Bishop as Pawn (16 page)

“Exactly. The owner is, in effect, hurling down a gauntlet He’s implying that none of his employees is smart enough—talented enough—to break into the computer system. In the face of that, someone is almost certain to try—maybe even succeed.

“The author of Genesis used this sort of example to begin the explanation of how evil came into the world. Adam and Eve could use this garden of paradise in any way they wished. There was only a single command. Inevitably the fruit of the one forbidden tree became the most desirable of all.

“Now, nothing in this story that suggests that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was any better or more nourishing or tastier than that of any other tree. Only that it was forbidden.

“Well, that’s what I’m suggesting here. Priests aren’t guaranteed in any qualitative way to be more attractive than any other man. But the requirement of celibacy makes them a forbidden fruit. Some women can be attracted for that reason alone. But it can work the other way too. The forbidden fruit and the tempter can become one and the same agent.

“Take Bishop Diego, for instance. If we grant that he was an almost shamefully ambitious person, his game was working quite perfectly. In a situation like that, he could become quite bored.”

Koesler was becoming animated as the flow of his argument carried him along. “There’s a scene in
My Fair Lady
where Henry Higgins takes his new creation, an elegant Eliza Doolittle, to a fancy ball. Everyone in on the experiment is very tense until Eliza seems to be carrying off her innocent deception perfectly. Higgins is bored to tears … so much so that he welcomes the acid test provided by another speech teacher and grammarian—Zoltan Kaparthy.

“This, I think, is what may have happened with Bishop Diego. His plan was working so well that he was willing to introduce another element—just to liven up the game. And so he could welcome his own Eliza Doolittle. He wouldn’t become so carried away that he would compromise the limitations his celibacy called for. But he would dally – just to add a little spice to his now humdrum program. What’s her name … Maria Shell? He would lead her on to a sort of chaste love affair.

“Now maybe he made a mistake there. Maybe he didn’t count on treading on the already fragile relationship between Maria and Michael Shell.”

“And maybe,” Tully continued the speculation, “that was a serious—maybe even a fatal mistake.”

Koesler leaned back in his chair. “Maybe.”

The hint of a smile played around Tully’s lips. “Now, about that Adam and Eve story: Does it say what Eve thought of the snake?”

“I’m sorry?”

“The snake caused all the trouble, I mean by tempting Eve. Did she get sore about that?”

“Hmmm. That’s not part of the story. Life just goes steadily downhill for Adam and Eve after their disobedience.”

“But she should get angry, shouldn’t she?”

Koesler pondered a moment. “I suppose so. Of course the original disobedience was her responsibility. She could have rejected the offer. She should have. But, on the other hand, she probably would have stayed on the straight and narrow if she hadn’t been tempted. So, yes, I suppose that would be one conclusion you could draw from the story. But … wait a minute … you’re saying …”

“I’m saying, What if Maria Shell wised up to Diego? What if she realized that no matter how bad her marriage was, it got a whole lot worse after Diego came on the scene? What if she thought or assumed that her relationship with Diego was going to get serious, get physical?

“At one point when I was talking to her today she as much as said that if he had called, she would have answered. She was ready to pack up and leave with him. Suppose she tumbled to what you just said: that Diego was using her, just the way he was using everybody else. After all, why should he change his m.o. for her alone? She’s a smart lady, she could have come to that conclusion eventually. Why not now?

“Then we’ve got two people instead of one, whose lives would be significantly brightened with Diego out of the picture.” Tully looked thoughtful. “That could be interesting.

“Okay,” he said after a moment, “that clears up my perspective on the Shells. Now, one more thing: What about those two priests—Carleson and Bell—and the bishop?”

“Don Carleson and Ernie Bell?
They’re
not suspects!?”

“It’s part of the investigation. We’ve been tracing movements of just about everybody who crossed Diego’s path yesterday, and as far back before then and as completely as we can. Mostly from that meeting last night, Carleson and Bell surfaced. You were at that meeting. I’m surprised they didn’t question you.”

“‘They’? Aren’t
you
conducting this investigation?”

