Funeral for a Friend

6

Serena revved her Mustang up the sharp incline of 1st Avenue, barely pausing at the stop signs. If you stopped on the slope, you could feel the car starting to roll back down the hill. The streets of downtown Duluth were like a Midwest version of San Francisco, but with snow and ice added into the mix for six months of the year. There was nothing but July rain for her to deal with today, but the pavement was still slick. Her sports car was notoriously impractical in this area, but the Mustang was one part of her Las Vegas past that she refused to give up.

Ahead of her, she saw Cascade Park, a steep patch of green land nestled under the high retaining wall of Mesaba Avenue. She spun the wheel and roared around the curves that wound to the top of the hill. When she got to the dead end, she saw Maggie’s Avalanche parked at a careless angle, which was how Maggie always parked. Serena squeezed her Mustang next to the truck and got out. She untied her pony tail, stretched her long arms over her head, and loosened her hips. From up here, the Duluth skyline unfurled below her, and she could see the finger of the Point peninsula jutting into the lake.

Rain spat on her black hair. Her face was flushed. She’d been at a Michigan Street gym when Maggie called, and she still wore her workout outfit: cropped Lycra pants, a purple tank top, and neon pink sneakers. Her damp clothes clung to her curves like a second skin. Summer was the time when she tried to sweat off the extra couple of pounds that always crept in during the winter months; rain didn’t give her an excuse to skip a day.

Maggie waved from the stone gazebo that overlooked the city. The tiny cop sat on the wall with her back to the skyline, pedaling her legs and sipping a supersized McDonald’s pop through a straw. The two of them had both passed the magic age of forty now, but somehow Maggie still consumed a daily menu of junk food without gaining weight. She didn’t even drink diet pop, just full-octane, high-fructose corn syrup in all its glory. Serena found it annoying.

The two of them had had a complicated relationship from the beginning. For a while, they’d managed a wary friendship. Then, after Maggie slept with Stride, they’d become bitter enemies. Now, with the affair in the past and Stride and Serena married, they’d struck a kind of détente between them. They were both Duluth cops, and that meant they had to work together. They were both in Stride’s life, too, and that wasn’t going to change.

Serena, who was six inches taller than Maggie, took a seat next to her on the stone wall, her pink shoes flat on the ground. Maggie held out the pop to offer her a sip, and Serena shook her head.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Serena said.

“That’s what I was going to ask you.”

Serena shook her head. “I don’t know a thing. Jonny called, but he didn’t give me any details. He said he had to meet someone and he’d fill me in tonight. He told me not to worry, but I’m worried.”

“So am I. This whole thing is seriously messed up.”

Serena shivered as the sweat made her cold. “So what the hell happened?”

“K-2 put him on paid leave. Suspended him. Stride asked him to do it. He said he can’t be in the office while the Ned Baer case is under investigation, and he won’t tell me why.”

Kyle Kinnick, Duluth’s deputy police chief, had gone by the nickname K-2 for most of his career. As long as Serena had known him, K-2 had run interference for Stride. They were a good team. K-2 loved the backslapping and backstabbing of city politics as much as Stride hated it. But the chief’s ability to protect Stride only went so far.

“There’s an explanation for all of this,” Serena said. “There has to be.”

“I agree, but I need to know what it is, if I’m going to help him. Did Stride ever talk to you about the Ned Baer case?”

Serena held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger at Maggie. It was a cruel thing to do, given Maggie’s own history with Stride, but she didn’t care. “I’m his wife. Even if he told me anything about it, I couldn’t say a word.”

“This isn’t a courtroom, Serena,” Maggie replied coolly. “You don’t have to pull spousal privilege on me. Come on, this is just you and me talking.”

“That doesn’t matter. Whatever’s going on, there’s a reason Jonny chose not to tell you about it, so I’m not going to say anything either. If he’s on the outside in this case, so am I.” Serena looked around the park and made sure they were alone. “Besides, the truth is, I’m in the dark, too. Jonny never mentioned Ned Baer to me.”

“Don’t you find that weird?”

“Not really. This all happened the year before I came to town. It’s not like he rushes to tell me secrets from back then. You know him. I still have to drag things out of him, even after all this time. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what was going on between him and Ned Baer. I don’t know why he lied about it.”

Maggie slurped her pop. “Seven years. Seven years, and all that time, Ned was buried in Steve’s garden. It’s crazy.”

“If Jonny says he didn’t know the body was there, then he didn’t know.”

