Leo nodded at the sentiment from his cousin. "Well enough, under the circumstances. In truth, everything still feels a bit surreal. Now and then I briefly wonder if this all might just be a nightmare from which I'll wake."

He looked over at the decanter and nodded with smile. "Scotch sounds good, thanks." He walked over to where his cousin kept the drink and waited to see if Brandon would join him or if Leo would be drinking alone.

Brandon poured one for Leo, and then one for himself, handing a glass to his cousin. "To Jackson, may he rest in peace," he toasted, sincere solemnity in his voice. He gestured a seat there, and instead of sitting at his desk he took the seat next to Leo's.

"So, tell me."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:30, Tue 19 May 2015.

Leo nodded his thanks for the toast, and clinked his cousin's glass. He took a drink and then inhaled significantly before sighing audibly. "Thanks, Brandon. I needed this more than I knew."

Keeping the scotch in hand to sip occasionally, Leo considered where to begin. "Normally I wouldn't ask this of anyone, Brandon, but I'm hoping you can give me a hand accessing something. I think that Jackson's killers might have had some connection to the Carlyle expedition, so I've started digging into what happened to that ill-fated crew. The presence of Doctor Huston was a bit of a mystery, though it was suggested to me that he may have been treating one or more of those that went on the expedition."

Leo looked at the scotch and took another drink before returning his gaze to his cousin. "I know it's a big ask, but I was hoping you might be able to help me get access to Robert Huston's records."

"The Carlyle expedition? That was the one with that layabout, Roger Carlyle, Erica Carlyle's less talented brother. I do remember that Huston went on that one, which I found odd. I thought it was a publicity stunt at the time. Huston was an asshole who liked to crave the limelight. But yes, I'm familiar with Huston's files. Not the contents of his files, to be sure, but that they were something of an anomaly - usually a physician's files are maintained by him for the necessary period. With Huston at first presumed merely disappeared and not deceased, we held onto them. Because of our records retention policies, we had to keep them around in case any of Huston's patients sought therapy with other psychiatrists in the area," he said. Brandon twisted his mouth to the side for a moment, something he did when he was thinking. Straightening his expression, he stood up and walked over to a bookshelf and pulled out a thick ledger.

This time when he sat he took his usual place, behind the desk, out of habit. He sipped his scotch quietly as he sifted through the tome, which took a few quiet minutes. "Yes, we have them here. There's actually no special restriction to access them, other than that you be a properly licensed physician treating a former patient of Huston. Of course, since we can't ask you for the identity of the patient, it is on the honor system." he said.

"I'd love to do you a favor here, but I'm afraid you don't need one," he offered with a smile. "Just go down to records in the basement and ask for access to Huston's files. They'll probably have you sign a ledger and ask for your license number, but that's about it."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:52, Wed 20 May 2015.

Leo listened and had a faint smile on his face by the time his cousin was finished with his explanation. "Helping me to cut through the red tape is appreciated all the same, Brandon. So what's been keeping you busy of late?" Leo took another sip of the scotch as he waited to hear a bit more from his cousin.

"This and that," he said. "Mostly dealing with complaints and allegations against physicians, the majority of which are bogus. Some have merit. There are some quacks out there, to be sure, but you know how the public is. They get disgruntled with one small thing, and suddenly there's some kind of malfeasance going on." He made a gesture with his hand, as if something was spinning in the wind.

"Of course, there's a little malpractice, but usually those things are mistakes and should be settled in the courts. The more serious cases of malpractice are there every once in a while, and those tend to show a concerning amount of negligence on part of the physician. I have to sit on one of those hearings in not too long here," he said, sipping on his scotch. With a degree each in both medicine and law, Brandon had been an ideal candidate to sit on this board. In fact, he only practiced medicine for a few years before taking a position on the board and had sat on it for most of his career.

Leo smirked as Brandon talked about all the allegations of malpractice. "A difficult job to weed out the quacks from the honest and occasional mistake. Of course as professionals we are held to a standard of perfection, which is all but impossible to achieve. Still, questions need to be asked and I imagine you get to see all sorts."

Leo finished his scotch and then placed it back near where Brandon had originally had it displayed. "Thank you for the drink and the direction, cousin. I don't want to make you late for your hearing. I'll head down to the records department, though I may stop back here if anything particularly noteworthy shows up in those files."