Tully explained the makeup of the temporary task force and the fact that Lieutenant Quirt was heading it. “You know both these priests, don’t you?”

“Yes. I know them … Ernie Bell far better than Don Carleson. Ernie’s entire career as a priest has been in this archdiocese. We were together in the seminary. Father Carleson is in the process of joining us from the foreign missions. But he and I had a long talk just last night. So I have some little knowledge of him. What would be helpful for you to know?”

“Let’s start with Bell. The problem between him and Diego seems to be about some threat to close his parish.”

“Yes, that’s my understanding.”

“Tell me a little about that from your experience. I mean, it’s not like the guy is going to lose his job, is it? He’d just go to another parish, wouldn’t he?”

Koesler smiled. “Sure you wouldn’t like some coffee? It’d just take me—”

“No! No, that’s all right. I’ll be just a few minutes more.”

“Hmmm. Well, you’re right, of course, Ernie surely wouldn’t lose his job if St. Gabriel’s were closed. There are lots of parishes that need someone, particularly someone like him.

“But that’s not the complete picture. It may very well be that Ernie is so close to what he’s doing there that he doesn’t realize how that parish has become an extension of himself.”

“An extension …?”

“Yes. So many parishes like St. Gabriel in the inner city of Detroit have changed drastically, radically Mine, for example, used to serve a German community. You’d never guess that from the fairly cosmopolitan congregation we’ve got now.

“St. Gabriel’s was a working-class parish. Blue collar. Now it’s predominantly Latino. Ernie Bell has helped—no, he made that parish over to provide essential services to the Latino community. He is so involved in all that goes on in that parish, that the parish has become, in a very real way, that extension of himself.”

“So, if they closed it …?”

“They would, in effect, be taking a part of him away.”

“And what would happen to the people he took care of?”

Koesler shrugged. “In all likelihood, they’d be encouraged to attend and get their help from Holy Redeemer parish. It’s about a mile east of Gabriel’s and it’s mammoth.”

“So, why should Bell be so torn up? It’s not like his folks wouldn’t be helped.”

Koesler smiled sadly. “That’s the way the Chancery would look at it. The people in charge downtown would claim that nobody was being abandoned. That the priest shortage is forcing a consolidation. But past practice says that it wouldn’t be that neat.

“Lots of Gabriel’s parishioners are elderly, and many of them speak only Spanish. Many of them would be lost. They wouldn’t understand. They would feel themselves truly abandoned. They couldn’t grasp that they were expected to affiliate with a different parish—even if some transportation were provided. They would almost barricade themselves in their homes. Many would go hungry, get sick. It’s not unlikely some would die.

“And the ones who made a successful transfer to Redeemer? Well, there’s no doubt that Redeemer is a monster parish. But it’s up to its ears taking care of its own. I doubt even Redeemer could take the influx without cutting back its service to its own, let alone everyone who came from Gabriel’s.

“That, you see, is how Ernie Bell looks at it. He’s seen it happen to others and he knows what to expect.”

Tully toyed with an ashtray that was going unused. “And you: Do you agree with Bell’s evaluation?”

“Yes,” Koesler said without hesitation.

“This threat to close the parish came from the late bishop,” Tully said. “The way I got it, the bishop was responding to a threat from Bell to show him up for what he was—a greedy, ambitious manipulator. To me, it sounds like an idle threat. What could Bell do to Diego?”

Koesler leaned back, seeming to envision what Father Bell might cause to happen. “Innuendo comes to mind. Innuendo and the news media. Find some enterprising journalist—maybe the
National Catholic Reporter
or the
News
or the
Free Press
, and intimate what, on the one hand, is expected of Bishop Diego and, on the other, what he was doing, who his constant companions were. How much his people needed him and how little he gave.

“It wouldn’t be that difficult to drop names of some of the wealthiest Catholics around and how tight they were with the bishop. Offer interpretation of what was happening and what the bishop’s goals were. That should get the ball nicely rolling.”

“And what would that accomplish?” Tully asked. “What trouble could that cause?”

“It could—and it very likely would—cement Bishop Diego right here as an auxiliary bishop for the rest of his life. And that could be like purgatory—if you understood purgatory as just like hell only limited to a certain period of time.”

