
"Did George tell you that two invitation arrived earlier?" She suddenly remembered the two envelopes that came through the letterbox.
Lockwood shook his head.
"Both Fittes and Rotwell have each invited us to be their special guest to go with them to some event that's being hosted soon," Lucy explained, "Which invitation are we accepting?"
Lockwood bolted up into a sitting position, startling her.
"I was thinking Rotwell would be better since we did ruin Fittes' 50th Anniversary Party and broke into the Black Library. But apparently despite all that, they still invited us," Lucy continued.
Lockwood was deep in thought.
"I could ask Kipps or Kat for their opinion as well? See if they know why we were sent the invitation," Lucy offered.
Still no reply.
"Lockwood?" Lucy sat up, "Uh, Lockwood?"
"Fittes or Rotwell?" He mumbled to himself.
"Yes, we have to choose one to accept their invitation," Lucy said. She had no idea what he was thinking and where it was going to lead.
"Where are the invitations?" Lockwood asked.
"I'll get them, they should be on the kitchen table," Lucy scrambled to her feet and disappeared out the Library door. She returned a few minutes later.
"Here," She said, passing him the two envelopes.
Lockwood pulled out one of the invitations.
Steve Rotwell has especially invited Lockwood & Co. to accompany them as their special guests to the annual Agent's Ball hosted this year by Rotwell's Agency.
Dress Code: Formal Evening Attire
"Steve Rotwell and Penelope Fittes have always seen each other as rivals. I bet Rotwell was planning on sending a normal invitation, but when he heard that Fittes was going to send an invitation to us to be their special guests, he decided to compete with her on that," Lockwood mused.
"Which one are we accepting?" Lucy repeated her question from earlier.
Lockwood didn't reply and instead, took out the Fittes invitation as well.
"Do Fittes agents and Rotwell agents have any, I don't know, bad blood against each other?" Lucy instead asked.
"Not really, just Steve Rotwell and Penelope Fittes. The agents are fine with each other. In fact, George used to know a Fittes agent who's younger brother was in Rotwell," Lockwood said.
"Maybe we should accept Rotwell's invitation. We don't exactly have a perfect track record with FIttes at the moment," Lucy repeated her suggestion.
"Good idea," Lockwood nodded, "I'll ring them up later. And both you and George need to go shopping. You can't wear the same thing you wore at Fittes and I doubt George has anything suitable in his closet."
"I'm terrible at picking out clothes! Last time three sales assistants had to help me," Lucy groaned as she looked down at the dress code.
"Formal evening attire, that means long dresses and fancy stuff," Lockwood grinned.
"Unlike you, I wasn't born in these kind of circles," Lucy grumbled.
"And unlike you, I have a great sense of fashion. I'm not letting you shop on your own, and I'm definitely not letting George go on his own, he'll certainly make a diversion towards the archives," Lockwood laughed.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Our next client," Lockwood stood up and dusted himself off, "Let's go shall we?" He offered Lucy his hand.
She smiled back as she grabbed hold and pulled herself up.
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