"Of course sir, Mr. Cotton, please do note that Mr. N'Kwane is the proprietor of this Ju Ju House we've heard so much about," he said.

"You can of course speak with the fellow, but I have doubts as to your suggestion that he is in danger - at least not the same sort of danger that young Jackson was."

Avery usually kept to his duties and said little, but in between it all, he had been paying attention.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:41, Thu 16 July 2015.

"We have covered this ground before. Avery is quite right, from what we have learned N'Kwane is tied up with the Juju House,  the Juju House is involved in the Harlem underworld. They appear to been in conflict with one of the murder victims, the address of the place was found in the belongings of a missing girl another of the murder victim was investigating."

"That is just for starters. The Juju House is a serpent's nest."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:29, Thu 16 July 2015.

"Many signs seem to point to Harlem." Leo stated with a nod. "Let's talk through what we have that pertains to Jackson. We found him dead with a strange symbol carved on his forehead. One of the men that apparently killed him and cut that symbol on his forehead had a card for Emerson Imports on West 47th Street, with Silas N'Kwane's name on it. Turns out Emerson Imports is a go-between for Silas and Ahja Singh in Mombasa. Silas is the manager of the Ju-Ju House. The reputation of that particular place is that it's very dangerous."

Leo paused there and looked to the others to add some more. He knew Walter had dug into it further and could likely provide further details.

"My contact from Harvard also told me that she found that particular symbol is one associated with the Cult of the Bloody Tongue, which is feared by several African tribes, especially around Nairobi.  They are said to engage in ritual sacrifice to the God of the Black Wind.  This seems to tie in with all of Jackson's notes from his research.  If the man that murdered him was involved with that cult, then it stands to reason that the Ju-Ju House likely has some sort of connection as well."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:35, Fri 17 July 2015.

The telephone rang, and Avery went to answer it. In a moment, he entered the room again. "Mr. Bradley Grey is in the neighborhood, and was wondering if he might visit you earlier than later, sir," he said, addressing Leo. "He said that he could be over shortly, if you were amenable to such a proposition."

Leo nodded. "Certainly, Avery. Thank you."

He looked down at all the clues they had spread out across the table before addressing the others. "Miss Ashcroft originally scheduled a meeting with Mister Grey at my request for the early evening. After we had started learning a bit about the Carlyle expedition and that they may all still be alive, I thought it would be a good idea to see if Mister Grey could fill us in on who they are."

"Very good, sir," he responded, returning to the phone with his employer's response.

Not long after, Bradley Grey was introduced again, brought into the sitting room. A partner at the prestigious firm Dunstan, Whittleby and Grey, he represented the Carlyle Estate and Erica Carlyle in a number of matters. Recently, he had encountered Dr. Elias and company at a party thrown by Erica, arranging for them to meet with Erica Carlyle. He had agreed to come pay a house call on the good doctor and answer questions for them about the Carlyle Expedition.

"Thank you for accomodating my request to come earlier than we spoke about. My schedule cleared up unexpectedly and I found myself in the area, so I thought rather than postpone our meeting I would see if I might drop in on you earlier," he said.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:11, Mon 20 July 2015.

Leo greeted Mr. Grey with a handshake and followed Avery and Mr. Grey into the sitting room. He waved aside the thanks. "Oh no, thank you for being willing to pay us a visit on such short notice. I believe you've met many of our number, but there are a couple other gentlemen you should meet. Mister Vincent Moretti is also a member of the family, and came to town when he heard news of Jackson's death. And Mister Thomas Cotton of the New York Times is a fellow graduate of Columbia that had been doing his own investigation into the string of murders similar to Jackson's." Leo gestured toward each man in turn then toward some seats.

Leo waited for the others to make themselves comfortable before explaining why they had asked Mister Grey for some of his time. "As we mentioned last night, the investigation into my son's death has led us to take an interest in the Carlyle expedition. While we've been able to make guesses as to why each person was included in the expedition, we were hoping you might shed some light on that subject, as well as provide us with more knowledge of who each of the expedition members were."

"A fine publication, the Times. However, I do hope that for this conversation that we're off the record, Mr. Cotton? If there's anything that directly pertains to any murders you're investigating, I'll gladly go on record, though I doubt you'll find anything like that. I'm here as a favor to the family," he said.

