When Lucy woke the next morning, she once again found Lockwood nowhere to be seen. This time, however, she only had to wait a few minutes for him to return.
He must have been back to the bed and breakfast again because he was wearing a fresh suit, and carrying a bag of clothes for Lucy. He also came bearing a tray that turned out to contain her breakfast.
"The doctors want to check your stitches again, but if everything looks good, I think they'll let you out shortly,'' he said, perching on the end of her bed while she wolfed down a piece of toast.
"Best news I've ever heard,'' she said in between mouthfuls. She still felt a bit weak and her side ached when the painkillers wore off, but otherwise she felt okay. Well enough to not spend any more time in a hospital, any way.
George, Kipps and Holly arrived just as Lucy emerged, looking much more like herself again in a skirt, tights, and light shirt, from the bathroom a while later.
"You've been given the all clear, then?'' George asked, helping himself to a leftover apple from the breakfast tray.
"Sure have, a clean bill of health.''
Lockwood cleared his throat. "Apart from not being allowed to run, fight, use a rapier, lift anything heavy, stand up for too long, or exert herself in any way until she gets her stitches out in a few weeks.''
Lucy shot him a dirty look. "Those are just guidelines.''
Lockwood glanced at the others, who were watching the exchange with wide eyes.
"Lucy is having some trouble coming to terms with the fact that she will be resting at the bed and breakfast while we continue to work on the case.''
"And Lockwood,'' Lucy retorted with false sweetness. "Seems to be forgetting that I am a grown woman who is very capable of making her own decisions and stabbing someone with a rapier if they try to leave her behind.''
"Yeah, I'm staying out of this one,'' Kipps said, holding up his hands.
Holly rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's just get out of here. We've got some information for you.''
After managing to get a ride back to the bed and breakfast in two of the village's three cabs, and after a lot of fussing by a teary-eyed Agnes, they congregated in Lucy and Lockwood's room.
Lucy, Lockwood and George sat on the bed, while Holly perched on the arm of the squashy chintz chair Kipps had claimed.
"So, what have you learned?'' Lockwood asked.
"Well we went and knocked on doors around the school to start off with,'' Holly said . "But that was a dead end. Nobody had seen anyone unusual hanging around. So Kipps suggested we may as well go and check out some of the other haunting sites.
"We went to one of the houses where activity had been reported, and that's where things got interesting. The couple that owned it said someone claiming to work for DEPRAC had called around the day before, searched the house, and found a source: a gold wedding ring hidden in a secret alcove in their old fireplace. Apparently he was a big bloke, built like a rugby player, with blonde hair and a beard.''
Lockwood had leaned forwards as Holly spoke, his hands clasped together tightly.
"So that's two sources now that have been nicked by some mysterious man who nobody seems to know,'' he said thoughtfully.
"Three. We went to the second house, he'd been there as well,'' Kipps piped up. "Same story. And we called Barnes to check - there's definitely nobody from DEPRAC here. Not officially, anyway.''
Lucy also leaned forward, ignoring both the tugging of her stitches and Lockwood's worried sideways glance.
"Powerful sources going missing? A sudden, rapid increase in Visitor activity? This is starting to feel pretty familiar….''
Holly nodded. "It looks like someone is collecting sources for a portal.''
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a bit of arguing after that.
Kipps and George wanted to immediately head out and start searching for the bearded man, whereas Holly thought they needed to call in DEPRAC, arguing they had done their job by finding out what was going on.
"OI!'' Lockwood eventually shouted, breaking up the bickering.
"Would you lot shut it? I've got an idea. We know this bloke is after powerful sources, right?''
George shrugged while the other two nodded.
"Well, if we can predict where he's going to search for one next, we could go there early and wait for him to show up,'' he said with a satisfied grin. "And where is the one confirmed haunting site that we haven't been to yet?''
George groaned. "You're going to say the cemetery, aren't you?''
Lockwood laced his hands behind his head and lay back on the pillows. "I am indeed.''