Cold Case Manhunt

Now Cal had quit his job and was joining a private investigation agency, taking Payton’s case with him. He’d become her champion.

He came out of the station with the same hard set to his eyes she’d always found so unreadable. Now he just looked sexy. Six-four with dark hair and blue eyes a shade lighter than hers, he dressed in slacks and a suit and tie. When he’d first introduced himself he’d said, I’m Detective Calum Chelsey, but call me Cal.

“There’s a good deli just up the street,” he said.

“Okay.” She walked with him, feeling self-conscious of her appearance. Did she look good enough? Why did she worry about that when she was with him?

“Are you from here?” he asked on the way.

“Yes. My family lives here. You?”

“No. I’m from Texas. I like not being close to my family.”

“Black sheep, huh? My family is very close. I’m the second youngest of four very different people who all got varying professional degrees.” Talking eased her nerves. Why was she nervous anyway?

At the deli, they ordered and found a table next to the window. Although a clear day, it was chilly and she could feel the cold air radiating inside. Winter had set in early this year. She saw snowflakes and dead leaves blow across the street, whipped up by passing cars.

“What about you?” Cal asked. “You said you were a geologist but what do you do?”

“I’m an environmental geologist. I work with renewable energies at a consulting firm.”

“Interesting.”

“I’ve always loved earth science. At the risk of sounding insensitive, in college, I was not very interested in the environment but those were the hot jobs at the time. I care about the environment, but as a science it isn’t very fascinating. I need that kind of stimulation. I don’t do meditation well. Sometimes I think I should have gotten into seismology or something.”

“You would have had to move away from Chesterville. Not much earthquake activity here.”

She smiled. Moving away had never occurred to her. She enjoyed being with her family, especially her parents. She couldn’t imagine not being able to stop by for tea in the sunroom with her mother. They could talk for hours.

“Why don’t you like your family?”

“I like them...well, sort of.” He grinned. “My dad loves the NRA and ranching. He’s ex-military, so he was always very strict. That I didn’t mind so much. Guns have their usefulness but being an NRA fanatic goes too far in my opinion. My younger brother loves guns, like my dad, and capitalism. They are both executives at the same oil company. Corbin followed in Dad’s footsteps. They are both very successful. I never wanted to be an executive. I wanted to make more of a difference than a ton of money. My dad and I had a lot of arguments about my career choice.”

“What about your mother? Surely you like her.”

He chuckled briefly. “Of course. She didn’t have to work, but the ranch keeps her busy. She always let Dad make all the big decisions when it came to us. I guess I resented her for that, but not anymore. She was a great mom.”

He seemed to like his family more than he let on. He might have a rift with his father and maybe his brother, but what family didn’t have their differences?

“Is it just you and your brother?” she asked, wondering why she was so curious. They had never talked like this before.

“I have a little sister. She is the ranch manager. I’m probably closest with her.”

“And you’re a homicide detective.” Jaslene pondered that a moment. “Why?”

“My grandfather was murdered. He was in a convenience store when some robbers arrived. He tried to stop them and one of them shot him. I was very close to him. It changed me. Losing him that way.”

“I’m so sorry.” She could feel his sorrow. Even after all these years he still missed his grandfather. Jaslene averted her gaze as she thought of her own loss. Her husband had been murdered, too. Before that all-too-familiar pain overtook her, she smothered it as she usually did.

“It made me want to go after every thug who hurt anyone,” Cal said. “I still do. Joining DAI will allow me to help more people who have nowhere else to turn. That will give me the most gratification.”

She had sensed that in him early on, his determination to catch criminals. He had gone after Payton’s missing persons case with an aggression she had not seen in other officers. She had never doubted him when he said the case had gone cold. She had despaired numerous times but had never had any reason to fault him. He had left no stone unturned.

As they finished and left the restaurant, Jaslene marveled how much things had changed in less than a day. This morning she hadn’t thought much of Cal Chelsey. Now she saw him in a completely different way. Maybe it was his understanding over the way she felt about losing Payton. Maybe it was his devotion to victims of violent crimes.

