Laura clicks off the phone without leaving another message. It is the third time tonight that she has tried to reach Lewis. Each time, her mobile reports that his phone is "out of range." This means it must still have been on and functioning when it lost its signal. He hadn't said anything about going somewhere tonight. In fact, he had said he would be calling her later, unless work came up. Said he wanted to talk to her about something important. She had dared to think that it meant he was considering making their relationship more intimate. But why disappear without leaving a message if tonight's conversation was so important?
Her attempts to call Hathaway, too, have the same result. He is also "out of range."
Frowning, she calls the Kidlington station. But the information she receives puts her no closer to solving this mystery. Lewis and Hathaway had gone out together earlier in the day on a missing person report, but they went only a few miles from the city. And no new assignments had been given them after that.
It's not the first time she's been unexpectedly unable to contact either one, though, and there's nothing she can do for now except to keep trying every few hours. And she does exactly that, until around one in the morning, when she decides she really needs to give up and get some sleep.