London Fog - 06

[TheUdjat]

[Also, what does Gray know about the Egyptian community in London? Any general information? Is it a large community, are they well-established or suppressed/keeping a low profile? Close-knit or fragmented? Are most of its members poor, or otherwise? Any public figureheads of the community they could approach, or some people Gray knows personally among them? He has of course dealt with Egyptian matters in the past, so it just might be possible. I'll leave it up to you to decide, as I have no idea.
If Gray has no idea himself, he might just ask these questions to the inspector.]

[The Egyptian community is pretty closely associated with the Muslim and Arabic crowd. They’re plentiful enough, though there is a clear separation between so-called ‘Whites’ and ‘Browns’. Most tend to edge towards lower-class, but there are several successful businessmen, most in the realm of imports/exports, knickknacks, spices, teas, and other oddities. One of the more successful men in the community who Gray has heard of, but never met, is Tewfik Al-Sayed, a spice dealer who also has been known to accompany the occasional expedition to Egypt—in fact, Gray has heard he’s worked with the Penhew Foundation on multiple occasions. A couple of calls could probably tell him where the man lives.

Other than that, Gray doesn’t know anyone personally in that crowd who’s still living in London.]

---

Scotland Yard-

"That's great stuff inspector, just a few more things, How long have these murders been going on? Can you give me dates for each of the murders? Also, have you had any suspects at all for this?"

“The murders have been going on, on-and-off, for a couple of years now. There appears to be no discernable pattern to them, and I’ve been able to discover nothing unusual about the dates. No holidays, obscure religious events, days of the week, season, lunar cycle, or anything else seems to coincide. I could give you a list of dates, certainly, but I don’t expect it will give you much to work with.” [The Keeper will not give you the dates, however, as they aren’t actually relevant.]

“We have had numerous suspects,” Barrington continues, “But none that lasted. Witnesses, circumstances, or otherwise have always ultimately cleared anyone we’ve pulled in. Currently we have no suspects.”

You continue to ask questions of the Inspector, and when done he rises to bid you farewell. “I truly hope you have some luck in pursuing this matter. If you discover anything, or are prepared to give up the trail, please let me know. And good luck with your own investigation, gentlemen.” With that, you take your leave, and are soon outside, able to discuss in relative privacy.




List of clues (I'll try to get this updated soon, as you guys have hit several new leads)

[VemuKhaham]

Gray stands up from his chair when they are finished, and politely says goodbye to the inspector. He follows the others outside, and then waits for mr. Cannon to begin uncovering his plans to the others. He held his breath in anxious anticipation, knowing by now that Tommy wasn't one for conventional methods. At the same time, he had been thinking about anything he knew that might be relevant, but at the moment it did not seem worthwhile to mention any of it. Perhaps later, when they would contact the Penhew Foundation, he might look into mr. Al-Sayed further.

[Yakumo]

Outside, and assured that only they would be listening, Tommy smiles at the group. He puffs out a blast of smoke, offers his pack to anyone who smokes before stuffing it into his jacket pocket and he starts speaking. "Great stuff.... just great stuff." Tommy laughs and adds somewhat enigmatically, "Don't worry about not leaving the city, it won't matter. By the time we need to leave the inspector will have his evidence. And even if not....honestly, the inspector has given us everything we need."

Tommy pulls out his notebook and starts to go over what was learned and what needs to be done, "For a guy who 'can't tell us anything about the murders' he pretty much told us everything he knows I bet. Especially if these murders have been going on for years without a solid suspect. I think we are his lucky break, whether he believes it or not."

"So what do we know about these murders? I can tell you one thing, it is a cult, definitely. If Mr. Elias said it was a cult and tried to convince them, then I'm sure it was one. On top of that, Elias was working on identifying the Cult of the Bloody Tongue in New York and got as far as the Ju-Ju house. So he was most certainly correct about that. And besides, come on, a serial killer keeping this up for this many years? I think London just likes sensationalism, hoping for the next Jack the Ripper."

Tommy takes a breath before he continues, "I thought I might luck out with some pattern to the killings, cults love that sort of crap. Just because this one doesn't, doesn't make it less of a cult." He shuffles his notes for a minute, "So here is what we have on this cult, it's called 'The brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh'. They target primarily Egyptians, most of which seem to frequent this 'Blue Pyramid Club'. The cops are lazy here, how can the figure out what was unusual with just a stake-out? You have to actually go into these joints to get a feel for everything before you can make that sort of decision."

Tommy takes another drag, holds it in for a moment and lets it vent through his nostrils, "God I love that. Alright, another thing. The killers have the Egyptian community too scared to speak up to cops, meaning that there are people who know things, but just need a little persuading. And let's keep that word 'hotep' in mind when we start researching, see if it comes up anywhere."

He sighs and starts to think a little, "You know, I'm gonna have to say, I think we should stop telling people we are investigating cults, specifically the ones we are looking into, because they have many ears and are violent. Especially to authority figures. So whenever pressed, try to come up with another reason for wanting to know whatever it is you are asking, unless that person is very trustworthy." Tommy stomps out his cigarette and claps his hands, "Well now, we have quite a few things to do here, for starters, we need to get that interview with Gavigan whenever we can. Before that, we should use the Penhew foundation's library to research more fully the cults, The brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh and the Bloody tongue. I figure they will have the best library around for this sort of thing. Also look for anything mentioning 'hotep' in relation to the cults. On top of that, we are carrying a lot of books and other incriminating evidence around. If you don't mind, I'd like to wire back to the States and see if we can't get the help of Mirriam Atwright, see if she can hold on to the stuff for us, and maybe provide some background research. She was pretty helpful and I think if we told her the truth about Jackson she might even volunteer to do this for us, what do you think?" Tommy looks specifically to Rebecca on this, as she was the other person to have met Mirriam.

