Funeral for a Friend

22

Maggie had never met Devin Card before, but when the Congressman walked into Peter Stanhope’s office early in the morning, she could feel the electricity that he conveyed. You could hate politicians on television, but it was very hard to hate them face to face. His handshake was solid. His blue eyes were like lasers. His smile was focused on her and no one else, making her feel like the only person in the room. Plus, he was a big, handsome former quarterback, infectious in his self-confidence.

She had to remind herself: Blood and semen on the sheets.

“Sergeant, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Card said. “I don’t need to tell you how important the work you do is. It’s an honor whenever I meet a police officer. And the team here in Duluth is truly the best.”

“Thank you, Congressman.”

Card’s gaze shifted to Dan Erickson as if they were old friends, and he shouldered his way around the conference table with a big grin. “Dan, look at you, that suit, that tan. Making the most of the corporate deals, I see. You and Peter, I swear. If I’m reincarnated in my next life, I want to come back as a lawyer.”

“Funny, I think I’d come back as a politician,” Dan replied.

“Oh, no. You dodged a bullet, Dan. Trust me, it’s like walking around with a permanent target on your chest. All you do is spend half your days and nights dialing for dollars.”

Maggie heard the subtext in Card’s comment. Once upon a time, Dan had been the golden boy with political ambitions and a shot at Congress, but then his career had imploded. She could see from the frozen expression on Dan’s face that he hadn’t missed Card’s meaning.

“Why don’t we sit down?” Peter Stanhope interrupted them. “We know the importance of your investigation, and we wanted to make sure you had a chance to ask your questions.”

Dan took a seat on the opposite side of the conference table, and Maggie sat next to him. “You mean, so you can tell everyone how cooperative you’re being?” he asked.

“We are being cooperative, Dan,” Card replied with a smile. “We have nothing to hide.”

Peter interjected again with his typical smoothness. “Look, the Congressman and I appreciate your willingness to have this conversation in my office and particularly for the two of you to come up here via the back elevator so that we don’t have the media crawling all over us. In politics, how things look are often as important as how they really are.”

“Understood,” Dan said. “Well, here we are. Let’s get started.”

Maggie took out her phone. “Congressman, do you mind if we record this interview?”

Peter spoke again before Card could reply. “I mind, Sergeant. I’m sorry. Confidential recordings have a way of becoming not so confidential, even with the best of intentions. We have plenty of witnesses in this room to anything that’s said, so let’s stick with that.”

She shrugged and took out a pen instead, and she opened a folder in front of her. “All right. Congressman, can you tell us where you were on the evening of Tuesday, August 24 seven years ago? We believe that’s the night that Ned Baer was shot to death at the Deeps.”

Card said nothing, but Peter pushed a piece of paper across the table at them.

“As you know, that time period was in the middle of a heated political campaign. Here’s a copy of Devin’s official schedule from that day. You’ll see that he had a fundraising dinner that evening at a private home in Cloquet at six-thirty.”

“And after that?” Maggie asked.

“I have no idea,” Card replied. “Typically, I’d be making phone calls to supporters until after midnight. On that specific evening? I couldn’t possibly remember.”

“So you have no actual alibi after, say, nine o’clock?”

“No, I’m sure I do have an alibi, because I was almost never alone that summer. I just don’t know who was with me that night.”

“What about you, Mr. Stanhope?” Maggie asked. “What were you doing that evening?”

“I checked my calendar for that night,” Peter replied. “I figured you’d ask. I was here at the office preparing for a trial until very late.”

“Would anyone be able to confirm that?”

“No. I was working alone.”

“So no alibis for either of you,” Dan concluded, with a glance at Maggie.

The Congressman rocked back in the chair, his arms behind his head. “I suppose I should say this at the outset, since this is why we’re all here. I didn’t kill Ned Baer. I didn’t arrange for anyone else to kill Ned Baer. I have no idea who did kill Ned Baer. Is that clear enough for you?”

“Very,” Dan replied. “Peter? What about you?”

