[major book spoilers]
i always had this theory about listeners and type three ghosts. Lucy mentions that people were claiming to be able to communicate with ghosts like Marissa did:
After her own demise, others had tried to achieve similar results; a few even claimed to have done so, but their accounts were never verified. (TWS)
the phrasing here suggests that after making these claims, they led to nothing. as if these people have vanished.
and then there's this very weird moment in the first book when police comes for L&Co, only to get Lucy taken to Scotland Yard for interrogation as they are suspiciously interested in a subject of Lockwood's claim in the recent interview, that Lucy spoke to a ghost. it's very out of place because this book isn't about communication yet, it's up to the second one. it's an exposition, sure, but Barnes' interrogation has a weird tone to it: no one else is allowed to follow, yet Lockwood and George are still held in Scotland Yard. Lucy feels unease throughout the whole process, not to mention that the part of the building that she was taken to doesn't sound like a normal prison sell block:
We had taken a concrete staircase to a lower level. The doors around us were heavier now, and made of banded iron. Several of them had black-rimmed warning signs fixed against the wall: yellow triangles showing a single grinning skull, red triangles showing two. The air had grown cool; I guessed we were now underground. (TSS)
doors banded with iron you say. sounds familiar ey.
in the end, whatever Barnes wanted Lucy's reaction to be after making a psychic connection with a Annie Ward's ghost wasn't what he (or maybe someone else) was trying to elicit. in his eyes Lucy failed to convince him in her ability to speak to ghosts.
it seems as if Fittes gets rid of talented listeners and confiscates type threes so that no one could talk to them and find out about the deeds on the other side. and it seems DEPRAC are either on it as well, or have their own people trying to get those kids before Fittes does. for what purpose though?
it's a very good thing that Lucy never gone public about skull or she'd be eliminated as well.
