“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.”