“Maybe not, but he sure as hell knows something. I could really use your help. Nobody has to know that we’re talking. Not even Stride.”

“Jonny wouldn’t like that. Neither do I.”

“It’s for his own good. Look, you and I both know he didn’t kill anyone, but right now he’s the prime suspect. He was the last one to see Ned alive. He lied about their meeting, and he won’t tell me what it was about. And his best friend was so convinced that Stride killed the guy that he took away the body and buried it to keep him out of trouble.”

“You tell me Jonny’s a suspect, and you expect me to help you?” Serena asked. “Come on, Maggie.”

“I’d never sandbag him. You know that. I’m just saying he needs an ally on the inside, but I can’t be seen as helping him directly. That’s why I need you to point me where I need to go. Anything you tell me stays between us.”

Serena hesitated. “I’ll think about it, but I can’t make any promises.”

“Well, think about this, too. K-2 is bringing in a special investigator to lead the case.”

“It’s not going to be you?” Serena asked.

“No. K-2 thinks I’m too close to Stride. The whole team is. He doesn’t want any accusations that we’re covering up for one of our own. So he’s using an outsider to run the investigation, and I’ll be reporting to him.”

“Who?”

“You’re not going to like it. It’s Dan Erickson.”

Serena slapped the stone wall with her hand. “Are you kidding me? Dan Erickson? Is K-2 out of his mind? No way he brings Dan back. I’m going to call him and get this stopped.”

Maggie took hold of Serena’s arm. “Wait. Don’t do that. Interfering with K-2 will only make it worse. Look, Dan’s the former county attorney. Regardless of what we both think of him, he’s obviously qualified to do the job. Plus, everybody knows he hates Stride, so no one is going to think the chief is doing Stride any favors. That’s why he wants him.”

Serena shook her head in disgust. Dan Erickson.

Even hearing his name brought her back to the worst winter of her life. As county attorney, Dan had hired Serena to pay off a blackmailer who had unearthed the dirtiest secrets of Dan’s personal life. But the blackmailer had come to town with motives of his own, and Serena had nearly died at his hands in a fish house out on a frozen lake. Her body still carried the memories of that torture.

She kicked up one of her bare calves that was mottled with discolored white streaks where she’d been burned by fire. “See those scars? I have those scars because of Dan Erickson.”

“I know that, Serena. I know.”

“You slept with him. Does K-2 know that?”

“No, and he’s not going to, because if he finds out, he’ll take me off the case, too. And we need me on the inside, where I can keep an eye on Dan. He’s going to try to take down Stride if he can. I need to be able to stop him.”

Serena stood up in frustration. “I can’t be here anymore.”

“Don’t go yet. I get it, you have every reason to be upset about this. It pisses me off, too. But the only thing we can do now is find a way to have Stride’s back during the investigation. That means I need to know what he’s hiding. You can find out for me.”

“I won’t betray him.”

“You’re not betraying him. You’re helping him. Stride didn’t kill Ned Baer, Serena. Of course, he didn’t. But you think that’s going to matter to Dan if he sees a way to pin this on him? Look, Stride may not be the one who pulled the trigger, but he must have a pretty good idea who did. That’s why he’s not talking. He’s also a pigheaded son of a bitch who wouldn’t say a word, even if he ends up being the one to take the fall.”

Serena stared at the ground. “I told you, no promises.”

“I understand.”

“I’ll do what I can. If there’s no other way to protect Jonny.”

“Absolutely,” Maggie told her.

“Keep Dan Erickson away from me. Otherwise, you may have another murder on your hands.”

Maggie grinned. “Got it.”

Serena marched toward her Mustang, ignoring the rain that washed over her. She tried to push aside her furious emotions and her bad memories and focus on the only thing that was important. Stride.

She knew that Maggie was right.

Jonny knew something about Ned Baer’s murder. That was obvious. His subconscious had been taunting him with dreams about it, even before Ned’s body was discovered. The only reason for Stride to lie was because he was covering for someone else, and Serena didn’t need to talk to him to know who that was. There was only one person he’d still feel an obligation to protect after all this time.

His ex-wife.

She’d been in those dreams, too. Like unfinished business.

Serena had never met her. She’d avoided her for years, because she felt guilty about being the other woman in breaking up a marriage. Even a bad marriage. Serena had fallen in love with Stride, and Stride had fallen in love with Serena, but the reality for both of them was that he was still married when that happened.

She couldn’t put it off any longer.

It was time for her to confront Andrea.