"Let me make a few calls." He stood, moving toward the kitchen where the light was better. "We'll start with his professional licensing. If he's still registered in any capacity, even as retired, there'll be contact information."
“Maybe you should have been a cop, too.”
“It’s not my thing,” Ben said with a shake of his head. “But I do like finding answers to questions. If we can talk to the coroner, we can ask him if Lori was pregnant. If she were, that opens up a whole new line in the investigation.”
Lori. Pregnant.
It wasn’t out of the question. It was a definite possibility.
That thought settled over Kelly like a lead weight. For years, she'd believed she knew everything there was to know about her best friend. Now, she had to face the possibility that Lori had been keeping the biggest secret of all.
Had someone killed Lori to keep her quiet?
If it was true, they needed to go back and talk to Cal again. He would be suspect number one.
Chapter
Fourteen
The digital clockon the microwave reminded Ben that it was 11:00 PM. He should be sleeping, but so far rest was elusive. His mind was still going a million miles an hour, everything they’d learned that day taking over every nook and cranny of his brain.
Kelly had gone to bed hours ago, exhausted by the emotional toll of their conversation. He’d urged her to get some rest, and she hadn’t argued. There were shadows under her eyes, and she’d been pale and quiet. The possibility of her best friend having secrets was taking its toll.
In the quiet of the dark kitchen, he’d been tapping away at his laptop for the last hour, hoping to make some progress finding Dr. Mason Whitfield. But other than an article in the local paper about his retirement three years ago, he hadn’t found anything to speak of.
Ben needed to bring in reinforcements. The fact was, he didn’t have a clue how to find someone who might not want to be found. It was clear that Whitfield no longer resided in Bergen, but he had to live somewhere.
It wasn’t too late to make a call, especially to Montana, where it was an hour earlier. His father rarely went to bed before midnight anyway, always saying he'd gotten used to odd hours during his years as sheriff.
Ben grabbed his phone from the counter and scrolled to his father's contact, crossing his fingers that his dad hadn’t changed his hours in retirement.
His father answered on the third ring, his voice alert despite the hour.
"Ben? Everything okay, son?"
If his dad was concerned, it was because Ben didn’t call home enough for simple, mundane matters.
Call home more often. Don’t be a shitty son.
"Hey, Dad. Yeah, everything's fine. Sorry to call so late."
"It's not late for me. Your mother's the early bird. She's already been asleep for an hour." There was a pause, and Ben could picture his father settling into his favorite recliner, the one pointed directly at the gigantic flat screen television Ben had bought them for Christmas a few years ago. His mom had been horrified, but his dad had immediately turned it on to watch a football game. "What's on your mind?"
"I need a favor, Dad. I'm trying to track down someone, and I thought you might be able to help or maybe ask one of the uncles."
"Who are you looking for?"
"A former county coroner named Dr. Mason Whitfield. He worked in Bergen, Illinois, until about three years ago when he retired. I need to find him, get his contact information."
There was a brief silence on the other end. Ben could almost hear his father's sheriff instincts kicking in, wondering why his son needed to find a coroner from another state.
"May I ask why you are trying to track down this coroner? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’m just wondering. You’ve never asked me before."
Kelly’s story wasn’t his to share, but he’d asked his father for a favor. He couldn’t exactly say that it was none of his business.
"I'm helping a good friend named Kelly investigate her friend's murder. She’s my neighbor across the hall. The murder happened over a decade ago, and we have reason to believe the coroner might have omitted important information from the autopsy report."
"You're working on a murder investigation?"
