Thank you, sir. As he says, Lieutenant, we located one of the men mentioned on the back of a business card that was in Mr. Elias's posession, a Mr. Silas N'Kwane. From an intermediary, the importer on front the business card, we learned that Elias had gone to meet with N'Kwane on the day of his murder. When we visited Mr. N'Kwane's shop up in Harlem, we dropped Mr. Elias's name to see if there was any reaction. I portrayed myself as an artist in the emply of Mr. Elias, following up on research for his upcoming book. N'Kwane showed no reaction, giving no indication he had even heard of Mr. Elias. This seemed odd: they had surely at least spoken that day, and probably met. If their contact had been innocent, why not at least acknowledge that to a professed colleague of Mr. Elias in some small way? Suspicious, we spoke with N'Kwane further, giving him the impression that I had, yesterday, received by mail, a large volume of Mr. Elias notes, from which to begin my paintings. This was meant to draw him out, in case N'Kwane knew about any of Elias work."
"At that point, he was still in control of his fascade, and we simply looked around the shop for a few moments, fearing we had been wrong. Then, we saw, hanging on the wall, a knife of exactly the same type as the killers had used in their murder of Mr. Elias. If it was not the precise knife used in the killing, it was it's double. I was convinced that that man and that place were connected with Elias's death. So I am afraid that I acted somewhat rashly."
"I went back to Mr. N'kwane, and told him of a symbol that seemed to be all throughout the notes that Mr. Elias had sent me, and I drew for him the symbol that had be carved into my friend's forehead, asking N'Kwane if he had any articles that bore this symbol, so that I might use them to sketch my illustrations from. Upon seeing the symbol, the man almost choked, but recovered quickly, and immediately asked me for my address and telephone number, so that he could contact me if anything bearing that symbol showed up. I gave him a false name and address [Jibril hand the Lt. a slip of paper with the information], thanked him, and we left."
"We wanted to tell you incase you wanted to search N'Kwane's shop further, or watch the address I provided him, in case any thugs show up to retreive 'Elias's notes', as well as to ask how you would like us to proceed, if at all."
