Post by TheUdjat on Jan 14, 2008 9:40:17 GMT -5
Rebecca and Tommy-
The woman seems happy to shift her attention from Tommy to Rebecca, smiling pleasantly as the woman introduces herself. At the mention of Jackson Elias, her eyes appear to widen briefly in recognition, and she begins nodding along with Rebecca. When she’s finished, the librarian responds.
“Oh yes, I do remember how Mr. Elias can get himself preoccupied with one thing or another.” She laughs – almost giggles, really. “I apologize – I’m Miriam Atwright. If you are friends of Mr. Elias, then it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He makes her way out from around the front desk, leaving it in the care of some other lady, apparently perfectly eager to make time to deal with you personally.
“You’ll have to give Mr. Elias a greeting for me, and tell him how sorry I am he couldn’t drop by. But now then, let’s see about this book.” She looks thoughtful for a moment. “Ah yes! The book he was looking for was called ‘Africa’s Dark Sects’. A peculiar book; we don’t get many requests for it. Unfortunately, it, ah, mysteriously disappeared from the library several months before I received Jackson’s letter.” She pauses after these words, lips twisting uncertainly. [Psychology rolls. Tommy succeeds.] As Miss Atwright hesitates, Tommy’s investigator’s instincts tell him that she’s holding something back – that there’s more about this story she’d like to say, but is uncertain about it.
Regardless, she continues moments later. “A terrible shame. However, we have a large and voluminous library, as you can no doubt tell. I would be glad to help search for whatever information it is that Mr. Elias is seeking.” She looks at Rebecca expectantly.
Sam and Joe-
Jonah listens to Sam patiently, nodding along as the man speaks. “Indeed, Jackson’s behavior had been strange for a past few months. If you are dedicated to solving his murder, I will do all I can to help. I’m afraid the police left me with the impression that there was little hope; I hope you will prove more successful.”
“And I hope, more importantly, that the danger will stay well clear of you. I would not like to see two friends meet such a grim end.”
With that said, Jonah signals to a young woman, a secretary or clerk of some sort, in the room beyond his office. “Martha, get me Mr. Elias’s correspondence file, if you please.” The woman nods and hurries off to another room, and Jonah looks back to Sam and Joe.
“I actually know quite a bit about Elias’s activities,” he says, with a slight, sad smile. “Perhaps too much already, if one of these cults brought Jackson to his end, as seems to be the case. Jackson’s latest project concerned the Carlyle Expedition. He believed that a blood cult had massacred the Expedition, but that not all of the principals of the expedition had been killed. I know that he spent some time in Kenya researching the specifics of the massacre, and he sent his notes back here for safekeeping – as he often does. We’ll see those in a moment. He also sent me a more recent telegram, shortly before coming to New York, saying that he had been to China and London as well, though he didn’t outline why.”
Jonah frowns. “But he sounded... different, when he last came by here – just a day or two ago, to drop off more notes on his arrival. He seemed more frantic, maybe even paranoid. Did you notice such a change in him as well, Sam?”
[UPDATE: Continuing, since I had a moment to get things scanned.]
Before Sam gets much chance to answer, the young woman - Martha, presumably - steps inside, laying a folder on the desk. Jonah thanks her, and dutifully retrieves a few documents from within the folder. The first is a letter, clearly written by Elias to Kensington himself.
"Middle of last year, Jackson sent me this. He had already been doing research on the Expedition, and I guess he found some leads in Nairobi. He sent me a set of his notes - they're right here, too." He withdraws several sets of paper neatly clipped together, covered with Elias's careful printing.
"There is also the last set of papers he dropped off with me the other day, which you might find of interest. But before I show you them, I need you to promise not to expose them for public view - no pictures, no repeating what is mentioned there." Jonah fidgets nervously. "I do not think Jackson was in his right state of mind when he wrote them, and I would not like them to be a reflection on his character. He was a good man, a smart man. This was... very unlike him."
Only after extracting a promise from you both - particularly the unknown Joe - is Jonah willing to hand over the last set of papers. They were messy, disorganized, and nearly illegible. Clipped to them, Jonah has attached his best transcriptions of certain phrases within the notes. But it isn't much.
[You will see all of these in the Handouts section, here.]
Thurman, Jackhammer, Jeremy-
[Spot hidden checks again.] The three men scour the alley, looking over every inch of pavement, but turn up nothing. Aside from the tattered cloth and the bent flute, it is as if Samuel disappeared into thin air. Though it does seem possible that a car could have been on hand to take Sam away, if needed – and there is certainly no sign that he was ritually slain, as Elias was.
It appears this lead has gone cold.
[There’s still Emerson Imports, if you guys would like to check that out.]
