Cold Case Manhunt. Jennifer Morey

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СКАЧАТЬ case move forward. She couldn’t will it to, either, which highly frustrated her. There weren’t any real leads. Payton’s car had been found at a park. Had she gone for a walk and something happened? She was not the type of person who would run off. Something had to have happened to her, something bad.

      “If there is no evidence, no detective alive can make it magically appear,” Catherine said.

      “So, you both are just going to...give up?” When both her friends didn’t respond, she grew incensed. “How do you think Payton would feel about that? Her closest friends throw up their hands and assume she’s dead and turn their backs and go on with their lives and forget all about her?”

      “That isn’t fair,” Tatum said. “We need to go on with our lives. That doesn’t mean we’ll forget about Payton. She’ll always be one of us.” She spread her hand palm up in a half circle from Jaslene to Catherine.

      “I will never give up.” Even Payton’s family had stopped looking. They waited for news from Jaslene, but they had lost hope.

      Catherine reached over and put her hand over Jaslene’s. “You were always the closest to her.”

      Jaslene slid her hand away, not understanding how Catherine and Tatum could give up so easily. She saw her friends from a different perspective. She had always thought they’d stick together. No matter what. Now that Payton was gone, that no longer applied. It was as though she had been the glue that held the four of them together.

      “Well.” Jaslene took out her wallet and put some cash on the table.

      “Jaslene,” Tatum protested. “We aren’t turning our backs. We have jobs and families. We can’t take a leave like you did and you have no one waiting for you at home.”

      She had taken a leave from her job as an environmental geologist and she was single, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t have done the same if she’d been in a relationship.

      Jaslene stood. “I suppose there’s no point in continuing these get-togethers.”

      “You’re being melodramatic,” Catherine said. “Of course we should keep meeting. It’s not like we aren’t still friends because Payton isn’t here anymore.”

      Jaslene leaned forward, putting her hand on the table. “I’m going to find Payton. Dead or alive.” She straightened. “You two don’t have to help.”

      “Jaslene...” Tatum protested.

      “Don’t go like this,” Catherine said.

      Jaslene turned and walked away.

      Neither Catherine nor Tatum tried to stop her. Maybe she was overreacting. But all she had to do was think of how Payton must have, or possibly still, suffered and she had no question in her mind. She would not, not ever, give up. If Payton was still alive, her friend would not want anyone to stop looking for her. And while she most likely was dead after being missing for so long, Jaslene had to know for certain. She would not quit until she did.

      She would make the police keep looking and she would push and push and push until they worked as hard as they could to find her. The police assumed she had been abducted somewhere in the park, but there had been no witnesses. No one had seen her there and no one had seen her arrive there.

      * * *

      “Chief wants to talk to you.”

      Calum Chelsey looked up to see the Chesterville chief of police’s assistant standing in front of him, with a cup of coffee.

      “What for?”

      “Didn’t say.” She turned and walked away. Alice was a prickly sort, tall and skinny with black-rimmed glasses and hair that was always in a tight, black ponytail. He’d heard she was married and had two kids and hoped she was a different person outside of work. Happier.

      He stood from his desk and walked to the chief’s office, knocking on the open door.

      Chief Moran waved him in. “I emailed you a new case.”

      Cal stopped before Moran’s desk. Great. Another case to add to his already full workload. He didn’t mind the amount of work; in fact, most of the cases would be easy to close.

      “The mayor wants it resolved as quickly as possible. You know Christopher McBride? He owns that coal-to-fuel plant south of town?”

      “I know the plant.”

      “His son was killed two nights ago. Shot after leaving a bar. I’m putting you on the case. Only work this, no others.”

      “What about the missing person case?” That was the only case that interested him. In truth, he’d been feeling under-challenged in the department.

      “I’ve reassigned it.”

      That came as a shock to Cal, and a huge disappointment. Had the chief done so because it had gone cold the week after Payton had gone missing, or was it because the request came from the mayor? “Why me?”

      “You’re the best detective I have. I know I can count on you.”

      “Why is it so important?”

      “The mayor wants it solved ASAP.”

      Cal didn’t like that. He didn’t respect anyone who put a person’s social standing ahead of crime solving, ahead of victims. “In other words, this Christopher McBride thinks he’s more important than Payton Everett and her family?”

      The chief pointed at him. “Don’t start with me.”

      “I can work the Everett case, too.” Cal turned and would have left.

      Chief Moran said, “Only the McBride case.”

      This was what he hated about working for a police department: orders. That and lack of integrity. He’d voiced his honest opinions more than once and knew he’d brushed close to getting fired. He was never fired because he was one of the departments top detectives.

      Cal slowly faced the chief. He could not back down now. “I’m not going to stop investigating the Everett case.”

      The chief stopped shuffling papers on his desk and met Cal’s eyes squarely. “What’s that I just heard?”

      “Who’d you assign the case to?”

      “Walsh.”

      Walsh didn’t have the experience to take on a case like that. “Don’t bother. I can handle both the McBride and Everett cases.”

      “This isn’t about what you can and can’t handle, Chelsey.” The chief’s voice rose with his triggered temper. “This is about what the mayor wants. Now go get to work. I’ve already told McBride you were the best man for the case. He’s waiting to talk to you in the conference room.”

      Cal didn’t move. A few days ago, he’d received an offer to join a private firm: Dark Alley Investigations. They had just opened a satellite office in Chesterville and thought that Cal would be a valuable addition. They had contacted him in СКАЧАТЬ