Funeral for a Friend

3

Steve’s yard was small and crowded with trees. There were only so many places to hide a body, and Stride knew where to tell the forensics team to dig.

He remembered the day seven years ago when Steve had added a picket fence and a small garden near the street. That was an unusual project for him, because Steve didn’t exactly have a green thumb. He’d planted herbs like rosemary, parsley, and basil, because he said he was taking a cooking class and wanted to use fresh ingredients. The garden had lasted for all of one season, and since then, the rectangular plot had been nothing but a nest of weeds.

The ground in the yard was soft, thanks to the rain, and their officers had erected a tent over the garden. Under the tarp, men with shovels carefully scraped away the mud layer by layer. Stride sat with Maggie in her Avalanche as the team worked. He drank coffee; she ate McDonald’s fries. Neither of them said a word, but he could feel her eyeing him across the truck. She was waiting for him to give her some kind of explanation for the search, but he couldn’t do that.

Not yet.

Not until they found Ned Baer’s body.

He’d recited Steve’s dying words for Maggie exactly as he remembered them, leaving nothing out. He hadn’t tried to protect himself. She’d taken his statement with an expressionless face and not asked any follow-up questions. Instead, she’d written up the warrant application based on Steve’s confession and hand-delivered it to a friendly judge at the county courthouse. Now the search was underway. There was nothing to do but wait and see what the team found.

They weren’t alone on the Point. Neighbors had already begun to gather near the house to observe the police activity. They all knew Steve and knew he had died the previous day. It hadn’t taken long in the tight-knit Point community for word to spread that something unusual was happening. Sooner rather than later, the local media would also pick up the story and descend on the area.

The story of Ned Baer was going to be back in the news. This time, unlike seven years ago, Stride knew the truth was going to come out.

No more sins of omission. No more lies.

He needed to call Andrea and warn her.

Stride checked his watch. The forensics team had been digging for less than an hour, but if the body really was here, they’d get to it soon. He was impatient to know if he was right, so he got out of the Avalanche and stepped into the pouring rain. He wore a vinyl slicker and pulled up the hood. There was no wind, and the summer rain was warm, but he still shivered. This was one of those moments when he missed smoking. A cigarette in his hand would have gone a long way toward calming his nerves.

Maggie emptied the last few french fries into her mouth and joined him. She stood unprotected in the rain. He felt the weight of the silence between them, heavy and uncomfortable. He didn’t like feeling that way with her. They’d been partners and friends for two decades; they’d even been lovers for a brief, uncomfortable stretch of months. He trusted Maggie more than anyone else in his life except Serena, but Maggie was also a cop, and Stride was acting like a witness with things to hide.

Under the tent on Steve’s front lawn, Sergeant Max Guppo used two fingers to let out a loud whistle.

This was it. They’d found something.

Stride marched that way, head down, his hands in his pockets. He heard Maggie clear her throat behind him, and he knew she wanted him to stay back and let her talk to the forensics team alone. She was right. She was in charge here. He needed to keep this case at arm’s length, but right now, he didn’t care about protocol. He wanted to see what Steve had hidden in the ground.

His long legs carried him across the wet grass. Maggie hurried to catch up with him. The rain poured over the edges of the tent, and he crossed through a waterfall to the other side. Guppo was waiting beside a hole that went about two feet down into the wet soil. The other members of the team leaned on dirty shovels, and their faces were wet with sweat and rain.

Stride stared down into the hole, which was really a grave.

A skull stared back at him.

That was all that was visible right now, a white skull against the black dirt. In seven years, all the flesh had long since been eaten away. Its eye holes gaped. Where the nose had been was a dark, open triangle. The mouth of the skull was parted, its two rows of teeth separated as if in midscream. And in the middle of the forehead bone was a single, round hole.

A bullet hole.

The man in the ground had been shot in the head.

Maggie immediately grabbed Stride’s arm and pulled him away. He resisted, unable to take his eyes off the skull, caught somewhere between his nightmares and his memories. Maggie pulled again, hard, but he remained rooted in place. Then she got on tiptoes and whispered in his ear.