“Why? Why would that force him to stay here?”

“Rome makes the final judgment when it comes to bishops—who becomes a bishop and where they all go. And one of the last things Rome wants is a bishop tainted by controversy.

“It’s sort of like the first two nominations President Clinton made for attorney general. The first had broken a law in hiring illegal aliens. The second had done the same thing before the practice had been a law.

“The idea was, there should be not even a hint of a scandal or any impropriety. Which would have been the case with Bishop Diego if it had become common knowledge that he sought power by any means necessary—making friends of powerful and wealthy people while neglecting the ones who were obviously in desperate need of him.

“Most Catholics in other dioceses would not want such a bishop. And, with this in mind, Rome would not want to send him. He’d be mired here in Detroit with few responsibilities and practically no power.

“So you see, both threats could have been very real.”

Tully nodded his understanding. “Okay. Then what about Carleson? Seems no secret that he didn’t like Diego. And Garleson was closer to Diego than maybe anyone else. Something about being a chauffeur—a servant?”

“That situation would come as no surprise to most of the priests here.” Koesler took a deep breath, held it for a few moments, then exhaled. How much should he tell Tully?

“Lieutenant,” he said at length, “when I say that something is common knowledge among priests, I don’t mean everybody knows about it. But we do get together almost as often as we can—and we talk. I don’t suppose it’s much different than with the police: You talk about your work and you talk about each other and you talk about your superiors.

“So, many, if not most of us, were aware, at least in a general way, of what was going on.

“The sort of treatment Bishop Diego dealt out to Father Carleson was not all that rare years ago. There were certain pastors—and, for the most part, we knew who they were—who treated priests assigned to them shamefully. And they got away with it. For one thing, it was a seller’s market and there was little recourse.

“Now the demeaning treatment of priests has all but completely disappeared. There aren’t that many priests around and it’s a buyer’s market. There are so few priests left that they become pastors far, far sooner than in the past. As a result, there just aren’t that many priests who are assistants. If a priest is a pastor and he’s lucky enough to have help in the person of an assistant priest, that assistant is likely to be treated very, very well. If not, the assistant may request a transfer. And he’ll probably get it—and the pastor will be all alone. As his reputation spreads, no one will go to work with him.

“So the relationship that grew up between Father Carleson and Bishop Diego was, I think, so rare as to be unique.

“From my conversation with Father Carleson last night, I would guess that he’s been sticking it out partly out of respect for Cardinal Boyle, who was the main reason Don chose Detroit for his diocese. And also partly because he was convinced it couldn’t go on much longer.”

“I gather you like your Cardinal,” Tully said.

“I do.”

“Then how come he didn’t do something about this problem? I presume he has the power to do it.”

Koesler shook his head. “Not everybody is a saint. Now, Cardinal Boyle doesn’t have many flaws that I know of. But one flaw might be his appreciation of his fellow bishops. It’s a large, select, exclusive, and inbred club. Cardinal Boyle is a member in very good standing. It would be most unusual for him to intervene in another bishop’s affairs. Most unusual … but not impossible.

“That’s why I think the Cardinal doesn’t realize how impossible the situation had become. He would be reluctant to step in, but if he knew …

“That’s the only sense I can make of it: He didn’t know.

“What made it worse for Don Carleson was that he’s no fledgling priest. He’s a mature man and he’s been very much in charge of everything wherever he has served. From what he told me, he is not the type to debate a course of action endlessly. Someplace in the Gospels, Jesus says, ‘Be ye not hearers of the word only, but doers.’ That’s Don Carleson: a doer.”

Tully nodded. “And now that the bishop is no longer humiliating him and cramping him, he’s his own man once again. Interesting. With the death of Diego, a man gets rid of the guy who he thinks is seducing his wife. A woman gets revenge for having been manipulated. A priest doesn’t have to worry about losing his parish. And another priest can go around singing, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!’ And we haven’t even heard what our detectives have picked up on the street.” He shook his head. “It’s rare that one death clears the decks for so many people.”