AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, I sure do too.”
After they finished breakfast, Nate was going to help with the dishes, but Kayla said, “No, you have to locate the missing guy.”
Nate smiled at her but didn’t make a move to leave the house. He looked determined to stay and help.
Roxie said, “Thanks for helping, Nate.” She handed him the frying pan. “Meet you at the lodge,Kayla.” And then she hurried to take Rosco and their year-old short-haired orange cat, Princess Buttercup, to the lodge and leave the two of them alone.
Kayla laughed. “I guess you’re helping me with the dishes.”
“I’m glad to. That’s why I offered.” He began scrubbing the pan with gusto.
Kayla was so glad he was here with her. “I’m sorry if I might have sounded annoyed with you last night.” She finished putting the last of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
“Oh, you were fine. I knew I was in trouble.”
She laughed. She wasn’t about to deny it.
“Okay, I’m going to be working on this case all day and probably a little late, but I want to see you too, so let’s just leave it open as to when we can get together but know that I want to see you as soon as I can.” He set the frying pan on the drying pad.
“Absolutely. What you have to do is really important. Anytime is fine with me.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, and they kissed. He was always so tender toward her, but their kisses always morphed into something passionate and filled with longing.
He kissed her jaw, her neck, sucked hard, and she knew he’d left a hickey there! As if he was trying to prove to everyone that she was the one for him. But she wasn’t about to leave it at that andbranded him with a kiss mark on his neck too. He smiled at her, seeming well pleased. He pressed his burgeoning arousal against her, and she figured he was going to feel uncomfortable on the way to work this morning.
“I’ll see you as soon as we’re able,” she said, and then they said goodbye and she headed off to the lodge while he drove back into Silver Town. And she frowned.
He didn’t ask her to go with him to the cabin!
Chapter 3
Nate was so glad he had breakfast with Kayla, making him realize how he should never cancel on her unless there was a real emergency and he had no other choice. She made his morning so much brighter that he was ready to get after this missing person’s case and any other that might need his immediate attention with renewed zeal.
“How was breakfast?” Nicole asked at the office. She raised her brows at him, as if she knew just how it had been once he was with Kayla.
“It was great, and, yes, you’re right. I shouldn’t skip out on dates with her.”
Nicole smiled. He knew his sister loved it when she was right about something regarding him.
Not long after getting to the office, Nate and Nicole drove first to Phil Peterson’s parents’ farm outside Green Valley to speak to them again. He believed Phil’s parents might have some more ideas about where Phil could have gone after giving it some further thought.
“Did you speak with any of Phil’s friends about him disappearing?” Nate asked Phil’s parents. Sometimes family could learn more from themissing family member’s friends than an outsider they didn’t know could.
“Not really,” his mother said. “I mean, wedidtalk to them, but none of them expected him to just take off like that. I told the police that too. Phil was looking forward to working a new job as a journalist at the paper. He wasn’t planning on running off. We think his friends know more than they are telling us though.”
“What makes you think they’re hiding the truth from you?” Nate asked.
“They clammed up. They always talk to us, and they were casting each other looks like they had to keep a secret. Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but it really seemed as though there was more going on than they wanted us to know,” the mother said.
“We learned from them that they’d all been at the Red Dog Pub the night he went missing,” the dad said. “We asked if Phil had said anything to them about taking off, and they said no. But I swear they looked sheepish about it.”
“Of all his friends who were with him at the Red Dog Pub, who do you believe might be the weak link in the group who might break under pressure and tell us more about the situation if he or she knows something?” Nicole asked.
“Sarah. At nineteen, she’s the youngest, and she’s also the most easily manipulated. If you can get heraway from Everest, her boyfriend, she might talk,” the mother said.
“Maybe Gerald will talk. He really liked Phil and took his disappearance the hardest, even though Everest was supposed to be Phil’s best friend. But Everest said Phil would show up when he felt like it and didn’t seem to care in the least that he was gone,” Phil’s dad said. “Most likely their friend Randy won’t tell you anything. And his girlfriend, Ann, does everything Randy says.”
“Do you think there was a falling-out between Everest and Phil?” Nate asked.
“Yeah. The night of the pub outing, but no one will say if anything happened. I even went there,” the dad said, “and asked other people who frequent the joint if anyone saw anything. No one admitted to seeing anyone.”
