Play@YSDC

Posted: **Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:42 pm**

Encyclopaedia Britannica - 1911 wrote:Robert Norman Shaw
“....New Scotland Yard is undoubtedly Mr Shaw's finest and most complete work. The plain granite base is not only subtly suggestive of the purposes of the building, but by dividing the height with a strongly marked line gives a greater apparent width to the structure; it suggests also a division of departments. By its mass, too, it prevents the eye from dwelling on the necessary irregularity of the lower windows, which are not only different in character from those of the upper storeys, but more numerous and quite irregularly spaced. The projecting angle turrets are most happily conceived, and besides giving emphasis to the corners, form the main point of interest in the composition of the river front. The chimneys are not allowed to cut the sky-line in all directions, but have been drawn together into massive blocks, and contribute much to the general air of dignity and strength for which this building is remarkable. Simple roofs of ample span complete a composition conspicuous for its breadth and unity ....”

Photo to follow!

New Scotland Yard – Victoria Embankment, London
11:00am – Thursday 29th January, 1925

The drive through the bustling streets of central London is uneventful and Johnny soon pulls up outside the imposing world famous headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police Force.

Posted: **Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:17 pm**

Elizabeth fixes her hat and steps out from the car. "I hope Inspector Barrington will have time to meet with us." She smooths her dress.

Posted: **Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:34 pm**

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be able to persuade him somehow," Caroline says, smiling at her friend. "You underestimate your considerable influence."

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:29 am**

Elizabeth smiles in return, and with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Well then. Shall we go learn more about these 'Egyptian murders'?" She turns and leads the way into the building.

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:47 pm**

Caroline nods. "I think we would do well to have you lead things off, Beth. Your reputation precedes you."

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:31 am**

Johnny holds the door for the ladies a they disembark.
Perhaps it would be wise to confine our conversation topics to... he seems to be struggling for a word "... more... plausible areas. The inspector is doubtless a reasonable, that is to say, scientifically minded, sort of man.

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:49 pm**

Elizabeth raises an eyebrow at Johnny. "Ah, no. I was hoping to tell him nothing of our involvement in this. Mostly I want him to tell us everything he knows." She grins, and then looks uncertain. "Should we tell him anything? Would it help his investigation?"

Posted: **Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:04 pm**

Well the detective replies There is a warehouse in the Limehouse district that is filled with crates full of smuggled military weaponry... It might be good only be dealing with men with knives again...

Johnny shivers slightly looking up at the police building again and frowning.

Posted: **Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:54 am**

"Hmm. And these police will hopefully be more prepared than the ones in New York." She frowns at that memory. "Well, Johnny, you have more experience dealing with the law than we do. Caroline and I will provide the charm, and you will know what to say." With that decided, she leads them into the building.

Posted: **Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:39 am**

Johnny spends a moment staring at the young lady's back before following along leaning on his cane. As he does tries to cobble together some reasonable explanation for knowing about high powered military weaponry in a well guarded warehouse....

Posted: **Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:47 pm**

New Scotland Yard – Victoria Embankment, London
11:05am – Thursday 29th January, 1925

: New Scotland Yard; new_scotland_yard.jpeg (76.37 KiB) Viewed 3240 times

The front desk inside the police headquarters is manned by a veteran sergeant, who watches the two ladies and Johnny as they approach, “Good morning ladies, can I help you?”

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OOC: Inspector Barrington is a very busy man – seeing him at short notice will need an IC reason and a good credit rating or fast talk roll. Johnny or Caroline can of course make use of Miss Downing’s higher credit rating skill if they choose to do the talking.

Posted: **Wed Aug 27, 2008 2:39 am**

Caroline, as usual in such matters, looks to Beth. Privately, she hopes Beth doesn't require Johnny to do too much here; she didn't know anything about Barrington, but she did know that many people in the world were less open-minded about other peoples than her friend was, and anything the group might know would come off better from her. Of course, that raised the question of how an American socialite came to know about underworld military-grade hardware ...

Posted: **Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:21 pm**

Johnny steps forwardMiss Elizabeth Downing here to see Inspector Barrington.

Posted: **Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:26 am**

Elizabeth puts on her most haughty look and waits to see how the man responds to Johnny.

Posted: **Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:33 am**

Johnny draws upon years of introducing Miss D to project the image of the impecably mannered flunky of some one of significant importance.

Posted: **Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:49 pm**

OOC: I need a Credit Rating roll for Elizabeth, or a Fast Talk roll for Johnny. (Note: The white American characters actually receive a small bonus (10%) to credit rating rolls in 20’s London – as you are “all the rage” at the moment – this won’t apply outside London though).

