Play@YSDC

Holly and Father Flanagan enter their car and depart towards the sanitarium. You watch them disappear at the next intersection, then head for your own car. The weather is still good, but there are clouds in the distance, moving towards the city.

"So, gentlemen" Mumbles Ian with a Lucky between his lips, waiting to be lit "where should we begin?"

Clarence lights Ian's cigarette, then his own. He takes a long drag, and gets into the driver's seat, "I suggest the local newspaper office first."

Christopher Fontana

"Sounds like a good plan to me, let's head on over and see what we can discover about Henslowe and his family oh and double check that the incedent didn't occur here. Fontana agrees "We should try to get over to the sanitorium for midday, to check on Dr. Chastain and Fr.Flanagan's progress.

You ask around for informations and decide to head towards the offices of the Savannah Morning News, on the northern side of the city, near the harbor. It's a short trip with your car. The smell of the harbor welcomes you as you get off the car, the air so humid that it feels like you could wring the sky itself and make it rain. You enter a four-story building, in the usual red brick style that's so common in this area of the city, and go up to the third floor where the offices are located. Ian knows how to navigate his way inside a newspaper office and manages to enlist the help of a local journalist, a man named Donovan Grizzard.

"Good mornin'", he shakes your hands. "Ian heeyur says y'all are workin' on some old story. Let's see if we can find somethin' on that, then if y'all find somethin' juicy goin' on in the city, y'all know where to find me, all right?"

"Of course, Don." Ian falsely agrees with Grizzard, giving him a gentle slap in the back. He's not even sure how He will deal with this story, imagine giving it to another journalist. "Your help is greatly appreciated, but I have to say, don't expect any great stories here. It all happened more than 10 years ago, and the people involved are either dead or ... erm... whacky, so... Anyway, we are looking for anything you can have on the Henslowe Family, more specifcally Douglas and Virginia Henslowe. Also, if you had any incidents here in Savannah, around August 1924, involving multiple deaths. How should we proceed?"

"Well, I'd say we start from the morgue.'" He gestures towards a corridor. "This way. Tell me exah-actly what we're lookin' for.

"Anything we can find on the Henslowes could be useful, really. Ian feels like he wants answers for questions he doesn't know. Family members, close friends or business partners of Douglas Henslowe, legal or illegal activities he may be involved with, this kind of thing. Also, if there are news on or around August 1924 about Douglas Henslow leaving Savannah. Regarding tragic events on August 1924, we're pretty sure we won't find much, but any events that could have resulted in multiple deaths can be of interest. Any other suggestions, gentlemen? Fontana? Lanalor?"

Clarence looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, just browsing the papers for the fateful month in question would be a good start. Headlines, obituaries ...yes...there's enough of us to do that fairly quickly." . He nods to himself, as if acknowledging the suggestion for someone else.

Christopher Fontana

Christopher is happy to research Henslowe and family, checking for details on the summer of 1924 is of secondary importance as far as he is concerned. Christopher hopes to gather enough information to be able to 'make sense' or 'contextualise' any information that comes from Dr. Chastain and Fr. Flanagan's visit to Henslowe.

The four of you get to work in the newspaper morgue. No big incident happened in Savannah in the summer of 1924. You find nothing on Douglas Henslowe, but there's an article from 1907 referring to a David Henslowe, married with Virginia Henslowe, that offered a big donation for the construction of the Blue Flower Orphanage in Savannah. The article briefly explains that David and Virginia lost two newborn daughters in 1882 and 1883, and that caused them to take to heart the suffering of children.

"Well that was a bust!", said Clarence. He rubbed his eyes, rested on the chair back and looked up at the ceiling for a few moments, and sighed. He slackened his tie.

Donovan looks as disappointed as Clarence. "Well, no big story heeyur, I'd say. Or at the very least, this Douglas fellow has manah-aged to avoid public attention. Theeyur might could be more, but we ain't gonna find it in heeyur. Gonna ask people, check his background, this kind of stuff." He shrugs. "If you think theeyur is really somethin' big."

"Well, let's hope our colleagues got luckier. Thank you anyway, Grizzard." Ian continues as they walk towards the exit "There are other places we could try. The library, or even the police. Or we could just go for some bacon and eggs and wait for Dr. Chastain and Father Flanagan."

" I agree the library, is the next best place to try", said Clarence, "If there were anything noteworthy in the police records, then it would have been reflected in the newspapers."

As you exit the morgue another journalist, who was passing by, speaks to Donovan: "What the hell, Don, I was looking for you. We have to go to the inauguration, remember?". He looks older than Donovan, perhaps nearing his fifties. Tall, bald, blue eyes. Doesn't have much of a southern accent.
"Aye, aye, sorry Matt. We were searchin' material on an old story, 1924, big incident, involvin' one Douglas Henslowe. You were aroh-ond heeyur back then, right? You don't happen to know anythin', do you?"
The newcomer scratches his head thoughtfully. "1924, uh? Henslowe... 1924, it's gotta be... yes, sure, that thing in Los Angeles, it's gotta be that one. Los Angeles, 1924, the big fire in the farm. One man from Savannah was involved, I'm not 100% sure, but it was probably called Henslowe. Never made it into the newspaper, though. His involvement, I mean. His name came up a couple of months after the incident, and it was cold news by then... and folks around here aren't really that interested in local news from Los Angeles." He shrugs. "And the guy was... well... not right in the head. We decided it was not worth much as a news."

