"Friend" has gone missing

I don't know if I've mentioned that Wife is planning a flight to visit her sister later this month. Her sister has been sick a long time, and Wife has dragged her feet for months but finally decided to fly out to visit. And on the way back, she's going to fly to the city where Friend lives, to see him. She booked the tickets, giving herself three nights with her sister and five nights with Friend. She is not booking any hotel, because in each case she plans to stay at the home of her sister and Friend, respectively. Then she e-mailed Friend to let him know her itinerary, and to ask him to pick her up at the airport.

That was eight days ago. She has heard nothing from him since. Nothing!

So she told me that if he was going to be such a jerk, she wouldn't visit him after all. I pointed out to her that maybe the silence is because he never really existed at all, and when confronted with the prospect of her actually arriving in town the person pretending to be Friend suddenly didn't know what to do. I suggested she fly out there anyway for maybe one night, rent a car and a room at a Motel 6, and then drive out to the street address that she has for this character to scout it out. Is it anything at all like the description she has been given? Does it have a name on the door, and (if so) whose? If she knocks on the door, who answers and what name do they give? And so on. She said she'd think about it.

Meanwhile yesterday Wife finally started showing a little initiative in this area. Years after I raised doubts about the existence of any of these people, she finally called the company that Friend claims to work for, and asked to speak with Human Resources. They have never heard of him. She dialed a number she had been given for Friend's lover's twin brother, and got a man who said he had never heard of Friend and didn't have a brother. But then he did confirm the existence of some of the other names in this dreary soap opera, so I'm not sure what that means.

Wife isn't sure she wants to fly out there with nobody to meet her, but I am urging her to do so. Partly I admit that I'm being mean and spiteful in wanting to rub her nose in just how much a fantasy this has been all this time. But partly also, I don't want Friend to contact her two weeks later saying, "Oh the most horrible thing happened ... there was a flood and an avalanche and I lost my phone service and Internet connection ... and so did all my friends ... and by the way I've been in a coma for weeks, ... oh, and my dog ate my homework. But everything's going to be just like normal now, isn't it? Please?"

I don't know what she'll do, but the story is taking an interesting turn.