"Very good, Miss Ashcroft. I shall ensure that I am prepared for guests," he said. "Excuse me," he said again, going to attend to the knock at the door.

Opening the door, he greeted Vincent Moretti with his traditionally dour countenance before he recognized the young man and smiled. "Good afternoon, Mr. Moretti. Please do come in. I am sure Dr. Elias will be glad to see you after such a long time, even if the occasion for the reunion is not a happy one." Closing the door behind Vincent after he entered, he preceded the young man into the sitting room to announce the arrival of a guest.

"Dr. Elias, Mr. Vincent Moretti has come to pay his respects to the family," he said.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:26, Tue 07 July 2015.

Leo had made his way to the coat closet and then to his bedroom where Avery provided him with the news that Vincent had come to pay his respects. He had been briefly surprised at Avery's knock, as he wasn't expecting anyone - Bradley Gray wasn't yet due to arrive. But Vincent was one of the family members that he had not made it to the funeral so his arrival made sense. Leo slipped on shoes suitable for greeting a guest, and retrieved his jacket before making his way down to the first floor of the house.

When he saw Vincent waiting there, Leo smiled broadly. "Vincent, it's good to see you again. You are welcome as always - come in and make yourself comfortable." Leo briefly looked around to see what sorts of gathered clues were laying about, and then returned his attention to his younger cousin, a generation removed from Leo's own. "Avery mentioned that you've heard the terrible news."

Despite the somberness of the occasion, Moretti was genuinely glad to see Leonardo. He was one of a handful of men who held Moretti's deepest respect.

He nodded in response to Leo's question. "I have. An associate of mine sent me a telegraph about Jackson. I was overseas, in Ireland, handling some business there. I just got back to the city today, earlier this afternoon."

"I'm so very sorry for your loss, sir."

  Avery announced who the visitor was and Annabel saw Vincent enter the room. It had been a while since she had saw him, but she shouldn't have been surprised. He had been one of Jackson's friends, but as far as she knew, he had been out of the country. She watched as Dr. Elias greeted the man, then approached him.

 "Good afternoon Mr. Moretti," Annabel said cordially with a pleasant smile. "It is a pleasure to see you again,  it's a shame it has to be under these circumstances though. It's too bad you were delayed, I'm sure you would have wanted to be at the funeral."   

Leo nodded at Vincent's response. "Thank you for your condolences, Vincent. I know that you and Jackson always got on well - he will be missed by many." Leo furrowed his brow and frowned a little. He hesitated to bring it up, but there was no reason to avoid such discussions with Vincent given the man's line of work. Odds were small, but perhaps he or one of his associates would know something. "Are you aware he was murdered, Vincent?"

Walter comes downstairs, still rubbing his eyes. Washing his face had helped, but the weariness lingers, as does the slight headache, despite two aspirin. It's been years since he did so much reading at a stretch and in an antique typeface at that. He wonders if he needs glasses.

At the foot of the stairs, he sees Leo and Annabel talking with a stranger. No, not a stranger, Vince Moretti! Walter crosses quickly to the man and grabs him into a bear hug.

"Eh, paisan! E'passat' tant' temp' da quand' ti ho visto. Avrei dovu' sapere che sarebbe venuto. Come sta?" (Hey, buddy! It's been so long since I've seen you. I should've known you'd come. How are you?) He releases his hold and beams at the man, a childhood friend of his and Jackson's: "God, Vince, it's good to have you here."

Moretti smiled warmly . "It's very nice to see you again, Miss Ashcroft. You're right. I wish I had been able to attend the service. Jackson was...well, he was like a brother to me. I miss him more than I can say."

Moretti nodded at Leo's question. "Yes, sir. I'm aware." He paused. Moretti knew that Leo and his family had no illusions about the nature of the business he was in, but whenever he was in their home, he always felt the need to choose his words carefully, to spare them the darker details of his associations. "My employer provided me with some information regarding Jackson's death. I suspect that you may already know that a business acquaintance of mine was killed in much the same way Jackson was. There is a group in Harlem that appears to be connected to both of their murders."

"Because of my employer's situation, he has been hesitant to approach the situation in an...openly forceful manner. But, he gave me his blessing to look into it. And that's what I was planning to do, unless of course, you would prefer I didn't. I wouldn't want to go against your wishes, sir."

When Walter entered the room and hugged him, Moretti couldn't suppress a laugh and a broad smile. "Fratello! E ' così bello vederti di nuovo!" (Brother! It is so good to see you again!) "I'm well. And you? It's been far too long. How have you been keeping?"

Bishop stood by quietly as greetings were exchanged. He was pleased to seen Vincent, but was not prone, especially so soon after Jack's death to show much in the way of happiness. He had also been in touch with Vincent regularly, so unlike some of the others this was less of a reunion.

Rather than interrupt the others, Bishop waited.

Leo nodded at the response to his question, and smiled slightly at the reunion between Vincent and Walter. He walked over to Bishop and gestured toward the kitchen table. He made a quiet suggestion to the younger man. "Perhaps we can set out everything we have collected on the table to help Vincent and Tommy understand what we've discovered thus far. Once that's finished we can determine how to proceed. As Miss Ashcroft mentioned, Mister Grey is due here at half past six. I was planning to query him about the other members of the expedition. We know their names and the basic function of most, but I hope that Mister Grey can fill us in further."

  Annabel stood to the side listening to the various introductions and responses. When Dr. Elias mentioned the clues they had collected, she spoke up.

