Going on the info that AB called E back after she had already started for home.....
Is it possible, I wonder, that AB called E and told her that her friend (E's friend, the one she had been playing with at the house) had ran out and gone missing and AB wanted E to help her find her/him?
Like maybe AB called E and said something like "so-and-so just ran out of the house and headed to the woods. He/she was upset/mad/whatever. Please come back and help me find him/her (not sure if the friend she was visiting was a boy or girl)?" And maybe that's why E went back. Providing of course she was called back in the first place. Just a thought.