Brandon responded warmly to Leo, gave his love to Catherine, and the two men said their goodbyes not long after.

Leo found the records area quite easily, where there was a single clerk present manning the desk, which was in a window looking out of an otherwise inaccessible room, other than a closed door that lead within.

"Can I help you, sir?" asked the woman at the desk.

Leo smiled at the woman before he responded to her question. "Yes, I am looking for some records of a deceased physician needed to treat a former patient, and I have been told that I may access those records here." Leo happily provided whatever information the woman required to verify that he was a licensed, practicing physician.

"You must be Dr. Elias. I just received a phone call letting me know that you'd be arriving," she said. After taking a brief moment to verify his credentials, which she let him know was a formality to a personage with his repute in the medical community, she opened the door to Dr. Elias. Behind the door was aisle upon aisle of boxes stacked as high as the ceiling in a room that reached far and wide. Instead of leading him into that area, she opened the door to a small room adjoining her office.

In the room are a series of boxes clearly labeled HUSTON. Giving him the room, Leonardo is left to his own devices to explore the files. The files have been thoroughly marked and sorted in the boxes, with each box labeled with a range of alphabets, making it easy to locate the information desired. Inside, each record was given in detail, and there were two records present of particular interest - one for Erica Carlyle and another for Roger Carlyle.

Erica's file is nearly empty. There are a few innocuous consultations for which he charges her an outrageous $90 each, and establishes that she was troubled over the death of her parents and relations with her brother, Roger. Huston believed Erica to be of remarkably fine character, and notes that he not often saw such capable adjustment to the problems of living. He suggested to her that he would be glad to talk to Roger.

Roger's file contains minor interview notes over the course of many sessions. Leonardo gets the idea that the more Huston knew about Carlyle, the less he seemed willing to put to paper. One packet of interview notes stood out to him as the only detailed find in that simple folder.

---

11:19, Today: The Keeper, on behalf of Dr. Leonardo Elias, rolled 13 using 1d100 with rolls of 13. Credit Rating (75).
11:20, Today: The Keeper, on behalf of Dr. Leonardo Elias, rolled 75 using 1d100 with rolls of 75. Idea (80).

This message was last edited by the GM at 17:01, Thu 28 May 2015.

Leo thanked the woman for providing him access to the files as well as a place to review them. He suddenly wished that Miss Ashcroft hadn't run off so quickly - another pair of eyes would be good for combing through the file at hand.

He began his reading on Roger expecting to see a discussion concern difficulty coping or adjusting to various factors that affected his life, but what he found was something completely different.

Witchcraft? Leo wondered to himself. He considered the books that had been removed from the Carlyle library safe, rubbing a hand over the breast pocket where the one he had volunteered to read was kept. Sélections de Livre d'Ivon was mentioned, along with summoning and an invocation of some name of power. Leo considered who had the task of going through that parchment bundle. Walter...hm.

Leo continued to read, and his eyebrows crawled further up his face as Imelda Bosch was mentioned. Murder? Or coincidence? Leo's face became troubled as he turned back to the files, his brow now knitted together. And now blackmail. To include his daughter?

"Who is Hypatia Masters?" Leo wondered aloud, though it was more a muttering than a truly audible query. And a god that is not God? What did Jackson get himself into?

Leo sat back in his chair as he continued to contemplate. What about the Anastasia that was mentioned in Jackson's book structre?

Leo took out his notebook and began to copy the important parts of the interview notes as well as his own thoughts. What did Huston's daughter have to do with anything?

Once Leo had finished copying the important parts of the notes into his own notebook, he replaced the files of most interest. To give the appearance of looking at other files besides Roger's, Leo at least opened the other boxes and put a few pages out of order.

He finished by closing up the boxes and exiting the room, thanking the clerk again for providing him room to do his review. He offered to help return the boxes to their shelf, and whether accepted or not, Leo soon took his leave of the medical records file room. He went back upstairs to see if his cousin was around and available or not.

The secretary assured Leo that the boxes did not to be returned anywhere, as they were only stored in that one particular room. His journey upstairs to see Brandon again was less than fruitful, however, as Brandon was out of the office in a meeting.

With a frown, Leo took his leave of his cousin's office. He had wanted to provide Brandon some indication of Leo's discoveries, and had a question for the man, but didn't want to leave a note. Face-to-face conversation would be much better.

