Low Memorial Library, Columbia University - New York
3pm - Thursday 15th January, 1925
The Carlyle Expedition certainly sounds familiar to
Amy, although she's not exactly sure why. A produtive morning and part of an afternoon in the library reveals a wealth of information about the ill fated expedition, led most suprisingly by the flamboyant New York playboy Roger Carlyle and famous English Archaeologist Sir Aubrey Pewhew, and massacred by native tribesmen in the forests of Kenya in late 1919.
New York Evening Post wrote:
Big Apple Dateline
ROGER CARLYLE, the playboy whom everybody knows - or knows about - is quietly leaving New Yawk tomorrow to check out the tombs of Egypt! You've seen the cuties ROGER has found in the nightspots. Who can doubt he'll dig up someone - er, something - equally fabulous from the Egyptian sands?
-New York Evening Post - April 4, 1919
New York Evening Post wrote:
CARLYLE EXPEDITION EMBARKS FOR ENGLAND
Led by the fabulously-wealthy playboy Roger Carlyle, the Carlyle Expedition departed this morning for Southampton aboard the crack British steamship Imperial Standard.
Contrary to earlier reports, the expedition will perform researches in London under the auspices of the Penhew Foundation before continuing to Egypt next month.
Readers may recall the enormous party which Mr. Carlyle, now 24, gave at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel upon reaching his majority. Since then, scandals and indelicate behavior have become Carlyle's trademark, but he never has become tarnished in the eyes of Manhattanites.
Members of the expedition have been reluctant to reveal their purpose in Egypt.
OTHER EXPEDITION MEMBERS
Renowned Egyptologist Sir Aubrey Penhew is assistant leader of the team, and in charge of excavations.
Dr. Robert Huston, a fashionable 'Freudian' psychologist, accompanies the expedition to pursue parallel researches into ancient pictographs.
Miss Hypatia Masters, linked in the past to Carlyle, will act as photographer and archivist.
Mr. Jack Brady, intimate to Mr. Carlyle, accompanies the group as general factotum.
Additional members may be secured while in London.
-New York Evening Post - April 5, 1919
New York Evening Post wrote:
CARLYLE DEPARTS EGYPT
CAIRO(AP) - Sir Aubrey Penhew, temporary spokesman for the Carlyle Expedition, indicated Monday that the leaders are taking ship to East Africa for a 'well-earned rest.'
Sir Aubrey debunked rumors that the expedition had discovered clues to the legendary wealth of the lost mines of King Solomon, maintaining that the party was going on safari "in respite from our sandy labors."
Roger Carlyle, wealthy New York leader of the expedition, was unavailable for comment, still suffering from his recent sunstroke.
Discussing that unfortunate incident, local experts declared Egypt entirely too hot for Anglo-Saxons at this time of year, and suggested that the young American had not been well-served by his democratic enthusiasm, rumored to have led him to personally wield pick and shovel.
-New York Evening Post - July 3, 1919
New York Evening Post wrote:
IMPORTANT-VISITORS
MOMBASA (Reuters) - Leading members of an American archaeological expedition arrived here on holiday from digs in Egypt's Nile Valley.
Our Under-Secretary, Mr. Royston Whittingdon, held a welcoming dinner for them at Collingswood House, where the wit of Sir Aubrey Penhew expedition co-leader, was much in evidence.
Accompanying Sir Aubrey are two Americans youthful financier Roger Carlyle and medical doctor Robert Huston.
The party leaves inland tomorrow, for Nairobi and hunting.
-New York Evening Post, July 24, 1919
New York Evening Post wrote:
CARLYLE EXPEDITION FEARED LOST
MOMBASA (Reuters) - Uplands police representatives today asked for public assistance concerning the disappearance of the Carlyle Expedition. No word of the party has been received in nearly two months.
The group includes wealthy playboy Roger Carlyle and three other American citizens, as well as respected Egyptologist Sir Aubrey Penhew of the United Kingdom.
The expedition left Nairobi on August 3, ostensibly on camera safari, but rumor insisted that they actually were after legendary Biblical treasures.
Carlyle and his party reportedly intended to explore portions of the Great Rift Valley, to the northwest of Nairobi.
-New York Evening Post - Oct 15, 1919
New York Evening Post wrote:
ERICA CARLYLE ARRIVES IN AFRICA
MOMBASA (Reuters) - In response to clues, Miss Erica Carlyle, sister to the American leader of the lost Carlyle Expedition, arrived in port today aboard the Egyptian vessel Fount of Life.
Several Kikuyu-villager reports recently have been received concerning the putative massacre of unnamed whites near Aberdare Forest.
Miss Carlyle declared her intention to find her brother, regardless of the effort needed. She brought with her the nucleus of a large expedition.
Detailing agents to coordinate supply and other activities with Colony representatives, Miss Carlyle and the remainder of her party depart for Nairobi tomorrow.
Her companion, Mrs. Victoria Post indirectly emphasized Miss Carlyle's purposefulness by recounting the rigors of the voyage aboard the Semite ship.
-New York Evening Post March 11, 1920
New York Evening Post wrote:
CARLYLE MASSACRE CONFIRMED
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The massacre of the long-missing Carlyle Expedition was confirmed today by district police representatives.
Roger Carlyle, New York's rollicking playboy, is counted among the missing.
Authorities blame hostile Nandi tribesmen for the shocking murders. Remains of at least two dozen expedition members and bearers are thought found in several concealed grave sites.
Erica Carlyle, Roger Carlyle's sister and apparent heiress to the Carlyle family fortune, led the dangerous search for her brother and his party. She credited Kikuyu tribesmen for the discovery, though police actually found the Site.
Among other expedition members believed lost are Sir Aubrey Penhew noted Egyptologist; New York socialite Hypatia Masters, and Dr. Robert Huston. Many bearers also are reported dead.
-New York Evening Post - May 24, 1920
New York Evening Post wrote:
MURDERERS HANGED
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Five Nandi tribesmen, convicted ringleaders of the vicious Carlyle Expedition massacre, were executed this morning after a short, expertly-conducted trial.
To the end, the tribesmen steadfastly refused to reveal where they had hidden the bodies of the white leaders of the expedition. Mr. Harvis, acting for the Colony, cleverly implied throughout the trial that the massacre was racial in motivation, and that the fair-skinned victims were taken to a secret location, there to suffer the most savage treatment.
Miss Erica Carlyle, defeated in her efforts to rescue her brother, left several weeks ago, but is surely comforted now by the triumph of justice.
-New York Evening Post - June 19, 1920
Marko Investigations - Brooklyn, New York
3:15pm - Thursday 15th January, 1925
As Amy is leaving the library,
James is about to set off for Manhattan, the bad weather means it'll take a while to get there. He considers not picking up the phone when it rings, but he can ill afford to turn away work.
"Marko Investigations, this is James Marko. Whaddya need?"
For a few seconds no one speaks at the other end of the line, and even when the silence is eventually broken James barely recognises his friend's voice.
<<James, it's Jackson. Bring your gun tonight, and take care in case they're watching>>
<<I thought it would be safe in New York, I should have known they'd be here too. Damn it, I'm sorry!>>
The phone line goes dead before James can even speak, leaving the detective holding the receiver, shocked at the stress in Elias' voice. In all the time that he's known the author James has never known anything to scare Jackson Elias.