“Same.”

“See?” Card told them. “It’s that simple. Are we done here?”

“I’m sorry, Congressman,” Maggie told them, “but it’s not quite that simple. We have more ground to cover.”

Card shoved back the chair and got up from the table. He talked and moved quickly, as if he were always in a hurry, and his impatience made it impossible to sit still for any length of time. “I really don’t see how we can help you, Sergeant. I just told you that neither Peter nor I know anything about this man’s murder. It had nothing to do with me.”

“Well, no offense, sir, but that’s almost certainly not true.”

Card froze. “Excuse me?”

“We all know why Ned Baer was in town,” Maggie reminded him. “He was investigating rape allegations that had been made against you. He wasn’t from Duluth; he was an outsider. So it’s a good bet that whatever happened to him was somehow connected to the research he was doing on you. That’s why we’re here.”

Card’s warm blue eyes turned to stone. “False rape allegations.”

“I’m sorry?”

“He was investigating false rape allegations. I never raped anyone.”

Maggie stared back at him, and she felt herself stiffening with anger. “For now, the question of the rape is outside the scope of our investigation. All I’ll tell you, Congressman, is that you should probably be grateful that’s the case.”

Card opened his mouth to object, but before he could say anything more, Peter interrupted sharply. “Hang on, hang on, what are you saying? Do you know who made the accusation? Have you identified the woman?”

“Yes,” Dan replied.

“Who?” Card and Peter both shouted simultaneously.

“We’re not releasing that information at this time,” Dan told them.

But Maggie felt her rage bubbling over, and she couldn’t keep her mouth closed. “We know who the woman is, Congressman. Not only that, we know where the rape occurred, and we have a witness who saw blood on the sheets in an upstairs bedroom, all of which supports the original allegation. We also believe that Ned Baer had a witness who saw you with the victim at the party where this all occurred. So forgive me if I tell you, as one of your constituents, that I think you’re full of shit.”

Card put his hands on his hips and didn’t back down. “I don’t know what information you think you have, but it’s wrong, Sergeant. I am sick of these lies. I am sick of this dirt being spewed against me. I don’t know who this woman is, or what happened to her, but she’s either lying or she’s mistaken. If Ned Baer told anyone about a witness who said otherwise, then that’s a lie, too. This is all political filth, Ms. Bei. It’s about destroying politicians for sport. Do you know what kind of man Ned Baer was? Did you investigate his history as a journalist? He wrote stories based on gossip and innuendo, and he didn’t care whether it was true. His goal was to destroy candidates based on his political agenda. Period. He was a worthless, lying piece of shit, and I’m sorry somebody blew his brains out, but the world is a better place without people like him.”

“Devin,” Peter snapped. “Dial it back. Calm down.”

“No, I won’t calm down, Peter. I’m sorry. These accusations have been chasing me for years, and they’re bogus. They’ve been ruining my life. My family has had to put up with daily stories about what a monster I am. My children have had to read this! Hell, seven years ago, someone assaulted me on the street. And all over an anonymous allegation that has zero basis in fact.”

Dan’s brow furrowed. “Someone assaulted you?”

“That’s right. We kept it out of the press, because we didn’t think it would help my image, the former football star being sucker punched. We said I fell on the sidewalk. But the truth is, somebody jumped me outside the Sheraton and beat the shit out of me.”

“Who?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t know. He wore a mask. And do you know what he said to me? Forgive every sin. What the hell does that even mean?”

“Devin,” Peter said again. “Enough.”

The Congressman finally realized he’d let his emotions carry him away. He unleashed a hiss of annoyance and then sat back down at the conference table without looking at Dan or Maggie.

Maggie let the silence stretch out for a while, and then she said, “So obviously you knew who Ned Baer was.”

Card’s eyes fired daggers at her. “Obviously.”

“Did you know him before he came to Duluth that summer?”