I’m not using spoiler tags at the moment, because they’re too much hassle and I like using “b” and “i” tags a lot. Carnage Lee’s considering replacing them – so hopefully we’ll have useful spoiler tags soon.

Posted: **Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:52 am**

credit rating (77+10=87) (1d100=85) phew, i'm glad I got that bonus

Posted: **Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:27 pm**

The sergeant nods and says, “if you could just take a seat over there ladies, I shall let the Inspector know that you’re here right way.”

The sergeant makes his way upstairs, leaving a younger constable manning the front desk.

Posted: **Sat Aug 30, 2008 7:12 am**

Johnny can't help but peer around, soaking up the atmosphere. He finds himself trying to pick out people, their rolls, situation; look for similarities and differences.

Its only with tremendous effort he avoids rolling a cigarette.

Posted: **Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:24 am**

Caroline picks up Johnny's nervousness and fidgets. Sometimes the enormousness of what they were doing, how detached it felt from the "real" world going on about its business around them, struck her, and this was one of those times. What sense would their tale make to one not intimately acquainted with the events of the last days and weeks? She couldn't imagine. Best to keep things on the plane of normality as much as possible, to speak in terms that lawmen would understand.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:47 pm**

New Scotland Yard – Victoria Embankment, London
11:21am – Thursday 29th January, 1925

After a seemingly endless wait, the desk sergeant returns – accompanied by a younger detective. Elizabeth and Caroline recognise him from the crime scene inside the British Museum yesterday, although they don’t know his name.

The detective smiles and crosses the reception area to greet the investigators. “Hello, I’m Detective Sergeant Jones. I’m afraid the guv’ner’s not here at the moment. We’ve had a rather unfortunate incident in the cells at Bow Street station – he’ll be all morning I’d imagine.”

“Is there anything that I can do to help?”

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:59 pm**

Elizabeth initially reacts with a look of disappointment. But after a moment of thought she smiles at the young detective and says "Well, I was hoping to speak with the Inspector, but perhaps you'll do." She smiles again, as if encouraging him to rise to the challenge.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:32 am**

Johnny nods politely when the new inspector is introduced but remains silent.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:51 pm**

Caroline offers a mixture of feigned and genuine curiosity. "Oh, dear. What happened? I hope it's nothing that puts anyone in any danger."

It seems unlikely that his incident and theirs had any connection, but it never hurt to ask. Plus, she assumed that, like most professionals, coppers liked to talk about their work and show how good they were at it.

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:42 pm**

Decrepit wrote:Caroline offers a mixture of feigned and genuine curiosity. "Oh, dear. What happened? I hope it's nothing that puts anyone in any danger."

“I wouldn’t think so, not now anyway...”

“Unfortunately I’m afraid the suspect that your friends apprehended last night – Abdul Azeem al-Sayed – somehow managed to take his own life.”

The detective shrugs his shoulders, “We’re not sure what exactly happened though. It seems that there was some sort of electrical surge that damaged the electrical lights in that part of the station.”

Jones looks a little puzzled as he continues, “By the time they got the lights back on, the suspect was dead in his cell. He’d suffocated, but we’re not sure how – that’s what the Inspector is looking into now.”

“Anyway,” Jones smiles, “I’m sure that you don’t want to hear all of that, what can I help you with?”

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:12 pm**

The smile drops from Elizabeth's face.

"Could we speak with you in private, please?"

Posted: **Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:07 am**

Banishing any traces of nostalgia Johnny reflexively scans the room.

Posted: **Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:39 pm**

“Of course, we can use Inspector Barrington’s office if you like.”

Jones leads the three investigators inside Scotland Yard proper – up two floors and along a long panelled corridor.

The inspector’s office is a small room across the hallway from a larger office housing the rest of the detectives. The desk is neat, but a large notice board contains a chaotic array of information relating to the Egyptian Murders – seeming pinned onto the board completely at random.

“Please take a seat.”

There are four chairs in the cramped office, enough for everyone.

Posted: **Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:00 am**

Johnny holds a chairs for Miss D and the Doctor, adjusting the chairs slightly to make sure they have space and appropriately prominent positions.

In doing so the detective carefully arranges it so he has as best a view as reasonably possible of the map board. He keeps his pad and paper out; doing his best to appears to take careful notes about the discussion, while carefully noting all the information he can about the board, the locations of the paper and what's written on them.

