Annabel looked a little disheartened with Leo's negativity; they wouldn't do that, would they?

 "Oh, I hope you're wrong Dr. Elias," she said with a touch of optimism. "He did sound like he would. As you said, I'm sure Miss Carlyle would want to hear your information."

  Continuing, Annabel said; "If you are going out maybe I should stay behind to wait in case they call or if they need to meet us today. Will you be going to Columbia tonight to catch the lecture? If so, maybe I should come along too."

As time passed and no returned phone calls seemed imminent, Leonardo and Stanley decided to take their leave and proceed with their inquiries, indicating that they would first be visiting Lieutenant Poole.

When the clock struck noon, Avery began to prepare a light repast for Annabel and Walter as they were still in the house. He prepared one for Catherine Elias as well, served to her privately.

   Hearing the clock chime, Annabel looked up from the magazine she was browsing through and pursed her lips. Nothing yet, surely her request had reached someone by now. Why haven't they called? She so hoped it would be before Dr. Elias got back so she would have something to show for her efforts.

   A feint rumbling in her stomach reminded her that it had been a while since she had eaten. As she rose from her chair, Annabel heard the faint sounds of something going on in the dining room. As she entered she saw the servant Avery had already thought of lunch and was preparing something, Annabel gave him a friendly smile.

  "My Avery, you must have been reading my mind. It's very kind of you to do this. Walter will hopefully be down soon. Tell me," she asked, "is Mrs. Elias alright? I know this must be very hard on her. If she would like some companionship, I would be more than happy to help."

"Mrs. Elias is as well as may be expected given the circumstances," he replied dourly.

"She has been making the arrangements for Jackson's funeral. I will inform her of your interest in visiting her, but she has been rather clear that she wished to be alone for a time. I believe in a moment like this for a woman of her temperament, solitude may be the best palliative."

Walter enters the dining room in time to hear Annabel and Avery's exchange.

"Good afternoon, Miss Ashcroft, Avery," he says pleasantly, "Glad to see there's lunch in the offing. I suspect that, once we've eaten, I'll feel up to taking a hand in whatever's going on around here." He holds a chair for Annabel and seats himself where Avery indicates. He opts for tomato juice as beverage.

As the dishes arrive, he makes small talk, but once the other servants have left the room, he asks Annabel, "Have you heard anything back from the others? And how are your inquiries proceeding?"

[ooc - I don't actually need a detailed recap, just establishing that Walter knows what Annabel knows (unless she wants to hold anything back) so we can proceed.]

In reply to Walter 'Bo' Brandon (msg # 79):




  "Oh," Annabel said to Avery's reply. "I completely understand. It must be very hard on her and she needs time to grieve." Annabel let the matter drop, it sounded like she would not be much help and didn't want to be a pest.


 "Mr Brandon," Annabel said with a smile as she watched the man enter the room. "I hope you are feeling much better after your ordeal. The others are out on their various errands, but I'm not sure when they might return. As for me," she gave a small dejected sigh. "I have heard nothing back about my inquiry's with contacting Miss Carlyle. I haven't given up hope though, it hasn't been that long so maybe it hasn't reached the person it needs to yet."

"Yes, Miss Carlyle probably has a fair amount of levels separating her from ordinary folks like us," Walter agrees, "What else have you been working on. Any luck with that N'Kwane fellow's shop?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:03, Wed 17 Sept 2014.

    "Not really," Annabel said. "I think that some of the others might go over later to check it out when they have time. Oh," she said quickly like she had forgotten something. "Silly me, I forgot, it seems that there is another lecture being given by that professor who we missed last night. It's tonight at Columbia. Hopefully he might be able to tell us something. Do you think you might be up for going Mr. Brandon? I don't think it will be dangerous, though then again I didn't think going to a hotel would have been dangerous either." She gave a sigh, "what the world is coming to these days."

Bo suppresses a smile at the young woman's last comment.

"If you have the card for N'Kwame's shop, I thought I might go have a look at it," He finishes the last of his coffee and starts to get up, "You're welcome to come along."

OOC:

I believe all of that information is in the sitting room on a card table.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:22, Fri 19 Sept 2014.

In reply to Walter 'Bo' Brandon (msg # 83):


  Annabel looked quite surprised, "you mean now? Are you up for it, driving that is. I suppose we could take a cab if need be."

  Her voice sounded a mix of hesitance and excitement of getting to do something. "If you want the address, I believe it's with the rest of the stuff in the sitting room." She looked at the clock; "I don't know when the others are returning but it probably shouldn't take us more then what, a few hours to go and come back?"

Walter looks at the business card for Emerson Imports: "47th Street. Yeh, a cab sounds like just the ticket. Get your coat, Miss Ashcroft. We could both use a bit of fresh air." He asks Avery to call for a cab. Going up to his room, he gets his hat and a topcoat Uncle Leo had said he could borrow.

