"Hmmm," Annabel said, "If none of the expedition did die, then where did they end up? I mean it's not like any of them showed up after what happened to Mr. Carlyle. Maybe they want people to think they are dead."

   Annabel brightened when Dr. Elias mentioned Bradley. "Yes," she said nodding, "I can do that. i might be able to convince him to at least check for us if nothing else. We have his card right?


 After she received Mr. Gray's business card, Annabel went to find a phone and placed a call to his office.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:06, Sun 07 June 2015.

OOC:

Remember, Bradley Grey gave Leo his business card. No need to look it up in the phonebook.

OOC: Ah ok, I changed my post reflecting that.

A receptionist at Dunstan, Whittleby, and Grey answers the phone, and when the call to Bradley Grey is mentioned, the call is transferred first to another receptionist, and after taking her name the call is transferred again to Grey.

"Yes, Miss Ashcroft, how can I help you?" he asked.

"Mr. Gray," Annabel said, her voice mixed with friendliness and relief that she was able to catch him. "Thank you for taking my call, I know you are a busy man." She hurried getting to the point.

"The books Miss Carlyle lat us borrow are proving to be most fruitful; but we have run into a sort of well, 'road block' as one would say. We need to get information on some of the members of the Carlyle Expedition, particularly three, a Jack Brady, a Hypatia Masters, and one other woman, we think her name was Anastasia."

  Annabel paused for a moment, making sure she had not forgot anything, then continued.

"We were hoping Miss Carlyle would have some information not in the public records. It would be most helpful to Dr. Elias if it were so." She sounded eager and hopeful that statement was true.

"Miss Carlyle will unfortunately be unable to attend to these questions personally, but I myself am quite familiar with some peculiars relating to the expedition," he said. "At the moment, however, I have pressing matters that should take up the majority of the day. However, I am staying in the city today, and I could arrange to meet with Dr. Elias this evening - perhaps at his residence - if he is available. Does 6:30 work for you?"
This message was last updated by the player at 20:13, Wed 10 June 2015.

  Annabel looked at her watch to check the time then said a little surprised; "Oh, I didn't expect that Miss Carlyle would be the one looking. No, I just meant that.. Never mind. Yes, I believe 6:30 would be fine, Mr. Gray, I will let Dr. Elias know. If there is some reason it needs to be changed, I will call and let you know. Thank you Bradley," Annabel said with a little affection in her voice. "This will be a great help. We will see you this evening then." 

"In the evening then," he said politely before disconnecting the call.

Finished with the call, Annabel went back to Dr. Elias and informed him of the meeting this evening.

"I said 6:30 would be fine. I don't believe you have any prior commitments. If I'm wrong I can call him back and let him know."

Leo looked up as Annabel approached. He smiled at her statement and shook his head. "No prior commitments and 6:30 is perfect.  Where does he want to meet?"

The engine purred as Bishop sped through New York, confident and familiar with her streets and ways. Tommy did his best to recount all he knew of the previous victims and when at last they pulled to a stop at Columbia the young reporter almost wished the journey had not come to and end.
N'kwane. Africa. Carlyle. At each thread Bishop revealed Tommy felt both clearer and yet infinitely more perplexed by the case. Still, that was good news. A good story needed a hook and this case had them aplenty.

When at last the car came to a halt he nodded appreciation and let himself out, ready to investigate those darn maps.

Ooc: feel free to npc Tommy to the library first, or drop him off to explore the maps and rendezvous later as you wish.

Bishop drove over the bridge and into the city. Heading up the east side before turning onto 42nd street and pulling up near the main library. Arriving at the library he sought out Miss Ashcroft. Her good looks made it simple as she was easily remembered.

Seeing her speaking with Leonardo, Bishop approached the duo after taking the chance to see if anyone else was showing an unusual interest in the duo.

"Doctor, Miss Ashcroft. We spoke with Poole, despite my efforts we had no luck convincing him to search Nkwane's place. After we headed out to Queens to check on Abraham. No sign of him at his place. But his car is gone so I figure he might have blown town. Finally after coming up empty all morning we drove over to Brooklyn to check on one of the victims, the bookseller. Turned up something interesting there. His wife said he had an interest in maps of Africa and that he had been spending a lot of time in Harlem."

