of the "Exponentially Improbable Excuses" game, or

"I'm Going To Keep This Up Forever Because I Know You Were Holed Up All Day In Your Hotel Room With Cheryl From Accounting, Running Through Those Little Bottles Of Booze In The Honor Bar Like They Were Complimentary After-Dinner Mints":

"We tried paging you all day about the meetings but no answer."
"I was mugged outside of the hotel. They took everything, including my pager."
"Busy signal on your hotel phone, too."
"Out of order. Tried to get switched to a room with a working phone but no dice, all booked. Don't think I didn't raise hell about that."
"Cell phone?"
"Again, mugged."

...and so on and so forth.