  Finishing up her lunch, Annabel went to collect her stuff for the trip. First though, she stopped off at the bathroom to make sure she was presentable. As she worked she thought at how exciting all this was; though she had to admit she was a little worried. She REALLY hoped that nothing like the hotel would happen, after all there would only be the two of them.

  Satisfied with her work, Annabel collected her things, dressed, and waited for the cab. "Do you think we should leave a note, incase someone gets back before we do," Annabel asked.

In reply to Annabel Ashcroft (msg # 87):

"I've told Avery where we're going," Bo explains, "He can tell the others if we're not back before them.

"Here's the cab." He offers his arm to escort Miss Ashcroft to the cab. Once inside, he consults the card and gives the driver the address.

The journey by cab wasn't overly long, and in some twenty minutes they arrived at a long, narrow building with loading docks at both ends. The building was a warehouse piled high with freight, and a sign at the door indicated that the offices of Emerson Imports could be found at the top of a steep and dark set of stairs.

The door at the top, with a milky colored glass that said the name of the business on it, opened up to reveal a small, smoky office. A thin man with an angular face sat at the only desk in the room, cluttered with papers, and he turned around to squint at his guests. Tapping his cigarette into the ashtray, he took a long drag on it while he looked at them, letting out a cloud of smoke. "Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked brusquely.

"We're here to make polite inquiry of you, concerning some business we may throw the way of Emerson Imports," Bo says smoothly, "I'm Walter Brandon and this is my associate, Miss Ashcroft. We're interested in moving goods between the States and Africa, Cairo or Nairobi most likely. What is your firm's recent experience with such activities?

"And, by the way, who the hell are you?"

   As Annabel entered the office she noticed many things, all of them unpleasant. This was not the organized offices of her father's businesses she was used to seeing, she wondered how he kept track of things. She stood beside Mr. Brandon as he spoke to the man looking thoughtful. She gave him a chiding look at his statement.

  "Now Walter, we just met the man, give him a chance to introduce himself." She gave the man an apologetic smile. "Excuse my associate, Annabel Ashcroft, pleased to meet you, and you are?" she asked waiting for a reply.

"Arthur Emerson," he said, offering his hand to Walter and giving it a firm shake. He didn't seem to be bothered in the least by the nature of Walter's query, nor did he particularly seem in need of or changed by Annabel's attempts at mollification. Rather, he was very much just down to business.

"I'm the owner here, and though I'd like to do business with you, I'm afraid to say that we specialize in imports, not exports, so I'm not the guy you're lookin' for when it comes to moving things to Cairo, Nairobi, or anywhere else for that matter."
This message was last updated by the player at 00:51, Tue 21 July 2015.

Walter pulls out a chair for Annabel and seats himself in another, removing his hat.

"We expect to have materials to ship from Africa to the states as well, you see, Mr. Emerson. I have spent some time in Africa in the past. The name Silas N'Kwame came up in connection with your operations. That's what drew me here in particular."

He watches closely for Emerson's reaction to the name.

"Well, if you're looking to do import work, we might be able to work out some kinda deal. If you reasoned that the name N'Kwane meant I did business in Africa, you figured right, in a roundabout kinda way. I import from this money-grubbing Indian in Mombasa named Ahja Singh, and his only account happens to be this place in Harlem that Silas N'Kwane manages called the Ju-Ju House," he said.

"You wanna ship to them too?" He looks over both Walter and Annabel, though his questions are clearly directed to Walter.

    Annabel could tell a snub when she saw it, Lord knows she saw enough of it in her own society. Probably doesn't think much of women, fine with me. She choose to ignore it and let Walter deal with this fool. He seemed to be doing a decent job of it too.

      Taking out her notepad, she wrote down the information that Mr. Emerson was saying. Ju-Ju house....she wondered what that was and if they would have time to check it out. She had never been to Harlem before, it was full of Negroes or so she heard; Annabel wondered what it was like there?

In reply to Arthur Emerson (msg # 94):

"Ju-ju house? What's that, some kind of curio shop?" Walter gives Annabel a knowing grin and rubs his chin, "I'm not looking to bring in fetishes and masks and carvings and such for old ladies to coo over up on Park Avenue. And I don't want to go through any middleman, if you take my meaning.

"I'm looking for somebody who can handles big time stuff both ways without any kick. No questions asked and no government problems."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:31, Thu 25 Sept 2014.

"Well, if that's not what you're after, then you don't need to deal with Silas, 'cause that's all that darky foreigner brings in - though it's no Park Avenue affair, I'll tell you that. Look, I told you earlier, I don't know about makin' things go both ways. I do imports, and imports only," he said.

"If you're still of a mind to do business with me, you won't find much better of a deal, but if you are trying to ship things out you're better off looking elsewhere."

"Thank you, Mr. Emerson, very much," Walter says, rising and extending his hand, "Sorry we took up your time." He waits at the door for Annabel to join him.

"No problem. You folks have a good one," he said, bidding them farewell with what seemed to be only mechanical politeness.