"After we have done all that, we can do a little legwork at the Blue Pyramid Club. No sense in investigating what we don't know anything about right? Don't want to make that mistake again."

Tommy waits for the rest of the group's reply.

[Aegea]

Rebecca is unsettled when she hears that the murders have been going on for years. Years,, she thinks, and nobody had apprehended the killer(s) yet? They were either extremely good at covering their tracks, or there were different people involved.

After Tommy mentions getting in touch with Miriam Atwright, she nods. "If you all think that's the best way to go, we can try to get the books back to Miriam for holding, although they are pretty rare books..are we sure that none of us will need to reference them again sometime soon?"

She listens to all of Tommy's suggestions, musing inwardly that there were an almost overwhelming number of clues to keep track of...she has no idea what to expect with this Blue Pyramid Club, but she'd be willing to accompany the others if they think that scoping the place out could be important. "It's possible that some people might be willing to talk about what's been happening lately, with the cult targeting Egyptians," she says aloud to the group, "providing we go about it the right way. Even if nobody in the club itself wants to talk about it, for all we know someone linked to the cult could be watching the club or looking for...well, another victim."

[TheUdjat]

[Okay, so here's a summary of what I've got (basically just Tommy's post):

- Check out the Blue Pyramid club, presumably first through normal means, then potentially investigating it otherwise.
- Trying to talk to the Egyptian community, hoping that they'll speak since you're not cops. This might include Tewfik al-Sayed, if Grey wishes to contact him.
- Trying to set up a meeting with Gavigan, and possibly using the Penhew library (neither are available until Monday).
- Forwarding certain materials on to Miriam Atwright of Harvard, that she might keep them safe and make you look less conspicuous.

What would you guys like to tackle first?]

[Yakumo]

I'd like to Forward the materials and contact Miriam Atwright first and then Visit the blue pyramid club in the most basic way, not to investigate. I'm hesitant about jumping into the thick of things again after the disaster that was Emerson Imports and the Ju-Ju House.

[VemuKhaham]

Grey listened to Tommy with stoic impression on his face, but obviously interested, as he nodded several times before the investigator was finished. Still, he felt little about direct investigations that even the police was not able to do. In the end, he made his own proposal: "Alright, mr. Cannon, that sounds like a good strategy. Listen, I may not be the best man to sniff out criminal cults and stick my nose into places where some dark, shroudy people would prefer it if I didn't, but if we wish to ask around in the Egyptian community, I may know someone who perhaps may know more: Tewfik Al-Sayed, a rich spice merchant, one of the most successful figureheads of the Egyptian communities, who happens to have been involved in several expeditions to Egypt, some of them collaberately with the Penhew Foundation. I don't know him personally, but I could try and contact him, if you think it is a good lead."

Colonel Gray genuinely hoped that mr. Cannon would consider the lead, since it was the only way in which he thought he might be of some help, and he did not want to dissappoint dr. Osgood and miss Devereux for their trust which they had put in him when asking for his help - which was all out of genuine altruism, not a lack of confidence, for sure.

[Yakumo]

Tommy perks up at Grey's suggestion, "That's a great idea, an Egyptian figurehead would definitely be a good place to start learning about their community. Escpecially so for one who has worked with the Penhew Foundation. That's another great place to start."

[Japic]

Concerned over what might be said to such a prominent member of teh Egyptian community Osgood pauses and asks a question of Rebecca {more the keeper probably}. "Rebecca, this cult you read so much about. Would such members be of Egyptian descent do you think, or were they perhaps another culture that preyed on the Egyptian people?"

"The reason I ask is because I fear that as the African leads we knew were directly linked to the killings, so too might these Egyptian ones. It wouldn't do to go waltzing in and announce our names and the nature of our investigation to a person directly involved. That's how we lost the other two; by making our presence and involvement too obvious."

[TheUdjat]

[The author of Life as a God was Caucasian--British, I think. The Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah, as he described it, was mixed--predominantly British and Egyptian, since those were the major ethnicities in Egypt (and still are, to the extent that it matters).

The Brotherhood preyed on all manner of people--Egyptian and foreign alike.]

[Aegea]

Rebecca tries to remember any impressions she had from the book. "I'm not sure," she responds, frowning. "There really wasn't any mention of that, now that you mention it."

She speaks more quietly: "I agree with you completely, Thurman, about not being too open about what we're doing here and what we're investigating. That was actually the main reason I was initially trying to make up a false story of our background when the police were asking us questions; I just felt that being too truthful might somehow result in trouble or just lead to more questioning, when that could have taken so much time."

Talking about the police brings up a memory of her being questioned by them when they had been searching for Jeremy, and a look of sorrow briefly passes over her face. It still nags at her that nothing was ever discovered...she can only assume the worst had occurred then and try to not let it distract her too much from figuring out this perpetually tangled knot of events that had begun weaving together, with Jackson's death at the center of it all.

Rebecca feels grateful that Gray is being so helpful to them; she had been starting to feel a bit lost as to what leads to take here, and now it's starting to seem like they might learn something.

[VemuKhaham]

"Alright then," Gray finally decides, "I will try and contact him." If there is a nice red London phone booth about, or if they go directly to one of their homes where they have a phone, Gray will try and reach Tewfiq.