He withdrew a small black leatherbound notebook that he periodically referred to as he spoke. "Yes, I do know a good bit about the expedition and those involved. Not everything, to be sure, but probably more than most. Of course, you all must know Roger Carlyle. While the Times has steered clear of printing salacious stories about Ms. Carlyle's late brother, he has been in and out of the less reputable publications," he said. "He went from being quite the playboy around town to getting very serious about this expedition he planned, though the actual goals of the expedition were never really published."

Bishop stood by quietly. When Dr. Elias mentioned Cotton and his employer, Bishop wondered how the lawyer would take it. He also hoped Cotton had heard the lecture enough to abide the agreement.

  Annabel listened attentively to the discussion on what to do next. She just didn't understand why they just did not check out this JuJu house place if so many clues were pointing to it. Couldn't they check it out during the day when it might be safer? if they did go, she hoped she could come along, she was curious to see what kind of place this was.

  Soon time passed and Bradley showed up a bit earlier then expected. Annabel greeted him when he entered, a pleased smile on her pretty face. "I'm pleased to see you Mr Grey, thank you so much for helping us."

 She she sat with the others, listening to him speak and warn Mr Cotton about reveling any of what he was saying. Mr. Cotton seemed to be good at keeping quiet so far, but she didn't know he he had the willpower with soooo much juicy information being dumped on him. It WOULD make one hell of a story.

"Mr. Grey," Annabel asked, "does anyone still living know of the actual goals of the expedition? It was such a lot of effort to do it and so unlike Mr. Carlyle it seems."   

Tommy shook Bradley's hand and stepped back.
"No need to worry Mr Grey. I've agreed with the family that everything will be off the record until these crimes are solved. After that, anything I do want to publish would be reviewed by Dr Elias first, and I'd gladly pass you a copy too.
I can understand your concern, but rest assured the Times requires its staff to show discretion. We're not a back alley mag.".

He smiled and moved to lean against the wood paneled wall to give the lawyer space to speak. When he mentioned Roger Carlyle the young reporter couldn't help but ask with interest.
"Yes, our readership isn't one for gossip. There was plenty of talk about Roger's behavior but he was a wealthy man and could do with his time as he pleased.". Tommy shrugged. "If we went around publishing stories about what rich folk did in their spare time, we'd probably alienate half of our readers right?".

"But you say the goals of the expedition were never really published? I always assumed it was an excuse for a holiday or something. Mr Carlyle and that Penhew fellow exploring for the fun of it?".

The attorney looked sternly at the reporter. "Mr. Cotton, when I say that I'd like something off the record, I don't mean off the record until a certain time has passed. I mean off the record. Period. No qualifiers," he said.

"Do we have an understanding?" he asked Cotton.

Tommy held up his hands to appease the lawyer.
"Off the record entirely.".

"Thank you. My client wishes to be of assistance to the family in their inquiries, but at the same time wishes not to be associated with any sort of scandal, which impacted business during the tenure of her late brother Roger, so I had to insist on that," he explained to Cotton.

"As I said, Mr. Cotton, the goals were never expressly published or stated. It very well could have been an excuse for a holiday, I suppose, but nevertheless there should have been some objective - like they were after some kind of lost relic or ancient site or some such. As to your question, Miss Ashcroft, I do suppose it is possible that there is someone that knows the purpose of the expedition, but I don't know the extent of their knowledge as we have not had the reason to contact them." He turned to a blank page in his book and wrote something down on it, copying from another page. Tearing out the page, he handed it to Dr. Elias.

"The first is for Faraz Najir, an Arab who had some connection with the expedition. The second is for Warren Besart, a Frenchman who was an agent for the expedition as well. Granted, now this contact information is six years old, but if you do happen to look to Cairo for answers at some point, it is as good of a starting point as you are going to get."

Leo looked at the paper and nodded. "Thank you, these will be helpful." After a brief pause, Leo again looked at Mister Grey. "Before Miss Carlyle went to find what happened to her brother, did you or she do any extensive research into the individuals that made up the expedition?"