“This is my car.” She stopped at her sage-green Jeep Renegade.

“I’ll call you when I have an office set up,” he said.

This felt like the end of a really good date, connecting on a more personal level than they had ever before. She wondered if he felt it, too. He stood a little close to her, just outside the driver’s side door. His blue eyes sort of twinkled as he took in her face.

“Okay,” she said at last, looking at his lips.

When she lifted her eyes, she saw his flare with unmistakable desire. Hot tingles spread through her in instant response. Flustered, she dug in her purse for her keys and dropped them when she lifted them out.

He bent at the same time and their heads bonked.

Laughing and holding her head, she let him pick up her keys, hearing his deep chuckle. He unlocked her door and opened it for her.

Holding out her hand, she waited for him to drop her keys there. He did, his rougher fingers brushing hers and stirring more hot tingles.

She climbed into her Jeep and he shut her door. She looked at him through the glass, watching him back up and then step onto the sidewalk, then started the engine, needing to catch her breath.

As she backed out of the parking space and began to drive away, she wondered what had just happened. Why him and why now?

She didn’t have an answer, but she began to look forward to his call. Then she remembered her husband.

Chapter 2

“So, the Ice Queen isn’t as icy as you thought.”

Cal glanced over at Roman Cooper, who had finished moving his things into his office next to Cal’s at Dark Alley Investigations. He wished he hadn’t told him about the drastic change in Jaslene.

“No. We ended up having a great time.” Cal shook his head. “She was a completely different woman.”

“She liked the news of you coming over to DAI, huh?”

“Maybe that’s all she liked. She hired me.”

Roman chuckled. “Don’t take it too hard. My bet is she’s like you and something happened to make her turn away from love.”

Had he turned away from love or just accepted that in his line of work it would take a rare woman to stick it out with him?

The front door opened and Jaslene appeared, wearing black slacks and a white-and-black-patterned blouse with a V-neck. Dressier than the last time he’d seen her, than any other time he’d seen her. Maybe something other than new hope for progress in the Everett case had changed her perspective. Had she worn this for him? While excitement over what could come zinged him, he held on to caution.

Someday, though, he’d like to see her in a little black number.

She looked around the new DAI office. He and Roman had rented a small space on Main Street, in the middle of a row of old, connected commercial spaces. It had a single door and window in front with room for a table where they could meet with clients. Two doors in back led to their offices and a hallway between led to a door that opened to a dark, creepy alley. They planned to do some upgrades but it would do for now.

As Jaslene approached Cal, he sensed her walls had gone back up. She didn’t smile and he saw none of the sparkle that had been there a few days ago. Did she mean to keep this professional? They had started to get pretty personal.

“Come on into my office,” he said, seeing Roman watching, an amused upward tilt to his mouth.

She followed him and he closed the door, ignoring Roman’s mock shiver and rubbing of his arms. Ice Queen. Except Cal didn’t think she was icy anymore. When he had told her about his grandfather, her sincere sympathy had touched him. He wondered what losses she had suffered to make her so compassionate.

Jaslene sat on the only chair before his desk. His bookshelf and desk took up most of the space.

“Have you made any progress?” she asked.

So they were back to that, with her barking at him to get things done. She may have dressed for him but she was in attack mode. Good thing he had news for her. Potentially big news.

“As a matter of fact...” He leaned to one side of his desk and found a report he’d printed yesterday. “Remember when I had Payton’s house searched?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I didn’t tell anyone that I thought it had already been searched.”

Her brows lowered. “Why not? That seems like an important detail.”

“It is.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to be sure first. I also didn’t want the press to leak it out.” He felt like asking her if she remembered when he almost kissed her at her Jeep the other day.

“Oh.” Her brow smoothed. “What is that?” She indicated the report.

