And- its very common for people to take the calls in transit, especially when the calls are early (7:00am) or late (>5pm). Most of my day is made up of similar calls, most of which I am either a participant or in listen+lurk mode- i.e. I could stay on mute, be driving somewhere or talking to another person, sometimes even on another call on another phone. I don't think it is at all unreasonable that he drove himself 30 minutes away if the only reason he wouldn't do that is because he had to be home for a call at 7:00am. Not saying he did drive, but he wasn't time-constrained to 7:00am they way it is being portrayed. He could have been out all day, taken calls, and nobody at his job would know the difference.
This is what makes the immediate worry on the part of his partner a yellow flag for me. It just seems like there was a good reason to be concerned so quickly.
Driving around looking for a wreck, calling hospitals? He was a mile from home on a residential street, you would hear the sirens if that had occurred.