Mr. Blaylock Is Unwell (Alicia)

[Dr. Bloodworth]

OOC,Make an Idea roll to see. Neither of them sound familiar at the moment.

[yockenthwaite]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3309833/]Idea roll (stat 75%) re who "Bard Maxwell", presumably an artist, and Byogdin might be (1d100=39)[/url]

[Dr. Bloodworth]

OOC,Alicia's not sure on the artist name, but it occurs to her that 'Byogdin' might have been him trying to say 'Bogdansky'.

[yockenthwaite]

Alicia notes the names mentally for now, hoping that they tie up with any leads that the others might have found, or that she can identify who they might be, especially the artist who must be known to wider London society. She will write what she has learned down in her notebook when she is out of the house in a taxi carriage. She decides to go on her way as planned, reluctant to probe Peter any further.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

The doctor accompanies Alicia to the front door. "I hope you got answers of some sort from Peter," he says. "We had probably reached about the end of his lucidity, anyway. He doesn't stay in his right mind for long, unfortunately."

Alicia can move back into The Investigation thread when she's ready to head to Richard's house, but feel free to do anything else before getting there.

[yockenthwaite]

Alicia thanks the doctor as she leaves.

She decides, given that there is time before she needs to head to Richard's house, to go to the newspaper office first, and see if she can find out more, either from quizzing colleagues or looking in research files, about the mysterious artist, and also the "Byogdin" lead. Some of her fellow journalists know more about the art world for example, and wider cultural society, and may recognise the names.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

Alicia decides that for the purposes of this investigation, it's probably best to check at the offices of another newspaper. Arriving at the offices of the Times in Fleet Street, she heads first for the office of Charles Beaumont, the paper's head art critic. She and Beaumont have a working relationship: he helped her with a story on an Italian painter visiting London that she worked on last year. Besides being extremely familiar with the London art scene, Beaumont doesn't necessarily shy away from digging into all the sordid goings-on behind the scenes.

OOC,Being in the US, I obviously don't know if the [i]Times[/i]' real offices are in Fleet Street, but, well, now they are.

[yockenthwaite]

Alicia knocks on Charles's door, hoping that he is in.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

Charles soon answers Alicia's knocks. "Alicia! How've you been? Come in, come in." He ushers her into a cluttered office. "My apologies on the state of my surroundings here, but I wasn't expecting visitors. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

[yockenthwaite]

Alicia smiles at the warm welcome. "I'm fine thanks, Charles. I'm here because I hoped you might be able to help with a lead I need to follow up. I've been given the name Bard Maxwell, or something sounding like that, very possibly a painter. Does that ring any bells with you?"

[Dr. Bloodworth]

"Hmm, let me think." Charles digs through a pile of papers on his desk and retrieves a small notebook, which he combs through for a few minutes. "There's several Maxwells in London and vicinity, but I have a feeling you may be talking about Bart Maxwell. He was quite in fashion a few years ago, but there he was embroiled in a, ahh, scandal back in '98. I believe he works for some of the lower-class theatres now. Does that sound like your man?"

[yockenthwaite]

"That sounds very plausible indeed," says Alicia. "There seems to be a theatre connection in this case, so if he was working for the theatres that would fit with the man I'm looking for. What sort of scandal was he involved in, if you don't mind my asking? And do you have any more details for him, such as the theatres he works for now, or his own address, if he has, for example, a studio?"

[Dr. Bloodworth]

"Well, it's not really much of a secret that most of our more well-known artists have a vice of one sort or another. His was opium. He crawled around in some of the more sordid parts of our city... well, he and another chap had a dust-up down by the Docks, the fellow ended up floating in the Thames... well, fighting's not illegal and the police couldn't prove Maxwell had actually killed the man, or if he fell into the river by accident. But all was the same in the end -- though he may not have gone to prison, his name was in ill-favour after that. So he was forced to do what he could." Charles tents his fingers as he leans back in his chair. "He did an unfortunate bit of work for disreputable East End music halls, I'm afraid. I believe he did some work for Mr Stoker at the Lyceum a few years back when they put on that play he'd written. The last to employ him was the Adelphi, they did a production a time ago using his sets almost exclusively. Duchess of Malfi, it was, I believe. If your aim is to contact Mr Maxwell, you may have a bit of trouble with that. He's not been seen since The Duchess ended its run. He lived in Greenwich, though I've also heard rumours he had a mistress up in Camden Square."

[yockenthwaite]

"Excellent information, thank you very much for that," says Alicia, gratefully. "One more thing: does the name Byogdin mean anything to you, possibly in connection with a woman? There seems to be a link to Maxwell. I've also been given the name Countess Bogdansky which may be the same person."

[Dr. Bloodworth]

"Hmm. I'm not familiar with those names, although since you've said that the name is linked to Maxwell's it may be that of his mistress in Camden. She's said to be a Russian."

[yockenthwaite]

"Ah, curious indeed," says Alicia. "Well thank you very much for all your help Charles. Remind me in future that I owe you a favour in return." She stands, ready to leave.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

"Of course, of course," Charles says, rising out of his chair to open the door for Alicia. "Do let me know what you might discover about Mr Maxwell -- London's art community is quite wondering where he's gotten himself to."

[yockenthwaite]

"If I track him down I promise to let you know," laughs Alicia, as she leaves.

She leaves The Times offices, and arranges to get a carriage to the house in time for the planned rendezvous with the others.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

OOC,Alright. As of now you're the only one moving over yet - though I believe Maud may be soon, the same with Reg and Gary. How I'll do it is let The Investigation thread develop a bit more, as there's some things going on over there -- one or two more "rounds" -- and then I'll repost here when you can drop in.

[yockenthwaite]

OOC,Ok that's grand.