Funeral for a Friend

4

Stride had never spent any time on the opposite side of the witness table. He was typically the one conducting the interrogations, and he had a better sense now of what it was like to be on the receiving end of suspicion and mistrust from the police. Maggie sat across from him. Her face was a mask, the way it always was when she was in this room. No emotion, nothing personal between them. Except the two of them were close enough that they always knew what the other was thinking. She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d murdered Ned Baer, but she also knew that he hadn’t been honest with her when Ned disappeared.

Maggie had an overstuffed folder on the table. Two evidence boxes were stacked on the chairs on either side of her. He recognized all the materials they gathered seven years ago. This was the sum-total of what they learned while investigating the disappearance of Ned Baer.

An investigation he led.

An investigation that he’d deliberately obstructed.

He knew how this interview would go; he knew what he had to say. He was surprised to find himself oddly calm about admitting it after all this time.

Maggie opened the folder. On top was a photograph, which she removed and pinned to the bulletin board behind her. Stride recognized the picture. He’d long ago memorized the man’s face.

Ned Baer had been a compact man, five foot six, with a scrawny, underfed frame. At the time he disappeared, he’d been thirty-nine years old. He had messy, receding black hair that left only a U-shaped tongue on his high forehead. His eyes were brown, with dark half-moons beneath them. He wore a wispy beard, and his lips were thin and unsmiling. In the picture, he wore hiker’s clothes: boots, cargo pants, and a navy blue zipped REI jacket. The photo had been taken in the Colorado mountains, two hours from where Ned kept a Denver apartment.

“Are you ready?” Maggie asked.

“Sure. Let’s go.”

Maggie turned on a voice recorder in front of her and recited her name, Stride’s name, and the date and time of the interview. She used her cop voice.

“Lieutenant Stride, can you confirm for me that you’re conducting this interview willingly and under no duress?”

“I am.” He added after a moment, “It was my idea.”

“Do you want me to read you your rights?”

“No, that’s not necessary. I’m pretty familiar with them.”

Maggie hesitated, then turned off the recorder. When she spoke to him again, she was the snarky friend he’d known for two decades. “Just so we’re clear, I know this is bullshit, boss.”

“I know you do. Let’s just get through it, Mags.”

She switched the recorder back on, and her voice was professional again. “Lieutenant Stride, can you review the facts of Ned Baer’s disappearance for me?”

He allowed himself a silent laugh. Maggie, who had a near-photographic memory, could have rattled off nearly every page of the investigative folder without so much as turning over a piece of paper. But this was official. This was about what he knew.

“Ned Baer was a writer for a journal called the Freedom Reporter Online,” Stride replied. “FR Online is a conservative newspaper, and Ned was one of their investigative journalists. He lived in Colorado but traveled extensively on research projects around the country. His focus was primarily digging up dirt on left-leaning politicians. Seven years ago, in July, Ned Baer came to Duluth and paid for an open-ended summer rental at a motel on the west end of Superior Street.”

“Why was he in Duluth?”

Stride took a swallow from the can of Coke Maggie had given him before the interrogation. He eased back in the chair and rubbed his chin.

“Ned was investigating sexual assault allegations against a politician named Devin Card. The allegations had broken in the media the previous month. At the time, Card was the Minnesota Attorney General and was running for an open seat in the US House of Representatives. An anonymous woman alleged that Card had raped her more than twenty years earlier, while she was a high school student in Duluth. Ned was in town, along with half the political reporters in the country, to see if he could figure out who the woman was and whether there was any truth to the allegations.”

“How long was Ned in Duluth?” Maggie asked.

“He disappeared the third week in August, so at that point, he’d been here for approximately one month.”

“How did you become aware of his disappearance?”

“I received a call from Ned’s editor, Debbi King. She told me that she hadn’t had any communication with Ned in five days and that the voice mailbox on his cell phone was full. According to her, it was very unusual for Ned to be out of touch for so long, and she was concerned. At that point, I launched an investigation. Of course, you already know that, since we worked on it together.”

Maggie ignored his comment. “Can you summarize how the investigation proceeded?”

“Yes. Our first step was to visit the motel where Ned was staying. You and I talked to the manager and the housekeeping staff, and we concluded that Ned hadn’t been back to his room for several days. However, no one at the motel could tell us exactly when he’d last been there. We searched the room but found nothing to explain his whereabouts or what he’d been working on. There was no cell phone, no notes, no computer, no calendar, etc. At the same time, we ran a check on the credit card he’d used to pay for the room, and there had been no activity on the card in Duluth or anywhere else for nearly a week.”

“And then what?” Maggie asked.

“We obtained records for Ned’s cell phone, based on the number his editor gave us. The records indicated that Ned’s phone had last been used for a call to his editor on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 24. That was also the last time he used his credit card; to purchase breakfast at the Duluth Grill. As a result, we began to focus on that time period as the likely point when Ned disappeared, although we didn’t know what had happened to him. However, a series of incoming calls in his phone records gave us another clue.”

“Where did those calls come from?”

“A rental car agency at the Minneapolis airport. Ned had a rental contract on a green Kia Rio, but as it turns out, we actually had the car in custody ourselves. That is, the police did. The car had been illegally parked, ticketed, and subsequently towed to an impound lot. When the officer who requested the tow ran the plates, he noted that it was a rental vehicle and contacted the agency. They started calling Ned to find out what was going on with their car.”

“What information came out about the Kia?” Maggie asked.

“The parking ticket was written the morning of Wednesday, August 25. The car was towed the following day when it still hadn’t been moved. This helped us confirm the timeframe when we believe Ned disappeared. It also told us what we believe was his last known location. The car had been parked off the shoulder on the south end of Seven Bridges Road, near a popular cliffside swimming area on Amity Creek, known as the Deeps.”