"Los Angeles, uh? God, I hate that city..." Says Ian, talking to himself, momentarily forgetting the others.The mere mention of the city makes him feel feverish and sick. He falters with the idea of going back there.

After a few seconds he recompose himself and continues "Yeah, that's probably it. It coincides with we previously had." He retrieves some newspaper clippings from his pocket and shows them to Fontana and Lanalor. "Here. 15 people died in an abandoned farm near Los Angeles on August 18. They were thought to be members of a sex club for rich people, but their last meeting ended up in senseless violence. Drugs were probably involved in the accident. That must be it, right?"

Clarence takes a clipping and reads it for a few moments. "Sex club eh?! Well ! I never got invites to such events.", snorts Clarence. "Los Angeles eh! Ahh The City of Angels. Sounds like our next stop."

Christopher Fontana

The information does seem to confirm one of the scenes that he and Morin had discovered from their initial investigations at The Boston Post hopefully Dr. Chastain and Fr. Flanagan would be able to get absolute confirmation from Henslowe.

"This is definitely good information... hopefully the others can confirm it, we should probably head on over to meet them..." he says to Morin and Lanalor.

The new arrived, that Donovan called Matt, nods to Ian: "Yes, that one. I was in Los Angeles from 1921 to 1923, working in the Los Angeles Examiner. When that story came out, I asked some friends there and they kept me up to date. The story goes like this: big fire, the police gets there, finds more than a dozen bodies, some of them mutilated, others shot. Investigations are a huge flop. That sex club involved many people, but none of them could be proven directly involved in the incident at the barn. Many of them were wanna-be stars of Hollywood. You want a big name? Olivia Clarendon. Voices were she was part of the club, or at least attended some parties. She wasn't a big shot back then, just an actress rising the ladder, obviously. Anyway, back to the investigation. A couple of months later, an anonymous tip-off comes in, bring to the arrest of one of the club members that was at the barn. Turns out the guy was crazy. Made names, but the cops realized he would never make a credible witness. One of the names was a man from Savannah. A sort of wanna-be vigilante, attacked the club with some accomplices, carrying bombs and guns. Henslowe, might be. I'm not 100% sure after all these years"

The mention of Olivia Clarendon's name surprises Ian. He doesn't consider himself a fan, but he saw some of her movies. "Olivia Clarendon? Jesus... So neither Henslowe nor his accomplices were ever indicted? But why would he assault a sex club for the cafe society? Do you have any other information, Mr. ...? Ian realizes that they weren't introduced formally.

"Oh, yes, sorry, I'm Matt Thomson", he shakes your hands. "If I remember correctly, after the tip-off and the arrest, there was a trial, but it concerned only one person, a member of this sex club. I can't remember his name, though. The police found evidence when he was arrested, and it was definitive evidence. During the process, a few names came out, but the guy was clearly mentally ill. One of those names was a man from Savannah, this Henslowe you've mentioned I think, but he was already in bedlam. A madman accusing another madman. In the end, the prosecuting attorney decided to back down. He had one culprit, and that was enough. You know how these things go. i don't know what happened after, I lost track of the story.

Christopher Fontana

Christopher makes notes, the salacious revelations don't sit very comfortably with him, not that he's a prude but the notion of a 'sex club' is something completely out of his comfort zone, this is something he will not relish telling their absent companions.

Clarence listens and nods thoughtfully, " So, by the sounds of things, there ARE other witnesses to this event, who are NOT currently locked up in a sanitarium. ...Yes, we must contact these people. Oh , how rude of me. I am Clarence Lanalor." Clarence offers his hand to Mr Thomson.

"Well, thank you very much for the information, Mr. Thomson. It was of great help." Ian shakes Matt Thomson hands again. "We must go now. Mr. Grizzard, thank you for you time." He says with a nod.

"Remember to let me know if you find anythin' juicy", Grizzard winks. You shake hands and head out, heading for your car.

Christopher Fontana

Somewhat relieved to be in the car Christopher "I can't help but worry that 'we' may have been a little indiscreet with Grizzard and Thompson, the details we turned up were definitely unexpected and quite salacious.. I just hope that we haven't piqued their 'journalist antenna', if they sniff a story it could complicate our investigation."

Ian feels pretty satisfied with the information they got. "Come on, Fontana, you don't really buy this 'sex club' thing, do you? We don't know much about Henslowe, but why would a millionaire like Walter Winston raid a place like that with guns and bombs? There must be something more in it..."

"About these fellas, I don't know..." he continues, trying to look at the situation from the journalists perspective They already ignored the thing 12 years ago, right? Let's hope it stays like that.

Clarence joins the others in the car, "The more I think about it, the more suspicious I'm getting, about what Mr Winston did. It is soo abnormal. Surely he could have got the police involved, rather than risking his life and the life of his comrades. Lets meet up with the others and compare notes.".

Link to Reunion at Joy Grove next topic.