Home > Work > The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co., #2)
1 " Death is fugitive; even when you're watching for it, the actual instant somehow slips between your fingers. You don't get that sudden drop of the head you see in movies. Instead you simply sit there, waiting for something to happen, and all at once you realize you've missed it. "
― Jonathan Stroud , The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co., #2)
2 " Lockwood gave a sudden exclamation; when I looked at him, his eyes were shining. 'On second thoughts, we can scrap my last suggestion,' he said. 'Stuff the mingling. Who wants to do that? Boring. George - this library. Where is it? "
3 " The men dug some way down, I believe they struck the coffin." "Excellent. We can deal with it now. George here is good with a spade, aren't you George?" "Well I certainly get plenty of practice." George said. "
4 " I opened my mouth to speak – but before I could do so, the ghost gave its response. It was brief, pungent, and to the point.I passed it on.Lockwood started. ‘Charming! Hold on – was that from you or the ghost?’‘The ghost, of course.’George whistled. ‘I’m not sure I should write that down. "
5 " - Plan F, we follow Plan F, right now. - Is that the one where we run away? - Not at all. It's the one where we beat a dignified emergency retreat. "
6 " This was classic Lockwood. Friendly, considerate, empathetic. My personal impulse would have been to slap the girl soundly around the face and boot her moaning backside out into the night. Which is why he's the leader, and I'm not. Also why I have no female friends. "
7 " Well, I make that one murder victim, one police interrogation and one conversation with a ghost,” George said. “Now that’s what I call a busy evening.”Lockwood nodded. “To think some people just watch television. "
8 " It wasn't the body," he said. "I've seen worse things in our fridge. "
9 " Well,' Lockwood said, "if you judge success by the number of enemies you make, that was a highly successful evening. "
10 " Our eyes adjusted; we gazed at what was in the room. And then I felt the floor pitch under me, as if we were suddenly at sea. George cleared his throat. I put out my hand to clench his arm. Lockwood stood slightly behind us, waiting."Your parents?" I was the first to find my voice."Close," Anthony Lockwood said. "My sister. "
11 " They were hot, itchy, and hard to see out of, plus the wool covered our mouths and made it difficult to speak. Aside from that, it was a joy to wear them. "
12 " If she’d repeatedly fallen over while crossing soft ground, you could have sewn a crop of beans in the chin-holes she left behind. "
13 " I see things . . . beautiful things . . . "
14 " Okay, maybe I’d been a little ratty, but there’s something about rotting corpses leaping at my face that puts me a bit on edge. "
15 " What I mean is, we're not necessarily going to run into trouble here. Despite its history of violent death. "
16 " A window to the Other Side. "
17 " Wrong. I’m not alone. I have my friends. "
18 " Hey, Flo! It’s Lockwood!’Silence. The figure straightened abruptly; I thought for a moment it was going to turn and run. But then the voice came again, faint, hostile and guarded. ‘You? What the bloody hell do you want?’‘Oh, that’s fine,’ Lockwood murmured. ‘She’s in a good mood.’ He cleared his throat, called out again. ‘Can you talk?’The distant person considered; for a few seconds we heard nothing except the sloop and slosh of the river along the shore. ‘No. I’m busy! Go away.’‘I’ve brought liquorice!’‘What, you’re trying to bribe me now? Bring money!’ More silence; just the sucking of the water. Away in the haze a head was cocked to one side. ‘What kind of liquorice? "
19 " Lucy, I’ve been meaning to say: that was an impressive move back there – what you did with the rapier.’‘Thanks.’‘You aimed it perfectly, right between their heads. An inch to the left, and you’d have skewered George right between the eyes. Really sensational accuracy there.’I made a modest gesture. ‘Well . . . sometimes you just do what has to be done.’‘You didn’t actually aim it at all, did you?’ Lockwood said.‘No.’‘You just chucked it. In fact, it was pure blind luck that George lost his balance and fell out of the way. That’s why he wasn’t kebabbed by you.’‘Yup. "
20 " Lucy,’ Lockwood said, ‘the last time I saw body language like yours was when we were chatting to Martine Grey about her missing husband, and afterwards found him at the bottom of her freezer. "