Posted: **Thu Sep 11, 2008 2:11 pm**

Elizabeth nods thanks at Johnny and sits. She takes a moment to carefully arrange her skirt before speaking up. "To be quite frank, Detective, I am rather concerned about these Egyptian murderers. I was hoping you would be able to tell me that you were close to capturing them." She waits for him to do so.

Posted: **Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:27 pm**

The detective smiles rather smugly, “Well of course, thanks to your friends, we now only have one more of the gang to round up – the big man who fled the museum. He’s still on the run, but I don’t think he’ll be able to escape the long arm of the law for much longer. So you ladies should be able to sleep soundly.”

“We now have a name for the suspect, and we are keeping an eye out for him – both at his home and at the Blue Pyramid Club in Soho. Once we get a good lead on these types, they can’t evade us for long.”

Posted: **Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:36 pm**

"Oh, that is good, then." Elizabeth smiles. "But are you sure that this gang doesn't have any connections? To, well, stronger allies, I suppose?"

Posted: **Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:10 pm**

Caroline looks fretfully from Beth to the detective.

Posted: **Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:59 pm**

Jones looks surprised by Elizabeth's question, "No Miss, we've no evidence to suggest that the three suspects were part of a larger conspiracy, or that they were acting under orders."

"The murders appear to have been entirely random. We're a little perplexed that they dared to commit their final attack in such a public place, but we're confident that once we catch up with the third culprit, the case is closed."

"You don't have any information that suggests otherwise do you?"

Posted: **Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:13 pm**

"Oh, it just all seems so strange, as you say," says Elizabeth as she carefully doesn't answer the question. "Why did they murder anyway? Are they all insane?"

Posted: **Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:39 pm**

"Oh yes, totally insane. If you'd seen the savagery of the attacks..." Jones coughs and looks embarassed, "Not that anything a lady should have to witness."

"And the prisoner! How can a man throttle himself without hanging?"

Jones shakes his head, "Totally, totally insane. I'll be glad to see the back of this case I tell you."

"We did have one crazy American man turn up. He was an author, but I forget his name, Jack something? He claimed that the murders were all the work of some ancient religious cult called the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh."

Jones grins and laughs, "Anyway, we spoke to a chap from the Penhew Foundation - Edward Gavigan - he's quite an expert on Ancient Egypt. He said that such a cult did exist during ancient times, but that it had been wiped out thousands of years ago. He was quite amused that somebody would think it had returned; he said that other than half a dozen dusty old scholars nobody in the world would even know about the original Brotherhood!"

Posted: **Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:17 am**

Johnny works hard to keep his inspection of the board casual, even as he casually makes a note of something.

"Brotherhood?" The detective affects a confused look.

Posted: **Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:42 pm**

Jones nods, “Yes the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh, as I said though the American chap was clearly a bit crazy. We’ve found no evidence whatsoever of the existence of such a cult in modern times.”

“I suppose it is possible that the American was correct, and that these three murderers saw themselves as an ancient religious cult – but until we catch up with the final perpetrator, we’ve no way of knowing.”

Posted: **Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:41 pm**

Elizabeth is left momentarily speechless as she struggles to bury any reaction to hearing about Jackson.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:28 pm**

"Anyway," continues Jones, "that's about all that I can talk about, unless you have anything to add to the case."

"As I say, there's no reason for you ladies to worry. I'm sure we'll have this case all wrapped up in another day or two."

Posted: **Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:14 am**

"Ah, well, that is good to hear," Elizabeth says, managing to regain some of her composure. "So the Blue Pyramid Club is a place to avoid for the next few days? The name sounds very exotic. Does that make it an interesting place to go or mean that it really is meant for foreigners?"

Posted: **Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:28 pm**

“To be honest, all of our stakeouts of the Blue Pyramid have been rather fruitless. I think it’s unlikely that the suspect will return there unless we get lucky, it’s a lot more likely that we’ll get a break from our surveillance of his residence.”

He shrugs, “The clientele at the Blue Pyramid is about two thirds Arabs, and the other third white tourists – Soho really isn’t the place for two nice young ladies to be going though.”

Posted: **Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:18 am**

As it looks like the discussion is about to break up the Johnny stands to hold the door for the ladies. As they file out he says with his straightest face... I was curious... machine guns are illegal in this country?

Posted: **Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:30 am**

Predictably, Jones looks quite startled, “Yes, eh yes under most circumstances machineguns are illegal in this country. Why do you ask?”

