At Scotland Yard - Jones, Elizabeth & Johnny

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,That's fine, I can just have one question answered at a time.

Jones jots down the information in his notebook and looks back up at the girls. "Thank you, Miss Williams," he says. "Can you please describe the other gentleman, and also the girl? How tall they were, how much they weigh, hair color and style, clothing, anything you can remember that stands out. And do you know the girl's name?"

[Laraqua]

"I don't recall the British gentleman very well, appearance-wise," says Agatha. "They both looked like movie stars, but there was nothing daring about him, appearance-wise. He seemed a bit, well, nervous. I can't really remember now if he was blond or brunette."

"He was blond, dirty blond," said Alice.

"No, I think it might have been a reddish brown?" asked Agatha. "Maybe?" She actually looks at Detective Jones for confirmation. "Oh, I really can't be sure."

"That's because he was blond."

"I think he might have been pretending to be an East Ender. He snuck inside the office when nobody is looking, before the shooting started when Maks came back with that woman. The barkeeper didn't seem to like that. He grabbed the woman and dragged her into the office. Maks followed with his gun, kicked the door open, ooh, it was all very frightening and more than a bit heroic. The woman was black, one of the dancers here, not negro-black, but dancer black, close to it but not as dark. Very pretty woman, scantily dressed. Dark hair and eyes. Can't remember much else about her. At the time I was pretty aware of her because, well, she obviously had a history with Maks. The girl was pretty tall. She was just a few inches shy of Maks. I don't really know how to describe her. Other than her rather large ... well." Agatha giggles. "The two gentlemen were heroes. I hope they're not going to be arrested."

[Mr. Handy]

Jones smiles as he jots down more notes. "Oh, I think it's far more likely I'll be arresting the barman," he says. "Can you describe him too, please? If you know his name, that would be a great help as well. Also, did you see which way they went when they left the club?"

[Laraqua]

"Umm, he was biggish, darkish, not ... I don't know ... he grabbed the girl and everyone rushed the door to get her out and then there was shooting and I wasn't really paying attention. I think they ran off with him, the bartender, I mean. I think they arrested him." Alice drops her voice to a whisper on the last few words.

Elizabeth quirks an eyebrow at that. Johnny says nothing.

[Mr. Handy]

"One of them was a policeman?" asks Jones, raising an eyebrow as well. "Did he produce a warrant card?" He describes Detective Constable Woods. "Did you see a man who looked like that?"

[Laraqua]

"No, no, Max, the American spy ... I think her arrested him." Alice smiled shyly. "American spies can arrest people, can't they?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Well, not as such," says Jones, "but I'm sure we can get it all sorted once I talk to him. Did you see which exit from the club they used?"

[Laraqua]

"I think they went out the front doors," she says. "They shot a man dead on the way out. One of the bouncers came at them. I don't know any more than that."

[Mr. Handy]

"All right, thank you," says Jones, writing some more down. "I just need addresses at which we can contact you in case we have any further questions later." His mind is already racing ahead. He may be able to find some trace of their trail out in front of the club, especially if they stepped in the bouncer's blood or something. However, he suspects that they probably went to the burning spice shop after they left here - unless they had been there first. Two incidents in such proximity to each other couldn't be a coincidence.

[Laraqua]

One of the constables duly approaches as Jones takes down her details. "Would you like to see inside the main office? We found a few things that might interest you." He casts a curious glance over at Jones' two followers but otherwise doesn't comment.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, thank you, Constable," says Jones. "Let's go have a look." He motions for Elizabeth and Johnny to accompany him.

[Laraqua]

Inside the Blue Pyramid Club
9:02pm - Thursday 29th January, 1925

The air is thick with tobacco smoke and the aroma of hashish lingers in the club, although everyone has been cleared from the club and there is no sign of any hookah. The tables are empty. A band containing foreign instruments sit upon a stage. There's a door to an office in one corner of the club, as well as other doors leading to a changing room and doors for the customer toilets which are all labeled. The general decor is Ancient Egyptian themed, so the walls are all decorated with hieroglyphics under a thick layer of tobacco stains, and the pillars supporting the ceiling are also decorated in an Egyptian style. There's a police photographer snapping pictures of a dead bouncer on the floor. It looks like he's been shot twice (Medicine roll to see what you can figure out) and a police pathologist is standing idly nearby, viewing the whole scene and smoking a cigarette.

The constable leads them into an untidy office, the threadbare carpet has been stained so many times, that it's original pattern is no longer visible. The battered oak desk is littered with papers as well as few pieces of discarded food and a stained coffee cup which sits next to an overflowing ashtray. Card boxes stuffed with documents are piled haphazardly against one wall of the office, while a half empty bookcase stands against the opposite wall. Underneath an empty curtain-rail, a grimy window looks out onto the alleyway behind the club.

A quick glance at the papers littering the desk show they relate to the day-to-day running of the club. The desk's single drawer is open revealing a Webley revolver, eight loose rounds of .455 ammunition, and a huge butcher's cleaver. There are also around a dozen copies of the Daily Scoop, Mickey Mahoney's newspaper. Most of them feature the Irish hack's theories about the Egyptian Murders on the front cover.