Peter reached out and put a hand over Card’s arm. “Actually, I think I’ll advise Devin to let me answer the rest of your questions. I’m sure you can imagine how painful it is to deal with character assassination the way he has, and frankly, I want him to be in the right mental place for the town hall tonight. As for your question about Ned Baer, no, we didn’t know about him prior to that summer. We did know FR Online, where he worked. Everyone in Democratic politics knows about that operation and their hatchet jobs. Shortly after Baer came to town, I got a call from a lawyer friend in Colorado who told me that Baer was coming after Devin and that we should be prepared. He told us about the man’s unsavory reputation. So at that point, we did our homework on him.”

“Did you talk to him?” Maggie asked.

Peter frowned and said nothing.

“Mr. Stanhope? Did you talk to Ned Baer?”

Peter was still silent, and she could see him working up answers in his head.

“Yesterday, you told Serena Stride that neither one of you had ever met him,” Maggie went on. “Now you’re talking about doing your homework on him, and you obviously were familiar enough with his work to consider him a liability. So I’ll ask you again. Did you meet with him or talk with him that summer?”

“Yes,” Peter replied in a crisp voice.

“Peter?” Card interrupted. “What the hell? You met with him?”

Peter shook his head and held up a hand, silencing the Congressman. “Yes, I did. Devin’s surprise is genuine, by the way. I never told him about it. I wanted to protect him should it ever come out.”

“Why did you lie to Serena?” Maggie asked.

“Since I wasn’t involved in his murder, I didn’t see any value in advertising the conversation I had with Mr. Baer. I didn’t think anyone else knew about it. That was before someone tried to blackmail me.”

“Blackmail you? About meeting Ned Baer? Who did that?”

“His name is Adam Halka. He owns the motel where Baer was staying that summer. He also knew me when we were teenagers in school. Halka saw me outside his motel, and he put two and two together about why I was there. He also had a picture of me in my car. Last night, he tried to extort me to keep the secret.”

“When were you outside the motel?”

“August 23 seven years ago.”

“The day before Ned Baer was murdered?” Dan asked.

“Apparently.”

“Were you there to meet Baer?”

“Yes.”

“How did that come about?”

“He dropped off a note at my office that day,” Peter said. “He asked for a meeting. He told me that he’d identified the woman behind the anonymous allegation against Devin, and he wanted to talk about it.”

“So you went?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What happened?”

“Devin is right about Baer. He was a disgusting individual. Drunk. Almost violent. He was ranting about what shitholes Devin and I were and how he couldn’t wait to see us twist when the news came out. He accused me of having him followed. Of breaking into his motel room to find out what he was working on.”

“Did you do that?” Maggie asked.

“No.”

“So what did he want?”

“He offered to spike the story if I gave him one hundred thousand dollars.”

Dan made a silent whistle with his lips. “Baer wanted a bribe?”

“Yes.”

“What did you say?” Maggie asked.

“I said no. I told him to publish whatever he wanted. Devin was innocent. I said we’d rather know who was behind the anonymous accusation, because then we could find a way to counter it. I told him he was doing us a favor. He didn’t like that.”

“Did he tell you who the woman was?”

“No.”

“Did he tell you how he found her?”

“No.”

“So what happened next?”

“I left.”

“Did you talk to him again? Did you hear from him again after that night?”

“No. Never. The next time I heard his name was when I read a few days later that he’d disappeared. The police said he’d probably drowned.”

“Did you believe that?” Maggie asked.

“I had no reason not to.”

Maggie looked at Dan, whose eyebrows flicked a message at her: We’re done.

“I think that’s all of our questions for now,” she told them. “Thank you both for your time.”

“Actually, I have a question for you, Sergeant,” the Congressman replied.

“What is it?”

“You said you know the identity of the woman who made the accusations. Have you talked to her?”

“Not personally, but one of my colleagues did, yes,” Maggie said.

“Do you know if she plans to come forward?”

Maggie closed the folder in front of her and put the pen back in her pocket. She stood up, and so did Dan.

“I have no idea, Congressman,” she told him. “I guess you’ll find out soon enough.”