[The kid's listening, that's good. It's getting clear now that this is serious, not a hypothetical or a hide and seek kind of thing.]

You told me. That's a start.

[The cop instincts in him lurch to their feet, creaky yet reliable as an old man getting out of bed.]

Give me a name, description, when and where you last saw them, and the names of who you talked to.

[He thinks a moment more.] Did you call their phone? If it's disconnected, they went home. If it just rings a lot, then they're missing or they lost it - or they just stopped picking up for weeks on end, like somebody.