Grafster wrote:I was visiting a relative in the Limehouse the other day when I happened to notice something I thought a bit odd. A laboror dropped a crate they were unloading at a warehouse nearby; I wouldn't have paid it much attention except that a rather large gun tumbled out along with a lot of plates.

It seemed odd they would be transporting it inside the same crate as those plates. They seemed quite flustered about the whole thing.

Johnny's face is his best mask of polite reserve.

I happened to note the address, but if that sort of thing is normal here...

“Yes I’d very much like that address, I’d have to pass it along to the correct officer though; unless...” Jones looks slyly at Johnny, “unless you think this may be connected?”

Posted: **Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:20 am**

Johnny strives to sound helpful and somewhat simple.

Well... I hadn't thought of it at the time but... there was a dark skinned man who seemed to be supervising the whole operation. He might have resembled that fellow who escaped from the museum.

Posted: **Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:57 pm**

“Right then!” Sergeant Jones takes out his notebook, “I’d better take that address down then.”

“I’ll get it straight to the Inspector. We will probably have to get back in touch with you at your hotel, after we’ve checked this place out.”

Posted: **Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:58 am**

Elizabeth turns her head and delicately coughs to hide her amusement.

Posted: **Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:38 am**

Johnny assiduously provides the Sergent with any information he requires. That would be very kind of you.

Posted: **Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:55 am**

Inspector Barrington’s Office – New Scotland Yard, Victoria Embankment, London
11:45am – Thursday 29th January, 1925

“Ok, well thank you for your help,” Jones stands up and offers a handshake to Johnny and the two ladies.

“I’d best be off to find Inspector Barrington. You can show yourselves out, if you remember the way.”

: Detective Sergeant Jones; sergeant jones.jpg (15.94 KiB) Viewed 2817 times

Posted: **Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:19 am**

Posted: **Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:54 am**

Victoria Embankment – Outside New Scotland Yard
11:55pm – Thursday 29th January, 1925
As the trio leave the New Scotland Yard building and stroll back along the embankment towards the car, Johnny takes out his notepad and says, “I noticed that the police appear to have been interested in The Blue Pyramid Club long before Andrei found that membership card.”

“They also appear to have had a different suspect for the crimes, one Tewfik al-Sayed. He has a shop in Soho.”

Johnny explains everything that he spotted on Inspector Barrington’s noticeboard.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:46 pm**

"The detective did say that the clientele was about a third white," Caroline says. "Perhaps ... perhaps I could go down there, maybe with Maks or someone else. It's not so hard for women to change their appearance. Maybe I could have a look around. I'm not sure what I'd be looking for, but I may be able to see something that the police wouldn't.

"On the other hand, there's the Gavigan matter," she continues. "I think it's clear that he's hiding something, maybe a good deal." She looks around a bit nervously for some validation.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2008 4:01 pm**

"Hmm," says Elizabeth. "We may want to investigate Soho, but we must think carefully about the safest way to do so. I do think you are quite right about Gavigan. The detective described him as being so dismissive about the cult idea. I suspect he knows that they were involved with the original massacre somehow. I'm starting to think that his hesitancy to speak about what he knows is due to some level of involvement in it all, which is too bad. He could have been an useful ally."

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:20 am**

"Well, if we want to be careful, Maks is probably the wrong choice," Caroline opines. "But, yes, the Gavigan matter. Either he's implicated or in great danger, or both. In any case, it seems like perhaps he should be followed. Johnny? What do you think? You were keeping an eye on him till the other matter came up."

Posted: **Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:51 am**

The detective purses his lips as he turns on the car and gently eases out of the parking spot.

He looks at Caroline. Personally, I am less keen on seeing anyone confront these little cults the organization is controlling directly. They're violent, extremely dangerous. Obviously filled with uneducated people who are being taken advantage of, through the use of opiates like drugs and superstitious beliefs. I'm not sure that I have developed a meaningful opinion about the man yet. I would like to follow him sometime. I don't know what these mechanical widgets are that were so heavily guarded when they moved from the foundation to the warehouse to the ship but it's not normal.
Johnny glowers as if the lack of normality is some sort of personal offense, specifically orchestrated by someone to offend him.

There is also a room in the Penhew that I'd like to visit. Though that would be a more... nocturnal activity.

Posted: **Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:22 pm**

I’m moving everyone back to the Ritz Hotel now, please don’t post replies in this thread, unless you have a final reply to make to Johnny.

Play@YSDC

IC: Scotland Yard - Johnny, Elizabeth and Caroline

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