Leo nodded and offered to shake the man's hand. "Thanks so much for your time, professor. I certainly don't want to keep you from you daughter - I know all too well how precious time your family is before it's too late." Leo offered the man his own business card. "If you run across anything that you think might be useful to us, please contact me at either my office or my home. Thank you again and a good evening to you."

After saying his good-byes, Leo handed the card to Annabel, though waited briefly to see if anyone else might have a question before they left the professor alone.

Before they departed Bishop pulled out a small card upon which was drawn the symbol that was carved into Jack's forehead.

"Pardon me professor. One question if you don't mind.

"Have you ever seen anything like this professor?"

"Of course I will, Dr. Elias. I was a great fan of your son's work, and once again my condolences to you and yours. A great loss to our sector of the scholarly community, small as it is," he said genuinely, carefully securing Leo's card.

He crooked an eyebrow at Bishop's question, and responded in a dry tone. "Yes, I have - a few minutes ago when Dr. Elias drew me the exact same image and asked me about it. But before that, no, I haven't seen that before."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:33, Mon 24 Nov 2014.

"Forgive me I was forced to step away." Bishop replied with equal dryness.

"It does happen from time to time," he says, agreeably. "A good evening to you all," he said, bidding them farewell as he moved to leave the lecture hall leaving the group to its own devices.

With a sigh, Walter heaves himself out of his chair.

"Well," he remarks quietly to Rosalie, "That was a bust. Let's head for home."

Settling his fedora on his head, he offers his cousin his arm.

  Taking the card from Dr. Elias, Annabel left with the others. That was a lot of information that was given them, but did not seem to be beneficial.

  "Well Dr. Elias, it looks like this wasn't very helpful in our search for answers on what's going on. I wonder why Jackson was interested in this lecture. Maybe he had the same idea as we did, that it would provide some answers?"

  The young woman just shrugged, uncertain. "Well, I guess we should get home, it's been a long day for all of us. Tomorrow is another day to find out information."

With the evenings growing shorter and the nights colder, by the time the lecture and their time with Professor Cowles had come to an end, it was in the dark of night with only street lamps and a quarter moon to provide light to see by. A light snowfall with the barest of flurries came down, but it was no more than a dusting compared to what had recently come down. Traffic was light as they drove back home, but there were a few other cars on the road.

"You see him back there, Stan?" Bo asked, angling his head to watch in the side-view mirror.

"I can see it" said Philip mildly.  "Assuming you are talking about that car that seems to be following us?"

His hand went reflexively towards his side before he remembered he was not not carrying his broomhandle Mauser.

"I don't suppose any of you are armed?"

"Unfortunately not," Rosalie said to Philip, sounding miffed.  "Though I will be soon enough, even if I have to get Bo to go black market peddling for me."  Snugged into the backseat beside him, she turned to glance over her shoulder at the car that appeared to be following them.  "That can't be coincidence."

Leo narrowed his eyes for a moment. "I'm not certain how much of a bust that was - we'll have to see how things play out. Certainly we didn't find any immediate clues concerning the group in Harlem."

Leo frowned at Rosie's tone. "I did retrieve Jackson's pistol from the police as his next-of-kin. You are welcome to have it back. In this case, I trust that Stanley is packing, and possibly Walter."

"Yes Doctor I am heeled." Bishop stated as he drove along.

"Bo you will find a forty five in the glove box as well." Bishop said.

"Best we do not jump to conclusions. It may be that Lieutenant Poole assigned some men to follow us. But if not the easiest way to deal with a tail is to head to the nearest police precinct. Given that we have the ladies with us, it might be best we do what we can to avoid any violence."

"I have a pistol," Bo says, "But we sure don't want to get into a fight if we can help it.

"If those aren't cops, I wonder who's gotten on our tail and how? None of us went near that Ju-Ju House place. Leo and Stan only talked to cops and the ME, right? Rosalie and Ambrose were way up in Boston at a library and this Professor Cowles didn't have time to set anyone on us.

"That leaves the people Annabel and I contacted, Erica Carlyle's people and the importer guy, what's-his-name."

He ponders a minute while keeping an eye on their shadows in the mirror.

"Yeah, Stan, you better find the nearest precinct house, though I doubt those guys will hang around when you do."

  Annabel listened to the others talking about the vehicle following them. From their tone, it probably was not a coincidence. "I certainly did not say anything about going to the lecture," she said shaking her head.  "Maybe these people already know about it and were there to see if it threatened to expose whatever it is thy are doing. We were asking the professor a lot of questions; maybe someone we didn't notice overheard us and got suspicious."

  Annabel turned back to look at the vehicle and felt a bit nervous remembering what happened at the hotel. "I think going to the police station is a very good idea; though we have to make sure that they don't continue their efforts after we leave it again."

"I say, you chaps.  It is certainly a good idea to head for a police station but, just in case, I wonder if you could pass me back that pistol?"

Philip's languid tone exhibited none of the concern he was feeling.

"I do have some experience of pistol shooting" he concluded, with a wry smile.

Walter opens the glove box and takes out the pistol, checking that it's loaded and the safety is on. He passes it into the back seat. He slips his own pistol from his overcoat pocket, holding it in his right hand pointed at the floor.

Leo shook his head at Walter's question. "We also went back to the hotel to see if we had missed anything. While we didn't mention the lecture to anyone, we may have been tailed from my house to the lecture in the first place." Leo paused and frowned as he had a morbid thought. "I do hope we haven't gotten Professor Cowles into any trouble."

"I have been watching for tails all day, I did not spot anyone until now. I did not spot anyone watching the house either Doc." Bishop said as he drove to the precinct house.

Realizing that the doctor and others might be concerned about the safety of Catherine and the others at the house, Bishop added "I made a call when we got to the lecture and had a some of my guys head over and keep an eye the house."

"When we get to the precinct, Rosalie, you and Miss Ashcroft and Leo better run inside. Stan and I will cover you. And Piggott, of course, if you want.

"Let's try to get a license number, not that it'll help much.

I'm keeping my rod out of sight unless it's needed. No permit."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:14, Tue 02 Dec 2014.

Before long, Bishop was able to bring the vehicle safely to the precinct house, and the car that had been driving behind them since they left the lecture picked up its speed and sped by instead of stopping there.

Leo tried to get a good look at the car as it went by. Perhaps it was the same one that had been described when he and Stanley had returned to the hotel.

Bishop did hid best to see the driver and note the plate.

OOC:

As it is night time and the car is going faster than you, I'm going to require a roll here that will be a difficult check.

If you wish to try and glean any details from this opportunity, make a Spot Hidden roll and posts the results below. If you wish your roll to be counted, kindly oblige me and make some indication of your skill % in the Reason for Roll box, as per the House Rules of the game.

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:40, Tue 02 Dec 2014.

10:25, Today: Dr. Leonardo Elias rolled 66 using 1d100 with rolls of 66. Spot Hidden (25).