12/12/2021 – Tracking Down Misr House (13)

Sunday, 10 February 1935

Police at the Blue Pyramid Club

They return to Astor Manor and sleep. In the morning they update Cassandra with what they found out. When Jeziah brings the morning newspapers, it is all over the local news that a fight broke out at the Blue Pyramid Club after the Police raided the building. The situation escalated and many Officers were called to the scene, resulting in many arrests and a number of injuries.

Zalkador suggests getting the Private Investigator that the watching Gavigan’s house to switch to tailing Gavigan himself. The agency says this will cost more, but can be arranged. They also get a report from the PI watching the Blue Pyramid Club reporting more than a dozen Egyptian-types were arrested and carted off in paddy wagons.

Inspector Barrington

They discuss what has happened at the Blue Pyramid Club and decide to see if the Police found anything. Tiger and Alex are driven there by Jeziah. It takes a while before they can get an interview with Detective Chief Inspector James Barrington, as the Police are very busy that morning processing the paperwork after the raid. Barrington is the boss of Inspector Poole, who they dealt with about Jackson Elias’s death.

Barrington tells them that despite the violence, they have been unable to find any links to the death of Jackson Elias, nor the Egyptian murders, nor the disappearance of Mrs McGiven. He asks them for more ideas about what they could be looking for in this club.

Investigating the Blue Pyramid Club

Alex offers to help them search the premises for clues. Barrington brings in Inspector Poole and has him taken them to the Club in a Police car. Most of the Club is on the first floor of a residential block, with a shop and two flats below the Club. A set of stairs and a lift lead up to the Club, which are now sealed off by uniformed Police.

Inside, the Club is lavishly decorated in Egyptian styles and colours. There is a smoking room, coffee room and a large room with a stage and a bar. It is not that big and there is no much there to see. Although the Club sells food, there is no kitchen, suggesting food is in brought in from the outside.

Alex notices that the bar has a cellar trapdoor, hidden under a carpet. He lifts it up and heads down with Tiger and Inspector Poole following. The soon find, in a corner, is Mrs McGiven chained to the wall. She is a little in shock and says they were talking about taking her “up north” somewhere.

At that point, Inspector Poole has them leave the building so that they can get on with their investigation. He thanks them but tells them they can no longer be involved. They arrange for Jeziah to collect them and take them back to Astor Manor.

What About Misr House?

They update Zalkador and Cassandra about what they found and Zalkador is pleased his landlady has been rescued. There was no sign of Joe Quimby nor any obvious clues of cult activity. They must have another location, possibly the “up north” location that Mrs McGiven mentioned. They wonder whether they were referring to Henson Engineering in Derby or somewhere else.

Alex then recalls a picture in the Penhew Foundation of a manor house, labelled “Misr House”. He wonders if that is the place. Alex decides to telephone Miriam Arkwright at the British Museum, to ask about that Misr could mean. She recalls that is the Arabic name for Egypt.

They decide to now try to find out where this house is. It is quite a distinct name and the photo looks very much like an English manor. As it is Sunday, the investigation will have to continue tomorrow.

Monday, 11 February 1935

In the morning, Zalkador and Alex go to the British Library curtesy of Jeziah and the automobile. Alex wants to try to locate information about Misr House and Zalkador wants a map of Britain, to see if he can divine for the location of Joe Quimby.

The Polynesian Statue

Zalkador gets a strange feeling whenever he touches his statue of the winged, tentacle-faced creature and has started do it regularly. He uses it to help try to locate Joe, but fails miserably. Zalkador suddenly has the feeling that the statue moves and looks at him for a moment, which spooks him a little.

He decides to spend the rest of the day investigating what his statue is and believes it is a god that lives under the sea, worshipped by Polynesian cults. The god is said to be sleeping and when he awakes, the world will end.

Neville Lloyd Price

Alex has a mostly fruitless day searching, first through property records and then newspaper clippings concerning Egyptology and famous British Egyptologists. Eventually, he stumbles across the story of Neville Lloyd Price, who owned a mansion in the Naze, in Essex, and re-named the place Misr House. He is in the news because he has gone bankrupt and been forced to sell the property in 1925. He then seems to have disappeared from London society.

The Library is then closing and they are both forced to leave. Jeziah is waiting outside with the automobile and takes them back to Astor Manor for dinner. They decide to go to Essex and try to find Misr House. Chelmsford, the County Town of Essex, may have records about Misr House in the Town Hall.

Tuesday, 12 February 1935

Watching Gavigan

In the morning, Zalkador checks if the PI following Gavigan has found anything. Gavigan appears to go to the Penhew Foundation, then a shop called Empire Spice, then went with an Egyptian woman for a meal at a local Arabic restaurant He then returned to the Penhew Foundation and went home.

The PI overheard at the restaurant a few comments, including the names “Elias” and “Zalkador”, “Henson Manufacturing” and “The Blue Pyramid Club.” Gavigan appears to maintain an air of aloofness and nothing seems to bother him.

Travelling to Chelmsford

Then they all travel north to Chelmsford in the automobile. Jeziah has packed a hamper. On the journey, Zalkador realises that the statue may be traceable within divination in the same way he has trying to find Joe Quimby. He has now taken to always keeping the statue with him.

History of Misr House

It is lunch time by the time they arrive after getting slightly lost along the way. They head for the Town Hall and Alex begins looking through the records for Misr House. He finds about more about Neville Lloyd Price, who was a rich Egyptologist and Occultist. He renamed his house from Long View to Misr House in 1915. By 1925, he was forced to sell the property to a man from London, by the name of Gavigan.

Misr House is in the Naze. It was built in the 16th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It features a secret room used to hide Catholic Priests during Elizabeth’s religious purges.

The Nase is north east of Chelmsford, on the coast. It is exposed peninsula that juts out onto the North Sea. The land is mostly bogs and moors. Misr House appears to be in the middle of the moors. It is after 5pm by then and getting dark. They decide to stay in a guest house overnight in Chelmsford and try to find the house in the morning.

End of Episode Thirteen