I've had this sort of thing in my mind from the beginning when I've been trying to think of why/how she'd say she'd be there in a minute and then not show.
I have come up with:
1. finishing a conversation with someone
2. in the middle of doing something
3. nearby and literally moving closer as they speak
I figure LE doesn't have her phone so they have no way of knowing if she was talking on her phone to somebody else, but that wouldn't hold her up so it doesn't matter.
If she was talking to somebody else in person, physically, but the other person was on foot that would hardly matter either because she ended up 30 miles away which requires a vehicle.
If she was in the middle of doing something, where was she? not standing on a sidewalk doing something. She'd have had to have stopped at somebody's place and gone inside to do something quick, IMO (which brings somebody else into it who lives very near her, I have no idea who, just sayin).
If she was nearby and walking and moving closer, then didn't arrive then that scenario requires somebody literally snatching her off the street against her will/by surprise, IMO.
So, I keep coming back to the thought that all things considered, it seems like she left her apartment to go to the AMPM before meeting the cab becuase she probably needed to get some cash out of an ATM (I assume they have one there?) to pay him, and it further seems like she stopped somewhere on the way, on her natural walking route to the AMPM from her apartment....
See, if it was ME back in the day when I was her age, I might have stopped at somebody's house who could smoke me up because my agitation level after all that would've, back then, made me want to self medicate a bit and mellow out a lot, so I"d have stopped someplace nearby that I knew I could probably get someone to do that. I guarantee if I got a call while I was in that situation Id say I'd be there in a minute and then book it out of there to try to make up for lost time. Of course, that's if I was able to leave there of my own will at that point.. .and if I *was*, then my judgment would be much less good going forward...
Other than that, I"m having a hard time deciding what was the hold up...
all JMO and pre-coffee, so probably lacks all kinds of logic, sorry!