"This is what we've found so far," says the constable. "It looks like the barkeeper's missing ... a man called Menkheper. There's no sign of the owner or the other bouncer."

[Mr. Handy]

Jones doesn't have the expertise to tell much about the body beyond the obvious, but he makes a mental note to ask the pathologist about it later. "The witnesses told me that Maks and the chap with him made off with the bartender after they rescued the dancing girl from him," he tells the constable, "and that they shot the bouncer when he came at them. Now, let's see what we've got here." He slips on a pair of gloves so as not to contaminate the scene. He starts by flipping through the copies of the Daily Scoop, looking for any articles that had had part of them circled or been clipped out. Perhaps the Irishman had been onto something after all. Why else would all of these copies of the paper be here?

[Laraqua]

Unfortunately it doesn't seem that many of the others have bothered with gloves, likely assuming that a public place would be so riddled with different fingerprints that it would be impossible to process them all. Not to mention the fact that many police officers these days scoff at forensics ... unfortunately. Still that doesn't mean that Jones can't set a good example by keeping a good chain of evidence. He quickly reads the articles and sees that they have nothing to add over what he's already read thus far though it appears that this drawer contains every article ever published on this incident.

SLAUGHTER CONTINUES!
Scoop Offers Reward!

AN UNIDENTIFIED FOREIGNER was found floating in the Thames this Thursday, the 24th victim in a series of bizarre slayings.

Though Inspector James Barrington of the Yard had no immediate comment, sources exclusive to The Scoop agreed that the victim had been beaten severely by one or more assailants, and then stabbed through the heart.

This series of murders has continued over the space of three years, to the bafflement of our faithful Metropolitans. Must we hope that Mr. Sherlock Holmes, though reported by Mr Doyle to he in retirement, will one last time rise to the defence of our majestic isles?

Readers of The Scoop are reminded that this esteemed journal has a standing reward for information Leading to the apprehension and conviction of the perpetrators, in an amount now risen to £24 with the latest death. Be on guard
- THE SCOOP

[Mr. Handy]

Jones puts the papers back where he found them and turns his attention to the Webley in the drawer. He looks to see how many bullets are in the Webley and dusts it for fingerprints. He then does the same for the loose bullets, the cleaver, and the handle of the desk drawer. Someone who had been in here recently had shown interest in the drawer and may have handled its contents - and had almost certainly touched the handle to open it. It could have been the bartender, the dancer, Maksim Rukov, or his unidentified companion - possibly one of Elizabeth Downing's other friends. Any prints he could recover might be helpful.

[Laraqua]

While he can dust the barrel or trigger guard for prints it is impossible to get prints off the pistol grip (in this era). There do seem to be a few on the barrel though they're badly smudged and difficult to lift from the steel. The bullets and cleaver are easy to take prints from. The wooden drawer handle is covered in layered fingerprints though whether from the fingertips, mid-finger-prints, or what not though they are relatively easy to lift. Without comparison prints from all of the suspects he won't be able to match the print to the scene of the crime. It might be worth keeping the Rukovs prints on file (or on a wallet card), at the very least, when next he meets them considering the sort of trouble they seem to get into on a regular basis. The gun in here doesn't appear to be recently fired. There's no smell of gunpowder about it nor any residue - at least not since it was last cleaned which was awhile ago. This certainly wasn't the gun that did the deed on the bouncer. As he lifts the fingerprints, he moves aside some of the papers that were likely to overflower into the drawer and notes half a dozen roughly engraved lines as though a blade hacked into it with some force judging by the hard wood. The engraved lines aren't very deep - just a couple millimeters - but they're several inches long.

[Mr. Handy]

"What have we here?" mutters Jones. He carefully removes the papers that are on top of the desk around the carved lines so that he can see how far they extend and determine if they are writing or if they were gouged in some sort of pattern.

[Laraqua]

There don't seem to be many but they do appear to be approximately the same length. Their depth varies. There's a little bit of brown stain inside some of the gaps that looks like very old and dried blood stains.

"Perhaps we should be getting on?" asks Elizabeth with a surreptitious glance at the clock. "I'm sure you must be getting tired of taking us along with you. It's almost nine o'clock and I fear that I am getting very sleepy. I wouldn't want to be a bother."

[Mr. Handy]

"I don't mind protecting you, Miss Downing," says Jones, "but I can understand that you must be exhausted after this long day. We'll need to find a place for you to stay anonymously, and I'll arrange for constables to watch over you." He points out the gouges to the constable. "Those look like they were made by that cleaver in the drawer. The stains could be blood."

[Laraqua]

"I don't mind protecting you, Miss Downing," says Jones, "but I can understand that you must be exhausted after this long day. We'll need to find a place for you to stay anonymously, and I'll arrange for constables to watch over you."

"That would be lovely," says Elizabeth, in response to Jones' words. Her eyes flick back to the clock again and then, with an effort, she looks away and toward Johnny. "So long as we're on the ground floor or on a room with a fire escape. I'd hate to feel trapped considering all that's happened here."

He points out the gouges to the constable. "Those look like they were made by that cleaver in the drawer. The stains could be blood."

"Makes sense," says one of the constables with a nod. "Maybe the club owners were enforcing silence with the cleaver." He waggles one of his fingers but tries to keep it out of sight of Elizabeth.