Jennifer Morey - Cold Case Manhunt

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.