I think this goes back to the inconsistency in this series of checking phone records. Carl made plans to go on an expensive trip even though he had little money in his bank account. That fact coupled with the figures on the back of the magazine, maybe he was expecting a bunch of money soon. Why were the police not interested if maybe he called other places to make other plans for the time he would be gone? If they checked his phone records for that, they would surely have seen the call to the police.

It's similar to An Exercise In Fatality. MIlo said Gene called him from the gym shortly after he returned home about 9:00pm. A check of the phone records would show that no such call was placed. How does Milo explain that?

When it comes to phone records, we have to remember again that back then, a "local" call did not show up on phone records.