Nathaniel and Brian entered the building, walking past a row of mailboxes numbered one through four. Beyond the vestibule was a door marked "1" and stairs leading up. They climbed two flights, past a door labeled "2" on the first landing before reaching the door to Apartment 3 on the next landing.
Brian put his ear to the door and chuckled. "Oh, yeah, they're here all right. Better let me knock and introduce you." He knocked on the door and waited. A minute or so later, a pretty blonde girl about twenty years old opened the door, wearing a nightgown.
"Hey, Carol," said Brian.
"Hey, Brian, what's up? Who's this guy? Your father?"
"This is Nathaniel Levington. He's everyone's father. He's a priest."
"We came to talk to Gary," said Brian. "I know he's here. I...uh...heard him when I was out in the hall."
Carol's blush deepened, and she stepped aside. "Yeah, come on in. He's...in the bedroom."
Carol's living room didn't have much in the way of furniture. There was a couch, a coffee table, a small television, a record player with a shelf full of LPs, and that was pretty much it. There wasn't a real kitchen, just a small section set aside for the purpose. A couple of bar stools beside a counter that separated the kitchen area from the living room was presumably where she ate. At the back of the room was a closed door.
"It should only take him a minute to get dressed," said Carol. "I'll, uh, go get him." Once Nathaniel and Brian were inside, she closed the front door and disappeared into the bedroom. After a short while, she returned with Gary Brown, who was wearing sweatpants and a white T-shirt. Gary was about the same build as Brian, though he had black hair in contrast to Brian's blond hair.
"Brian, man, what the hell is going on?" asked Gary. "Those guys who were following you showed up at the frat house and came after me! I had to jump out the window to escape!"
"I don't know, Gary," said Brian. "I think they were trying to find me and thought you knew where I was. This is Father Nathaniel Levington. He might be able to help us, and he has some questions for you."
"Okay." He turned to face Nathaniel. "What do you want to know?"
"Cops?" said Gary. "I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense, and it sure beats the alternative. I only saw one of the two guys tonight, and he was definitely one of the pair following Brian. I didn't see the other, but I could hear him behind the first guy. Come to think of it, he did call the second guy Sarge."
"I got a good look at the guys who were following Brian earlier," said Gary. "The one guy was in his mid-forties - he's the one who came after me at the frat house. Short fellow, losing his hair. The other dude was in his late twenties, taller, pretty tough-looking. They were wearing suits and driving a blue Pontiac, 1964 or '65, I think. I didn't see the plates. I don't know if the younger one was with the older one when he came after me later, or if that was someone else."
"Yeah, those are the guys," said Brian. "Couple of shady characters if you ask me."
Neither of the descriptions sounded familiar to Nathaniel, but he'd probably recognize them if he saw them.
"See you, Gary," said Brian. "Thanks." He followed Nathaniel out of the apartment, and Gary closed the door behind them. "Well, where should we go now?" he asked as they went back downstairs.
"I know he's got a grant from the government," said Brian as they reached the car. "I think it's from the Advanced Research Projects Agency, whatever that is."
Nathaniel saw nothing unusual in the area. Nobody seemed to be watching them, and not that many people were out at this hour, though there were still some.
"All right," said Brian, getting into the passenger seat. "Any thoughts about what we're going to do tomorrow? I can't hide forever. I have a court appearance on Monday."
"First thing I'll do tomorrow is head downtown. I have a friend in the police department. He might be able to tell me if the men following you were cops. If they are, you're mostly in the clear. An officer might act recklessly and abuse his power, but I doubt you'll come to any real harm from the police."
"If these men following you aren't police officers, then I'll start worrying."
OOC,do the cops publish an annual whos's who type yearbook? Something that I could use to get pictures of the currently serving officers?
"I didn't even think about them being cops," said Brian. "The other possibility had me worried too."
OOC,There's nothing like that as far as I know. In any case, the men were not in uniform, and pictures of plainclothes detectives would certainly not be available for obvious reasons.