“This is what Forensics recovered from Payton’s computer. I asked them to do a deeper dive to search for evidence.” He put it in front of her. “There were several emails deleted from her inbox, including some from her sent and trash folders. Forensics was able to recover enough to show Payton was in contact with a man named John Benjamin.”

“She never told me about anyone named John.”

Payton had kept it secret that she’d been corresponding with a man? Why? Why hide that, especially from her closest friend?

“Then it’s possible she was the one who deleted everything.”

Jaslene shook her head. “Why not just delete her received messages from her inbox? She must have had a reason she didn’t tell me, or anyone, about him.”

“And maybe that reason got her killed?”

She nodded, reading the report.

“John Benjamin is a local physician,” Cal said. “A married physician.”

Jaslene looked up sharply from the report. “Payton was seeing a married man?”

“It’s hard to say what the nature of their relationship was, but it was more personal than a doctor-patient relationship. Go to the third page.”

She did and he let her have time to read the email correspondence. Payton had started the chain by thanking him for lunch and saying they should do that again sometime. The doctor responded with an offer for dinner and Payton had agreed. The doctor said he would call her.

“They made arrangements to meet,” she said.

“Yes. We just don’t know why.”

“If she was seeing a married man, I can see why she didn’t tell me about him. It must have bothered her.” Her eyes widened. “Do you think he may have killed her because she planned to tell his wife?”

“Like I said, hard to say. Dr. Benjamin is quite successful. He owns several medical clinics, one here in Chesterville where he has an office, and in other states. He’s a family doctor and employs home health care providers. He’s got two kids and lives in a large home in Riverbend, one of Chesterville’s most prestigious neighborhoods. His house would probably sell for over a million.”

“Was Payton having an affair with a rich doctor?”

“It may not have been sexual.” Cal stood and took his suit jacket from the back of his chair and put it on. “Let’s start with a conversation with him. See what he says.”

* * *

Dr. Benjamin’s local office building was large and recently constructed. Jaslene walked inside when Cal opened the door for her. She tried not to react the way she had the other day, but every time he did something chivalrous like that she suffered an onslaught of warm-to-hot tingles. She did, however, manage to not let him know with any visible shiver or glance. She needed to keep this all business.

They were told the doctor was with a patient and waited. After thirty minutes, a nurse came out and called Cal’s name.

Dr. Benjamin sat at his desk, working on his computer. He had thick, brown hair cut neat and short and hazel eyes, probably in his late forties, maybe early fifties and in good shape. He was handsome enough, but Jaslene failed to see what could have attracted Payton to a man like him.

He stood, allowing Jaslene to see he wore dark gray slacks and was about six feet tall. “My nurse said this was urgent. You’re from where?” he asked. “Some kind of investigation agency?”

“Cal Chelsey. Dark Alley Investigations.” He reached out his hand.

The doctor took it. “What’s Dark Alley Investigations?”

Cal removed his wallet and took out a business card, handing that over. “It’s an independent investigations agency that specializes in cold cases.”

He turned to Jaslene and lifted her hand. “And you are?”

“Jaslene Chabot.”

“A pleasure to be sure.” He kissed the top of her hand. “What is a beautiful woman like you doing with a private detective?”

Jaslene pulled her hand away. His charms might work on some women but not her.

“I’m investigating Payton Everett’s disappearance. Jaslene was one of her close friends.”

“Payton? She is a patient of mine.” The doctor’s gaze shifted to Cal and his brow wrinkled. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“When is the last time you spoke with or saw her?” Cal asked.

The doctor thought a moment. “Gosh. It’s been months. I don’t recall exactly. I could have my receptionist check.”

“Is the only time you saw her when she came in for appointments?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’re saying you never met her for lunch or dinner?”

“Met her?”

He had to be acting. Payton had thanked him for lunch and he’d invited her for dinner. Had he called her? Had another meal taken place?

“I had a forensics team take a look at Payton’s computer and we found several emails had been deleted from all the folders in her account.”

Jaslene noticed how Cal waited for any kind of reaction from the doctor. She didn’t see any. He looked confused.

