So ... Mom didn't talk with BL between 12:30pm when Mom hears from the road service man that BL eyes "look a little red" until after the parents request a LE wellness check including a drug search where BL is found "at a hotel" after 9pm ???
Come on!!! There had to have been some communication between 12:30pm and 10pm! That doesn't pass the smell test even in smelly Buttonwillow. JMO
His parents DID call for a wellness check when they could not reach their son. While it does not say that they tried to call and were unsuccessful, you can extrapolate from the fact that they called for a wellness check that they had tried to call and got no answer (possibly for several hours), otherwise why be worried?
From Buttonwillow to Laguna NIguel takes about 3 hours to drive(2 hours and 51 minutes by Google maps). The first report of Bryce being missing shows up at 19:27:59 (7:27pm) The report also states "LAST HEARD FROM SUBJECT AT 1230" Working with those numbers, I come up with this:
3 hours travel time
1 hour stopping (food, bathroom break, whatever)
At 4:30 he should have been home, but was not. Most parents would give an extra 1/2 hour. At 5:00 pm, start calling his cell phone. No return call with an hour (in California, if you don't have hands-free, you aren't supposed to talk on the phone when you drive-LOTS OF PEOPLE DON'T HAVE HANDS-FREE-just had to say that), contact phone service to see about pinging cell. Takes at least a half hour to get that sorted out (Yes, I've had to do it). This brings us to 6:30. That hour could have been eaten up by his parents trying to call several times, trying to figure out whether to start driving up, trying to find out how to ping the phone, dozens of things (Yes, I have done that, too)
So IMO, there did not have to be any communication during that time. I am sure there was attempted communication, though.