“So the evidence suggested that Ned was at or near the Deeps shortly before he disappeared?”

“Yes. The location also suggested to me a possible explanation for Ned’s disappearance. August 24 followed a period of heavy rain in the area. The currents were running high and fast, and the Deeps is extremely treacherous at times like that. We’ve lost swimmers there who didn’t understand the power of the undertow and drowned after jumping from the cliff. Most of the victims eventually turn up at the mouth of the Lester River or in Lake Superior, but not all, especially if no one knows they’re missing. So the most likely explanation to me was that Ned — who was a stranger to Duluth and unfamiliar with the risks — may have drowned in the river and his body was subsequently lost in the lake.”

“You believed that was what had happened to him?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Was there any evidence of foul play?” Maggie asked.

“No. Well, sorry, that’s not completely true. The passenger window on the Kia had been smashed, suggesting a break-in. However, we didn’t find any evidence to suggest that the break-in and Ned’s disappearance were connected. Vehicle smash-and-grabs aren’t uncommon during the summer.”

Maggie said nothing for a long, long time. She had a pen in her hand that she tapped slowly on the table.

“At that point in the investigation, did you share additional information with me about Ned Baer, based on your personal knowledge?”

Stride stared back at Maggie. She was a cool one. “Yes, I did.”

“What was that information?”

“I told you that I had met with Ned Baer on the evening of Tuesday, August 24.”

“In other words, on the night he disappeared,” Maggie concluded.

“Apparently so.”

“Where did this meeting take place?”

“At the Deeps,” Stride said.

“So you met with him on the night he disappeared, in the place where he disappeared.”

“That seems likely, yes.”

“Did our investigation uncover anyone else who had met with Ned or saw him alive after the time you did?”

“No. We didn’t locate anyone who reported seeing Ned after the evening of Tuesday, August 24. However, just to be absolutely clear about this, Ned was alive when I left him. Also, at the time of our investigation, I had no reason to suspect foul play. In fact, based on seeing him there, I was able to provide confirming evidence that Ned’s disappearance was likely due to drowning.”

“Namely?”

“He was soaking wet, presumably because he’d been diving in the Deeps. He was also drinking. He had a six-pack of beer with him. I warned him that it was a foolish thing to do. He didn’t seem to take my warning seriously.”

“And that’s why you thought he drowned,” Maggie said.

“Yes. Until yesterday, that was still what I thought.”

“Were you acquainted with Ned prior to his disappearance? Did the two of you know each other or have any history together?”

“No, I met him that one time at the Deeps, and that was all. We had no other contact.”

“You indicated to me at the time that you met with Ned to discuss his investigation into the allegations against Devin Card,” Maggie said. “Were the police also investigating those allegations?”

“No. There was no basis to look into an anonymous claim of sexual assault from more than two decades earlier. Even if a victim had come forward, the accusation would have fallen outside the statute of limitations. Our hands were tied.”

“So what did Ned want to know?” Maggie asked. “Why did he ask to meet with you?”

Stride felt as if he were a teenager atop the cliffs at the Deeps. Ready to jump. Unsure of what would happen when he hit the water. He’d avoided this moment for the last seven years.

“He didn’t,” Stride replied.

Maggie knitted her brow with confusion. “What?”

“Ned didn’t contact me for a meeting. I was the one who sought him out.”

His answer froze her into silence. She reached for the button on the voice recorder again, but Stride shook his head and wagged a finger at her, directing her to keep going. He watched emotions whipping in quick succession across her face. Uncertainty. Anxiety. Betrayal.

She reached into the folder in front of her and removed a single sheet of paper. She began talking faster and breathing hard.

“Lieutenant Stride, didn’t you tell me seven years ago that Ned Baer contacted you about a meeting, because he wanted to discuss your personal memories of the time in which the alleged assault by Devin Card occurred? And didn’t you tell me that the two of you had a brief conversation at the Deeps, lasting no more than five minutes, during which time you told him that you had no recollection of being at a party with Devin Card twenty-two years earlier and had no recollection of any rumors in Duluth that Attorney General Card had been involved in a sexual assault that summer?”

“Yes, I did tell you that.”

“Are you saying that was not true?”

“It’s true that I had no relationship with Devin Card and had no knowledge of any rumors about his behavior that summer. But that wasn’t why I met with Ned Baer.”

“You lied to me?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you meet with Ned Baer?” Maggie asked.

Stride shook his head and didn’t answer.

“Stride?” Maggie demanded sharply, leaning across the table. “What was the meeting about?”

“I have nothing to say about that,” he replied. “Ned and I had a conversation, and when it was over, I left. He was alive. As I’ve already told you several times, I didn’t kill him. I also didn’t see Steve Garske anywhere near the Deeps, and he and I never talked about Ned then or ever. I had no knowledge that Ned had been shot and no knowledge that Steve had found the body and buried it on his property. That’s all I have to say.”

“That’s all...?” Maggie sprang to her feet and pounded her fist on the recorder to shut it off. “Boss, are you out of your damned mind?”

“Everything will be fine. It’s okay, Mags.”

“Okay? No. It is not okay. You do not sit here and tell me you lied to my face and then shut up when I ask you a question. That is not how you and I work. You do not hide shit from me. You tell me what’s going on and then we figure out what to do about it. And if we need to smash this recorder into a million little pieces and start over, then that’s what we do. Don’t you get it? I’m trying to protect you.”

He reached out and put a hand over hers. “I know you are. And you can’t do that, Mags. I won’t let you. This is my problem, not yours. Right now, your job is to figure out who murdered Ned Baer, and I can’t help you with that. Now why don’t you call the chief and get him down here? Because we both know that what happens next is me getting suspended from the department.”