Sorry, I didn't explain myself fully - with the above scenario, I was thinking that something bad happened to Dylan along the way to meet with his friends. Possibly picked up by someone sinister.
When I said he could have hidden to avoid being seen and returned to his dad, I only meant hiding momentarily, as in not wanting to be seen by any passer by who might tell his dad where he was - such as a mail delivery lady (especially one he might recognise as knowing his dad). I didn't meant he was hiding away.
I'm still not able to come up with an answer for the lack of phone call - other than his mobile broke, and he didn't know their numbers from memory, so just thought he'd make his way there under his own steam. I know its not a perfect theory, but the only perfect one, which fills all the gaps, is the scenario no one really wants to be true.
One thing I would add about the favoured idea of MR doing something bad to Dylan on the Sunday night - why would he text Elaine to ask if she'd heard from Dylan that day (the day he apparently went missing)? That would obviously set in the motion the missing person report and investigation? Wouldn't someone in that situation try to buy some time by not alerting people to the fact DR was missing so early into the visit? If he was responsible, he must have really been confident he'd covered his tracks if he was happy to have LE snooping around within 24 hours of Dylan going off the radar? All just MOO.