“Stride, I’m not kidding around. You can’t be here. You need to come with me right now.”

This time, he let her drag him into the rain. His hood slipped from his head and the downpour drenched his face. The two of them hiked past Steve’s old house, dodging the tall spruce trees until they got to the small backyard. They were steps from the bay. The water was dimpled, and fog and rain blocked the far Wisconsin shore from view. Maggie glanced over her shoulder, making sure that none of the other cops could see where they were.

“Okay, boss, what the hell?” she demanded in a loud voice. “What’s going on?”

Stride understood Maggie’s reaction. He would have been just as upset with her if the tables were turned. “You know as much as I do about this, Mags. The last thing Steve said to me was that he buried a body. I didn’t know if it was real or not. For all I knew, he was delirious. Hallucinating. But it’s not like I could ignore what he said. We had to check it out.”

“Be straight with me, boss. Did you already know about this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you know about the body before yesterday?”

“No. Of course not.”

Maggie shook her head. “Is that the truth? I can keep this off the record for now, but as soon as we go back out there, everything goes in the file. I have to know what happened.”

“It’s the truth, Mags. I didn’t know about the body. Steve never said a word about it before now. This was a dying confession. I’m as shocked as you are.”

Maggie swore. She bent down and picked up a thick branch that had blown off one of the trees and threw it into the water. “We’re talking about a murder victim. Somebody shot this guy.”

“I know that. Obviously.”

She closed her eyes, wiping away the rain from her face with both hands. “It’s Ned Baer, right?”

Stride shrugged. “I assume so. I don’t see who else it could be.”

“Did you know he was dead?”

“No, I didn’t. I knew what you knew. What we all knew. Baer was missing. We assumed he’d drowned in the Deeps and the body was lost in the lake. I sure as hell didn’t know he’d been shot.”

“Do you think Steve killed him?” Maggie asked.

“Steve? No way.”

“He buried the body. What the hell am I supposed to think?”

“Steve didn’t even own a gun, Mags. As far as I know, he never fired a gun in his life.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Maggie replied.

“I’m telling you, Steve had no reason to kill Ned Baer. He didn’t do it.”

“So why hide the body? Why cover up a murder?”

“I don’t know.”

Maggie made sure they were still alone. They didn’t have much time before the other cops got curious and came looking for them. Maggie leaned in close to Stride and jabbed a finger at his face. Her voice was an angry hiss.

“Like hell you don’t know! You told me what Steve said. You’re safe, buddy. If Steve didn’t kill Ned Baer, then the only reason he hid the body was because he thought you did it. Now why the hell would he think that?”

“I’m telling you, Mags, I don’t know. Steve and I never talked about Ned Baer. Not before he disappeared, not after. I had no idea that Steve even knew who the hell Ned was. There’s no reason he would have thought that I killed him.”

Maggie let a hostile silence draw out between them. “Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Did you kill him?”

“Oh, come on. Are you serious, Mags? I can’t believe you would ask me that.”

“I’m totally serious.”

“Well, what’s next? Should I call a lawyer? I came to you. I told you what Steve said. If I killed Ned Baer, why wouldn’t I just keep my mouth shut? No one would have known about the body if I hadn’t told you to get the warrant.”

“Yeah, until somebody bought the house and decided to plant a new garden, right? Come on, Stride. It’s an official question, and I need an official answer. We’re back on the record. This all goes in the file. I don’t have any choice about this. Did you kill Ned Baer?”

“No. I did not.”

“Do you know who did?”

“No, I don’t. And obviously, Steve didn’t know either, because if he thought it was me, he was wrong.” Stride glanced over his shoulder and saw Max Guppo lumbering toward them. The sergeant’s round face was furrowed with concern, watching the two of them argue. “But since we’re back on the record, Mags, we might as well go to the station and make everything official. Interview me. Ask me whatever you want. I know you have more questions. Because even though I didn’t kill him, we both know that I was the last person to see Ned Baer alive.”