IC: Scotland Yard - Johnny, Elizabeth and Caroline

[Raiko]

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?”

[imme]

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.

[Grafster]

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

[Decrepit]

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.

[Raiko]

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?”

[imme]

The smile drops from Elizabeth's face.

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

[Grafster]

Banishing any traces of nostalgia Johnny reflexively scans the room.

[Raiko]

“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.

[Grafster]

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.

[imme]

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.

[Raiko]

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.”

[imme]

"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?"

[Decrepit]

Caroline looks fretfully from Beth to the detective.

[Raiko]

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?"

[imme]

"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?"

[Raiko]

"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!"

[Grafster]

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.

[Raiko]

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.”

[imme]

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

[Raiko]

"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."