   "I'll go and get them for you Dr. Elias, excuse me," she said to Vincent and the others as she left. Going about the mansion, Annabel gathered up the various notes, documents and books collected and brought them to the kitchen table where she laid them out for all to see. It was a lot to take in, yet, they still were stuck on what to do next. There had to be something there to work with; maybe a fresh pair of eyes would help.

"There you go," Annabel said, "I hope I did not miss anything." 

"Agreed."Bishop nodded in agreement. He was concerned about Cotton's discretion, but decided he could convince the young reporter to keep things quiet as needed.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:32, Fri 10 July 2015.

OOC:

Vincent and Thomas, with the laying out of clues by Annabel, your character will have access to the information in the various clippings and links found in the Campaign Journal.

Walter looks over the various items in a desultory way. Not having made much progrss on his assigned reading -- and with his wound troubling him less after a couple days' rest -- he is itching for some more active role. Once Vincent is finished examining the array of items on the table, Walter unobtrusively draws him and Stanley into another room.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:01, Mon 13 July 2015.

Bishop chatted in the other room
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:21, Tue 14 July 2015.

After the meeting with Blake, Tommy was glad to find himself alone in a taxi following Bishop's car back to the Elias house. He plucked his notebook out of his pocket and scribbled words avidly.
Bloody Tongue. Carlyle. Black Wind.
His mind was buzzing. Today the young reporter had heard more tantalizing tidbits in this bloody trail than he'd learned in the past month combined.

Arriving shortly behind the others he pushed a few bucks payment into the drivers hand and hurried inside to be greeted by a likable chap who named himself Avery.
"Mr Avery, a pleasure to meet you. Call me Tommy. I've been working with Mr Bishop today.". Smiling gratefully he tucked his coat over and arm and scanned the unfamiliar surroundings while Avery checked the young reporter was expected. After a few moments of patient waiting he was glad to be shown inside to join the others.

The group seemed to have gathered in a wide Kitchen and spying a new face Tommy wasted no time introducing himself.
"Afternoon buddy! I dont believe we've met? Thomas Cotton, New York Times.". He offered an eager hand, glad to meet another member of the group. "A sorry mess all this, but I hope I'll be able to help in some way.".

With introductions complete Tommy felt his eyes drawn to the table where Annabel had been carefully laying out various notes. Moving closer he started to recognize words here and there alongside clues altogether unfamiliar. For several moments he stood in silence studying the scene, piecing together the grim background of what had happened to Jackson.

Seeing Bishop's glance fall on him he raised his hands and offered a reassuring expression. "Don't worry. I told you I wont take nothin' to print without your permission. This information is going nowhere.".

Patting his pockets he found his notebook again and flipped through its scribbled comments. After a moment's hesitation he decisively tore 3 pages from its spine and laid them too on the table.

Satisfied he stood back to look around the room.
"That's a lot of information to digest..." He scratched his head thoughtfully.
"So Jackson was looking into the Carlyle expedition? And we have maps from Thurmmond which 'coincidentally' seem to show the region of Africa where they where killed. And the killings seem to relate to some African cult.
Question is, where do those leads take us?".

ooc: The notes shared by Tommy are brief summaries of the previous victims. I dont think there is anything plot critical in there unless our wonderful GM flags otherwise - though Tommy is sharing what he knows in a big to help.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:42, Mon 13 July 2015.

Moretti shook Cotton's hand. He was surprised that a reporter from the Times was in their midst, but he masked his reaction, trusting that if the family had trusted Cotton with knowledge of this delicate matter, he should as well. "A pleasure, Mr. Cotton. Vincent Moretti."

When Bo drew him and Bishop off into another room, Moretti followed.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:52, Tue 14 July 2015.

Bishop continued his private chat.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:20, Tue 14 July 2015.

Moretti, his voice low, continued to speak with Bishop and Brandon.

Bishop continued his chat speaking quietly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:42, Wed 15 July 2015.

After disconnecting with Miriam Atwright, Rosalie hung up the phone and finally hung up her coat and hat.  She left her gloves with her pocketbook in the foyer.  Finally, she joined the others in the kitchen and began to make herself a cup of tea.  "I have a bit more to add from the Harvard library, but nothing too revealing or completely new, I'm afraid.  Most of what Ms. Atwright was able to find were things that we've already guessed."  She glanced about.  "Where are the others?  Wasn't that Vincent that passed while I was on the telephone?"

In reply to Stanley Bishop (msg # 23):

Leo nodded at his niece's report and question. "It was Vincent, yes. I was hoping to have a discussion among all of us, to discuss what we've found so far, but Stanley and Walter pulled Vincent aside. Once they are finished, perhaps we can sort through everything together."

Moretti returned to the kitchen. "I apologize for stepping away. There was a matter that Stanley, Walter and I needed to discuss."

Turning, he noticed Rosalie and approached her. "Rosalie, how are you? I am so sorry I wasn't here for Jackson's service. I was out of the country on business. I just returned today."

"Never mind that, Vincent.  I am just glad you are here.  I think we could likely use your particular set of skills."  She pulled him into a hug and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.  "Have you met everyone?  Did they fill you in on what's happened so far?"

Tommy smiled as Rosa entered. He'd been wondering where the likable girl had gotten to.
When she glanced in his direction alongside Moretti he nodded.
"Yep, Vincent and I have been introduced. And as for the tale so far...". Tommy gestured to the notes carefully positioned on the table.
"We have quite the riddle to solve.

Can I ask, has anyone tried speaking to that N'Kwane fellow? If Jackson was looking into the Carlyle expedition, and Thurmmond was exploring the region, they would surely have looked to find someone with African knowledge who they could approach?
N'Kwane might be able to help us right? Hell he might even be in danger.".