We still have not heard from her (Thursday afternoon). I called her friend last night, and she had not heard from her either. The friend said difficult child was gonna call and maybe come over, but that she'd never done either.
My next call was to the police. They sent an officer over to her apartment to check things out. Neither difficult child's car nor the boyfriend's car was there, and nobody answered the door when the police officer knocked. The dog was there, though, barking.
A neighbor came out and told the police that she had seen difficult child and boyfriend around 6:30pm and they looked like they were leaving on a trip (had plastic grocery bags packed with clothes). The neighbor also said she'd overheard difficult child talk with the apartment manager about subletting the apartment. The police officer asked me to come by today and make sure the dog was being cared for. He said the apartment manager would probably let me in to check on the dog.
My husband went over at about 1:30. Nobody was home, and the dog was no longer there (no barking when he knocked). He was able to look in through the balcony window and said all their furniture and stuff was there and undisturbed.
I'm hoping that all the clothes in bags were boyfriend's and that she was helping him move out his stuff. I'm prepared for worse, though. They may be fleeing (he's potentially facing more jail time) together.
husband and I have decided that to save OURSELVES from going insane (and to protect easy child), we are going to have to set some very strong boundaries in place. Although we'd like to give her that "soft place to land," we can't go through this again and again. We won't allow her home again without a complete psychiatric evaluation and treatment first.
Thanks for listening.