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“He ended up with a dishonorable discharge. At least while Everest was in the military, his parents couldn’t get him off. I wonder if they ever fought to get that changed so that he had an honorable discharge.But it indicates the guy isn’t totally honorable.” Nicole looked at the list of names and addresses of the potential witnesses they needed to talk to. “Okay, so we go talk to Randy and his girlfriend next?”
“Ann first. Maybe she’ll break. If she knows anything.” But Nate couldn’t quit thinking about Everest and if he was involved in some criminal activity, especially if it led to making Phil disappear.
“Right.” Nicole directed Nate to Ann’s apartment, and when they arrived there, they left the car and went to the door.
“Watch Randy be at her place, and he keeps Ann from talking to us like Everest did with Sarah.” Nate felt they were coming up with nothing but dead ends and the friends would all stick together and stonewall them.
Ann answered the door with a beer bottle in her hand and took a swig. “Yeah? What do you want?”
“We’re private investigators hired by Phil’s parents to look for him,” Nate said. “Can we talk to you about the last time you saw him?”
“Oh, that’s easy. We were at the Red Dog Pub. And then we dropped him off at his house on his parents’ farm.” Ann wiped a strand of black hair away from her face.
“And the business with the fight at the pub?” Nicole asked.
Ann’s lips parted, and he figured she was surprised that they knew about the fight there.
“Oh, it was no big deal,” Ann said, trying to brush it off as though it was nothing important.
“Witnesses who saw the confrontation said it was. And then the bouncer threw Everest and Phil out of the pub. That’s not nothing,” Nicole said.
“All right, sure, they had a fight. I’m not sure what it was about exactly. I had to run to the little girls’ room, and when I got back, I saw Phil and Everest being escorted out of the pub by one big bouncer dude. And we all left then too. No reason to hang around, not to mention we had to take Phil home.”
“No one said anything to you about what had happened during the fight while you were driving Phil home?” Nate imagined it would have been the sole topic of conversation.
“Not that I can recall.” She flipped her black hair over her shoulder. “I’d had a lot to drink.”
Which could be true, but it was also convenient that she didn’t know anything. “What about your boyfriend? Randy? Did he see what had happened?” Nicole asked.
“Oh, he went to the bathroom at the same time I did.”
How very convenient.
“When we talked to the bartender, she said you all were there.” Nate figured it was time to make up a lie of his own and see how Ann dealt with it.
“Well, that’s just her word against ours, now isn’t it?” Ann closed the door in their faces.
Now that was telling. So she had been there and witnessed the whole thing.
“You’d think Phil’s friends would want to know what happened to him, wouldn’t you?” Nicole said, as she got back into Nate’s car.
“I’d think so. Unless they are covering up for someone else who’s a friendorthey were involved and are covering up for their own role in Phil’s disappearance. We have one last stop—to see Randy.”
They found where Randy was living and parked at his house. He was just pulling up into the driveway. “What do you want?” he asked, getting out of his car. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, and with a scruffy blond beard, he was the fairest of the friends.
Nate explained who they were and that they wanted to ask him about the last time he had seen Phil. “Did he seem distraught about anything?”
“Oh, you mean like he might have wanted to commit suicide?” Randy asked, his expression brightening as if he thought that was a way to deal with the fallout from this.
“No, for having left without saying anything to anybody and worrying his parents,” Nate said, trying not to sound annoyed. “I was just wondering about his frame of mind after the fight at the bar.”
“He was mad. Everest was mad. They get that way sometimes. Everest thinks Phil had some feelings toward Sarah, but Phil drinks and then pulls Everest’s strings. Anyway, so we all got thrown outof the pub and went home. That was the last of it. I was with Ann the rest of the night. I don’t know what the others were doing. All I know is Phil went into his house and shut the door. I don’t have a clue where Phil went after that. He was as drunk as us. I just figured he’d slept it off.”
“Was Ann there when Everest and Phil started throwing punches at each other at the pub?” Nicole asked.
“Yeah. Sure, where else would she have been? She doesn’t like seeing any of us fight. Not that she stepped in to stop it either. She doesn’t like confrontation. But she didn’t want to get hurt either. I didn’t bother trying to stop them. When they get like that, they just need to work it out between them. But we did take them home in separate cars.”
“What about Phil’s sister?”