“The emails that were deleted were correspondence between you and Payton. You had lunch with her and made arrangements to meet her for dinner.”

The doctor lifted his head as though something finally dawned on him. “Ah. Yes. I did meet her for lunch. She needed a chiropractor, so I planned to introduce her to one.”

Jaslene remembered Payton had mentioned wanting to find a chiropractor, though she hadn’t mentioned what doctor she was seeing or that she’d met him.

“The chiropractor couldn’t make it, though.”

“So it was just you and Payton,” Cal said.

“Yes.”

“Were you having an affair with her?” Jaslene asked.

The doctor turned to her. “I’m married.”

“That’s why I called it an affair.”

“I could lose my medical license having affairs with patients.”

He hadn’t really answered the question. Was he avoiding the truth? Or had he just admitted to an affair by way of omission?

“Did you see her again after you had lunch?” Cal asked.

“I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”

He didn’t remember? Jaslene didn’t believe him.

“Did you meet her outside the office any other time before that?” Cal asked.

The doctor hesitated. “You said Payton has been missing?”

“Yes. For seven months now.”

“I didn’t know.” His head lowered as though he fell into thought. “She is a lovely woman. I enjoyed our friendship.”

“You were friends?” Cal asked.

“Not close. Otherwise I’d have known she went missing, wouldn’t I?”

“One would think,” Cal said. “Do you always meet patients outside your clinic?”

“Not always. Payton didn’t have time to drive to the clinic so I told her I’d meet her. That’s when we had lunch.”

“Did you meet her any other times or for any other reasons?” Cal asked again.

Jaslene wondered if Cal was trying to fool him into answering or catch him in a lie.

“Are you asking me these questions because you think I had something to do with her disappearance?”

“Did you?” Cal asked.

“No. If the police want to question me, then they can. As far as I can see, I don’t have to answer any of yours.”

Clearly they would get nowhere with this man. Why had he initially denied meeting Payton?

* * *

Cal opened the door for Jaslene as they left the medical building, seeing how she flashed a glance at him as she passed. The side of her breast brushed his arm and her gaze turned smoky. He felt his own reaction to that, an ignition of desire he had to quickly squash.

“What do you think?” she asked as they walked toward his SUV.

“That it’s strange he met Payton outside of the clinic and didn’t have an affair with her.” And that he was so evasive about meeting her at all.

“And that he wouldn’t say whether he met Payton outside the office more than once.”

He glanced at her with a nod. She had echoed his next thought. “Yes, that, too.” Did he not admit to an affair to protect his marriage? Had neither told anyone about it or had there really been no affair? Even if they had, keeping it secret didn’t mean he killed her. He also could have been evasive for the same reason—to protect his marriage.

“Payton isn’t the kind of woman who’d tell her lover’s wife,” Jaslene said. “She wouldn’t threaten to, either. I’d be more inclined to believe she was the one who ended the relationship because it was wrong.”

“If there was an affair.”

“There had to have been. Why else would he have skirted around the questions?” she asked.

“I’m leaning toward affair as well, but he may not have anything to do with Payton’s disappearance. He may only want to protect his marriage.” Cal was on the fence as to whether his sense of suspicion held any merit.

“How far would he go to do that?” She stopped walking all of a sudden.

Cal followed her gaze to a man sitting in an old Ford pickup, smoking a cigarette and watching them. He wore a baseball hat over brown hair and Cal knew from the files he had read that his eyes were also brown. He was five-ten and a scrawny hundred and seventy-five pounds.

Riley Sawyer.

“I saw him about a month ago. He was standing on the sidewalk in front of my house.”

“Watching you?”

She nodded. “I threatened to call the police and he left, but not before telling me it was my fault Payton was dead. He said if I hadn’t interfered, they would still be together and she would have never been kidnapped.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jaslene turned to look at him. “I only saw him that one time.”

“But he threatened you.”

“He’s not the sharpest cheese in the deli. He was always overreacting when he was with Payton. I thought it was a onetime thing and he was eliminated as a suspect. If I saw him again, I would have told you.”