"We got this collection of maps from her, some interesting stuff. Thought it might be worth brining up to Rosalie to give them a look. Figured we stop by here and see if you wanted to join us at Columbia. Strength in numbers and all that."

  Annabel looked surprised, she thought she had mentioned it. "Oh, at your house; Mr. Gray suggested it, it seemed the most convenient place."

 As they were talking, Stanley came up to them. "Mr. Bishop," Annabel said with a welcoming smile, "has your day gone well?" She listened along with Dr. Elias at Stanley's accounting of his activities. It was disheartening to hear about Abraham, but she supposed the man just did not want to deal with any of this. Annabel really did not blame him; murders, odd cults, awful, horrible books, why did she keep thinking about that nasty thing anyway?  When he got to the trip up to Columbia, Annabel looked a little surprised.

  "Do you think it will take long," she asked. "We just scheduled a meeting with Mr. Gray at 6:30 at Dr. Elias's house."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:06, Fri 12 June 2015.

Bishop was curious why they were meeting with Gray, but did not want to discuss it in front of Tommy. The reporter seemed OK but making an enemy of Carlye would not be helpful "No I would think we would all be home by then. I do not think it would be safe for you and the others to be out on your own at night."

"So do you want to join the others at Columbia or stay here and make it home on your on?"

Leo shook his head. "I don't think there's any particular reason to remain here. Let's head to Columbia."

Since Dr. Elias confrimed that they were free; Annabel said, "There's your anaswer, looks like you have some company." 

She got up, gathered her things and walked past Stanley whispering to him,

"Thank God, it was getting a bit dull being around all these musty books. But I guess we get to be around musty maps now, right Mr. Bishop?" she gave him an amused smile and winked.

Tommy waited patiently outside while Bishop spoke to the others. He looked up at the clouds rolling across the grey sky, wondering absently why they looked so angry today.

"My investigations are often far less glamorous."

"Well hopefully we find some clue in all this. Mr Cotton has some expert at Columbia, but Rosalie is likely to have some expertise as well." Bishop said moving on.

"Shall we go."

Leo arched an eyebrow. "Mister Cotton?"

"Cotton is the reporter we found lurking about outside the house - the one looking into the murders. He has a connection with a regional expert at Columbia through his paper, and he thinks that expert might be able to help us see if there's anything to these maps," he said in response to Leo's question.

They picked up Cotton on the way out, and with no objections Bishop and the others headed uptown to Columbia to the library where they had dropped the others. On the way he took the time to see if they had picked up any tails.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:21, Tue 16 June 2015.

Bo shuts the book and gathers up his notes, folding the pages and slipping them under the back cover. If I'm going to play academia again, I'll need to get a satchel.

He stands and stretches, yawning silently, then looks over to where Rosalie is studying her own text. He walks over to her and crouches beside her, whispering quietly: "It's almost noon. Shall we break for some lunch?"

Leo, Stanley, Thomas, and Annabel arrived at the Low Library, passing through its columns and between the busts of Zeus and Apollo that flanked the entryway, and they were easily able to locate Rosalie and Walter, who appeared to be speaking quietly.

  Annabel entered the library with the others, trying to hide the fact that she was once again in another place with books and not particularly thrilled about it. Why couldn't their searches take them to more parties like yesterday? Well, maybe maps would be more interesting? She did not think so.

  Seeing Rosalie and Walter, she waved to them as the group approached, but they did not seem to see her. She was about to call out but remembered where she was and thought better of it. "At least they were easy to find, maybe they would like to come with us to eat; I don't know about you but I could use something after all that reading."

Pulled from her studies, Rosalie offered Walter a smile and leaned back in her chair.  "Oh, you are a dear.  I would have worked right through despite my rumbling stomach.  This tome is proving to be quite a challenge."  She gathered up her own notes and the book she'd been sifting through and tucked them into her purse.

Rising from the table, she threw her coat over one arm and took up her hat, though didn't put it on.  Pushing her hair over her shoulder as she turned, she quirked a brow.  "Where to?  On campus or off?"

"Rosalie and Bo, glad we found you. Found something of interest and thought we all might ant to circle the wagons and have a look." Bishop said after he approached the duo directly.