"I suppose it could be called extensive research," he said, "though we never really thought about it along those lines. It was preliminary research. Miss Carlyle never believed that the truth would be found in the histories of these people, but their deeds in Africa. From the conception of the trip to the execution of the trip not much time passed, so we did conduct what research we could. Where would you like me to start?"

Leo nodded at Mister Grey's responses. "How about we start with Miss Hypatia Masters." He hadn't really seen anything about her anywhere.

"Ah, yes. Miss Masters," he said, flipping to a page in his book. Looking to the family members, he said, "Some of you may have heard of the Masters family, surely. Hypatia is the heiress to the Masters Armaments fortune. She studied in Paris, Switzerland, and here in the city. Like many women of status in the city, she had dated Roger Carlyle at various times, but I don't think they went past friendship and mutually diverting company."

"She is most notorious for having dated a man named Raoul Luis Maria Piñera, a Mexican communist who was lecturing at the City College of New York on the politics of art. According to hearsay it was quite the torrid and scandalous affair. She broke off their relationship shortly before the expedition. I have never been able to discern why she was invited or went on the expedition. By reputation, she had a flair for languages and a talent for photography, so presumably they wanted to make use of those skills. Better for her if she hadn't gone."

 Annabel frowned disappointed, "I dare say, you're probably right Mister Grey. Whoever cared about the actual purpose went along with Mr. Carlyle with the rest thinking as you said, just a playboy's excursion, pity he wasn't more forthcoming to someone that stayed behind. My guess is he didn't want someone to either worry or interfere. Too bad he failed on both accounts."

 Annabel continued. "As for Miss Masters, now that you've placed the identity, I'm sure she must have come up in gossip once or twice, I just didn't pay much attention to a woman who would attract such scandal. Maybe that's why she went, to get away from the whole mess she caused hoping it would die down in a few months; poor woman, she should have just endured it."       

"Difficult to believe that such an excursion, involving so many prominent people, could hie off to the back of beyond without some newshound like our young Cotton asking some pointed questions about its purpose," Walter puts in from his corner of the room, "A rich man's picnic in Central Park would get better coverage.

"Why the secrecy, Mr. Grey? And how did he manage it?"

"All good questions, Mr. Brandon. As to why the secrecy, to answer that, I'd have to know the purpose of the expedition. When a man has a reputation as a playboy and no one takes him seriously, I doubt much weight was given to the purpose of the expedition, which was likely considered merely the latest of his whims. Roger was not a man to take seriously, and that was well known. If there was more to it than that and Roger played an active role in covering it up, having an extraordinary amount of money would be a good start in managing to do so," he responded to Bo.

"Erica believed it was that negro woman that Roger spent so much time with that pushed him into doing it. Apparently, he was having strange dreams that caused him to wake up screaming, but he refused to discuss these nightmares. That was when she recommended Huston, who she presumes must have endorsed the expedition. But she lays his obsession with this expedition at the feet of the negro woman. Apparently Roger described her as a 'queen' and a 'priestess.' He would disappear for days at a time, only to turn up wild-eyed and crazed, saying only that he had been to Harlem - presumably for an...extended liaison with this woman."

Tommy suppressed a smile at Bo's direct question.
"Oh there were plenty of newshounds gossiping and hunting rumors, just not from the Times.". Though half of those rags were probably made up rather than investigated.

"Did Erica know who the negro woman was, or what religion she was a priestess of? I dont remember a woman like that being mentioned at the time?".
He paused thoughtfully.
"But lets say Ms Carlyle is correct and Roger somehow became obsessed with this woman. Didn't the expedition go to London and Egypt first before finding its unfortunate fate in Africa? Why would some dark skinned temptress want to visit those places?".

"The expedition was also associated with the Penhew Foundation, and by extension, Sir Aubrey Penhew who also was a part of the expedition. This is presumably why they went to London. Following London, they went to Egypt, which I'm sure you know, is in Africa," he said. His tone made clear that he was not at all sure that Cotton realized that Egypt was in Africa.

"Even aside from that, they are on the way there. Most people would rather travel that way than endure a trip around the horn of Africa, where the only stops are in uncivilized lands. Any such trip would have gone there. Egypt is populated by many dark skinned peoples, as I'm sure you are aware." Again, his words were polite but he didn't sound like he believed Cotton was aware of that.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:00, Wed 22 July 2015.