“If anything happens that seems off, no matter how insignificant it is, tell me.”

She nodded. “He blamed me for Payton’s death. That means he’s upset she’s gone. Why would he kill her?”

“Why does anyone kill? He might have realized he would never have her again and then decided he had to make sure no one else would, either. He may have killed her in the heat of passion. Maybe he didn’t mean to.”

He saw Jaslene consider that as her expression turned graver. Riley puffed on his cigarette, still calmly watching them. What a creepoid.

She rubbed her arm as though chilled.

Riley threw out his cigarette and formed a gun with his hand, pulling an imaginary trigger as he aimed at Jaslene.

Jaslene inhaled. “Did he just...”

Incensed that the man would dare to make such a gesture, Cal started walking toward him. Riley pulled out onto the street and vanished into traffic.

Returning to Jaslene, he put his hand on her lower back and guided her toward his SUV.

“We’ll take another look at his alibi.”

She didn’t respond but he felt her lean a little closer to him. “Doesn’t it scare you to chase after people like that?”

He opened the passenger door for her but she didn’t get in. She faced him.

“No. It was a bit of an adrenaline rush at first but I got used to it.”

“In Texas? What did you do there?”

“I joined the army reserves. Did that part-time while I went to college for criminal justice. After that I was a state trooper for a few years before I became a ranger.”

“And then you came here?”

“Hop in.” He didn’t feel like talking about that right now. Not only was it too personal, it also dredged up memories he didn’t want in his head.

She eyed him peculiarly before climbing up into the SUV. He walked around the front and got in beside her, starting the engine.

“Why here?” she asked. “You could go anywhere to get away from your family. Why Chesterville?”

“My ex-wife’s family lives here.”

A heavy silence passed. With a sigh, Cal didn’t pull out into traffic. Now she’d be too curious to let it go. That was another bad memory he didn’t want cluttering his head.

“You were married?” she asked.

“Divorced. Two years ago.”

“Oh.”

Was he mistaken or did she sound relieved? He looked at her. With her head bent and hands in her lap, she seemed sad. Why?

“Are you all right?”

“I was married, too,” she said quietly.

“Did you have as much fun with your divorce as I did with mine?” he asked, his voice full of sarcasm.

“I wasn’t divorced. My husband was shot during a road rage incident. Also two years ago.”

Cal felt like an ass. “I’m sorry.”

“Two other drivers were driving erratically. My husband was on his way home from work and was caught between them. The one with the gun passed my husband’s car on the passenger side and the other road rager passed him on the driver’s side. The shooter shot and hit Ryan.”

That was terrible. She must still be heartbroken. Roman had them both pegged. Something had happened to make Jaslene shy away from love, just like him. She had a bigger reason. How devoted was she to her late husband?

She had to be dealing with some serious grief, or had over the last two years. And now she would likely have to bury another person she loved.

“Jaslene, you should prepare yourself for not finding Payton alive. In most cases when a victim is missing this long, we’re looking for a body, not a live person.”

She met his gaze unhappily. “I know.”

He reached over and put his hand on hers, taking it and giving her a supportive squeeze. She smiled, still sadly, but he could tell his action touched her. It had been a long time since he’d connected with anyone, a woman. Betrayal had made him withdraw from getting too personal.

“Talking to that doctor made me realize something.”

“What?” What could a doctor, a stranger, have to say that would give her an epiphany?

“If he did have an affair with Payton, it wasn’t planned. Payton wouldn’t have gotten involved with a married man if she could have avoided falling for him. And Dr. Benjamin seems like a nice person. He didn’t get insulted when we asked him about an affair.”

“He has a good bedside manner.” A man like that could fool a lot of women.

“But I can see how it could happen. I know how it can happen.”

She turned her head and looked out the window, putting her hand to her mouth. He could feel her tension.

“What do you mean you know?” He began to get a bad feeling about this. Did she have something else she’d kept hidden, like the good doctor had?