Play@YSDC

OOC,You had almost an hour. Even in just two groups, each group could have spent 20 minutes at each church and still gotten back in time. Each one is only about five minutes away from both the campus and the nearest other church.

Jerome realized that if Brian didn't go to one of the churches near campus, perhaps he could have either gone to one near somewhere else he wanted to be or to a church that had some particular significance to him.

A man with short brown hair, about thirty years old, entered the hall from the stairs with a book and a pile of papers under his arm. He wore a typical professor's outfit, with a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, and he wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. He walked directly toward the door of Room 202.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you have a student named Brian Anderson?"
Jerome politely inquires of the man.

"Yes, I do," said the man. "He's in my next class. It starts in about ten minutes. I'm Assistant Professor Calvin Sheridan. Why do you ask?"

"We wanted to speak to him about an important matter. We tried to meet him at one of his classes earlier today, but he wasn't there so we are hoping he will show up to your class."

"Well, you're welcome to wait and see if he shows up," said Calvin.

"What about a Miss Mary Walters?" asked Nancy.

"Yes, she's in my class too."

"Can you please describe her, so we'll recognize her if she arrives?"

"She's about five foot five, 130 pounds, black hair, very pretty. I can also point her out to you if that's not good enough."

"That would be excellent Mr. Sheridan, and I hope you don't mind if we pull her aside when she arrives. We just need to speak to her briefly it should only take a moment," Anthony told Calvin.

"Sure, no problem," said Calvin. "She usually gets to class a few minutes early anyway." He went into the classroom and began to set things up for his lecture.

Five minutes later, students began to trickle in. A girl matching the professor's description of Mary was one of the first to arrive.

Anthony walks up to Mary Walters and says, "Miss Walters? Hi, I'm Dr. Scott, I teach in the Mathematics Department, and this is Mr. Padgett and Miss Remington. We were hoping to talk with you for just a moment."

Mary paused. "Sure," she said. "How can I help you?"

"We're trying to find your boyfriend, Brian Anderson," said Nancy. "He's not in any trouble or anything. We work with his father, and he sent us to tell him something."

"Well, he's in this class too. He should be here in a few minutes."

"He skipped his last class."

"I don't think he'd skip this one. We're in it together, and I'm sure he wants to spend time with me. What's the message? I'll pass it along to him. If he doesn't show up, we have a date tonight at eight."

"It's a private matter."

Mary frowned. "Something's night quite right here. Brian and I don't have any secrets from each other, and it's strange that you insist that he's not in trouble. That makes me think that he is. What's really going on?"

"Well, we don't really know," says Jerome.

"He has done, or might have done, a few things lately that could get him into trouble, and by trouble I don't necessarily mean trouble with the authorities. As colleagues of his father, we wanted to speak to him so that we can know why and help him."

"In that case, I need to talk to him too," said Mary. "When you do, I want to be there. Is there any other way I can help?"

"The most important thing is for us to meet him and talk to him soon. But I don't really know him, so I wouldn't mind hearing what he's like."

"Well, he's very devoted to me," said Mary. "I think he's in love with me, though he's never said so to me. He's not the brightest of students, and to be honest he doesn't try all that hard. I'm trying to tutor him - that's how we met, in fact. He can be emotional sometimes, but he tries to hide it."

"I see," says Jerome, who is increasingly feeling that Brian isn't the kind of person he would like.

"Well, hopefully we will catch him. A friend of his that we met thought he might also go to a church, even though he didn't normally attend one. In case he doesn't show up, do you know if there is any church he might prefer going to?"

Mary shrugged. "I have no idea," she said. "I've never known Brian to go to church. Of course, I've only known him for the last couple of months. If you'll excuse me, class is going to start in a minute." She headed into the classroom, which had now filled up with more students. Brian was not among them.

Frustrated, Jerome stares into space for a moment.

"Alright, it looks like we can try every church in the town, or we can go back to the lab. How many churches are there in walking distance of the university, anyway?"

"I'm sure there's quite a few," said Nancy. "There were four Catholic churches within a few blocks, but if you expand the radius to about a mile or so out that number will increase dramatically. If you also include churches of other denominations, it'll take forever to check them all, and there's no guarantee anyone at them would remember him if he did show up there. It's possible that Brian is just late to class, so one of us should stay here. We could also talk to Mary again after class lets out if he doesn't show. It should end at around 3:50." She looks at Anthony. "Thank you again for your help. Don't feel obligated to stay with us if you have other things you need to do."

OOC,[b]Jerome[/b] and [b]Anthony[/b], roll Idea.

Jerome thinks hard.

OOC,Note that I edited the time mentioned in the post above. The class is due to let out at 3:50, not 4:50.

Jerome could not think of anything new, but Nancy came to a realization. "Didn't Mary say she had a date with Brian tonight at eight?" she says. "If Brian doesn't show up, we can ask her where it is when class is over. He's not likely to stand her up unless something's really wrong."

[spoiler-button],Doesn't Jerome have a Know of 99, making that roll of 93 a success?[/spoiler-button]

"I suppose that would work," says Jerome, "although I feel like there should be something we could try instead of waiting around for the class to end."