Leo headed out of the Medical Affairs Board building and went to catch up with Annabel to see if she had turned up anything else on Imelda Bosch. He tried to be cautious, making sure that no one was lurking about trying to get the drop on him. But he tried appear casual while doing so.

OOC: Presumably Leo knows where Annabel went.

OOC:

Yes, Leo should know where Annabel went to. We can presume they discussed those details earlier. Before moving him onto the library, what subjects is he planning to research, or what is he planning to do there?

I ask as I won't really be actively roleplaying library research encounters, save for special cases, so mostly it will take Leo out of active investigation for the duration of the day, or until Bishop and Cotton are done with their sundry investigations.

OOC: I would like to discuss Imelda Bosch with her and pass along some of the details Leo uncovered. He also may want to call on Dr. Taft, and wants to have a partner for any such callings-on.

He will also spend some time making use of the library to help his reading of the book he took upon himself to read.

OOC: Alright, continue posting in this thread. I will direct Annabel to do the same.

Leo made his way to the library where he expected Annabel was looking into Imelda Bosch or reading through the book they had discovered in the Carlyle safe.

He had some of his own reading to do as well.

   Annabel was sitting in one of the chairs reading a magazine when Dr. Elias showed up. Seeing him, she put down what she was reading and got up, greeting him with first a smile, then a frown.

    "I'm afraid sir that I wasn't as productive as I had hoped. The search for Imelda Bosch only turned up an obituary of when she died. I did get some of the book read though. It's not terribly interesting, but I hope it will give us some of the information we need." She felt bad that she had not been of more use and it showed on her pretty face.

 "What about you Dr. Elias, I'm sure your day was much more productive then mine. What brings you here? Some research that needs to be done?"

Leo pulled out his notebook and kept his voice at a low whisper. "Very fruitful, yes. Doctor Huston kept copious notes on his interactions with Roger Carlyle. Imelda Bosch features in several of the most interesting of them." Leo took out his notebook and opened it to the first page of Huston's notes that he had copied over. "Read through these and let me know what you think. I'm going to crack the book that I volunteered to read and see if it helps us understand things better."

OOC: Notes are contained in the Campaign Journal thread

Library Use for speeding up Leo's reading (Fails by 9):
16:47, Today: Dr. Leonardo Elias rolled 84 using 1d100 with rolls of 84. Library Use (75).

  Annabel nodded and blushed a bit. "Oops, sorry, I forgot where we were, just excited to see you I guess."

Taking the notebook, she said. "Ok, let me know if you need anything."

 Leaving Dr. Elias to read; Annabel sat back down and looked over the notebook. It seemed her was right. they had to find some way to find out more about her.

Leo waited until Annabel finished reading, and then closed his own book. He continued to whisper. "So what do you think?"

  Annabel read it over, blinked once, twice, then looked at Dr. Elias and said simply, "wow."

     Handing the notebook back, Annabel continued, "This Roger Carlyle was really messed up wasn't he? Talking about strange Gods, blackmailing his psychiatrist, and being bewitched by this strange negro woman. Hey, do you think she has any relation to that Harlem cult? I mean she sounds a little classy for them, but still, does not mean she is in league with them some how." She shrugged, "maybe they are her minions or something like that."

 "So this Doctor went with Carlyle on the expedition? Does that mean he died along with him?"

Leo nodded at Annabel's conclusions and continued to whisper to her. "Yes, Carlyle ended up being quite a mess, but it seemed to get worse over time. Doctor Huston was one of the expedition members, yes. The named members were Carlyle, Penhew, Huston, and Jack Brady. However, Jackson apparently turned up another member of the team - 'Anastasia' he called her. He speculated that it could have been Carlyle's lover. But is it possible that it was Huston's daughter? And what do we know about the other team members? Who are Hypatia Masters and Jack Brady?"

Leo shook his head. "As for Huston dying, Jackson doesn't seem to think any of them died. I'm inclined to believe him. One of Jackson's notes from London seemed to indicate that he was afraid of something coming for him. Perhaps even the members of the Carlyle expedition. He hoped that traveling across the Atlantic would protect him." Leo paused, realizing he had gone off on a tangent.

He gathered himself briefly, then continued at a whipser. "We only have one witness that saw Jack Brady, but at least it's something. I wonder if we can find anything in here about the other members of the expedition? Or perhaps we can speak with Mr. Gray? You seemed to get on well with him, perhaps you can make a phone call to see if we can visit with him today?"