William Kienzle - Requiem for Moses

There was one, and only one, positive for Judith. She no longer owed anything to her father. The only feeling she could muster for him was disrespect bordering on contempt. It was a blessing for her that she had to be in his presence only minimally.

From the time, as a small child, she had become conscious of a father, his role had been nothing more than that of a procreator.

And now, Moe Green had so sullied the title father that it signified for her nothing but shame.

From that time, whether Moe Green lived or died was a matter of supreme indifference to his daughter.

THE PRESENT

For Koesler, all this was now coming together.

He had heard the chronicle of Dr. Moses Green from the experience of Jake Cameron, from Claire McNern and her fiance, Stan Lacki, and now from Judith Green.

A clear if most distasteful profile was taking form.

Not only had Green forced his way into Jake’s enterprise, now he was forcing Jake out of the clubs that had been his babies. Claire had lost her virginity, her unborn child, and her reproductive capacity. Stan, marrying Moe’s castoff, would never be a father. Green did not limit himself to one outrage per victim.

At this juncture, Koesler wondered whether Judith might also have had a more recent confrontation with her father.

“… so, that’s the way it was, Father,” Judith said. “There is no way Jake could possibly have known the complete story. I didn’t want you to have only his side of it.”

“Well,” Koesler said, “this was very thoughtful of you. I guess we can be thankful it’s over, and your father considered everything to be evened up and that the slate was clean on both sides. But I must say that, short of actual child molestation, I’ve never come across a parent-child relationship more fraught than that of yours and your dad’s.”

“Oh, it wasn’t over.” She grimaced-or was it a sneer? He wasn’t sure. “I just filled you in on the Cameron obscenity. Strangely enough, you’d think that Jake and I were the central players in that episode. But I think you’ll agree that we were only pawns. The player was Dad. He always was.”

“It wasn’t over?” Koesler was definitely puzzled.

Judith shrugged. “It never was. Not with Dad.” Seeing his appalled expression, she hastened to explain. “Oh, nothing happened after Jake Cameron for a long while-actually, not until very recently-when I decided to get married.”

“From all I’ve learned of your father-actually just in the past few minutes-I wouldn’t assume that he’d take much interest in your getting married.”

“He wouldn’t. Not ordinarily-not if it didn’t affect him. Not unless he objected to my choice.”

“Your choice?”

“Uh-huh.”

“The wrong ethnic background?”

“I guess you could say that. Actually, the wrong color. He’s African-American. Very black.”

“Hmmm. I wouldn’t have guessed that would upset your father. Racially mixed marriages aren’t that uncommon these days.”

“I know. And by this time you must know his objection has nothing to do with me or my fiance. He was worried about what his gang would say. He didn’t want anyone laughing or making fun behind his back.”

“Does that possibility exist?”

“With Dad’s group, probably. There’d be jokes about the wedding in white and black, the super sexual prowess of the groom, and, of course, my father’s grandchildren.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed. Not in this day and age.”

“Oh, sure, Father. Years ago, Sammy Davis Jr. based part of his act on his being black and Jewish. He used to say he found the combination confusing: When he woke up in the morning he didn’t know whether to be shiftless and lazy or stingy and mean. And that, from someone like Davis, was comparatively high class. From there, and in the mouths of Daddy’s cronies, it would be straight downhill.”

Koesler looked about the church. The crowd had grown. And eulogy time neared. But he couldn’t leave Judith with her account half told. “So, what did your father do-threaten to disown you?”

She shook her head. “Not much point in that. Bill-my fiance-had just passed the bar, and he’s being romanced by some of the larger Michigan firms. He’s the right color at the right time, and his marks were high. We won’t need any financial assistance.”

“Then what?”

She seemed to flinch. “The tapes.”

“Tapes?”

“I didn’t even know they taped the thing. It makes sense now. I guess at the time I refused to even consider it-think about it. Jake and I …”

As far as Koesler was concerned, she didn’t have to complete the sentence. Cameron had told him about receiving a copy of the tape from Green. But she had no way of knowing what Cameron had told Koesler. “You see … the seduction … when I was … with Jake … they filmed it. They taped it. I didn’t know. I never knew. Not until Daddy and I had our final confrontation.”

“Final?”

“I considered it to be. I think he did, too. It was blackmail, I guess. He showed me the tape. He didn’t have to spend much time on that. I couldn’t stand to watch it. But he threatened that if I went ahead with my marriage plans, not only would Bill see the tape, the copies would circulate to most of the people we know.

“I didn’t know what to do. There was no serious problem as far as Bill was concerned; he’s well aware of Daddy’s cruelty, lack of any kind of conscience. But, what would it do to his career? We knew that whichever firm interviewed him would immediately receive a copy of the tape. If the managing partner and the hiring committee could overlook my … indiscretion, then clients and prospective clients could receive a copy. It was a threat that just hung over my head.”

“And now,” Koesler concluded, “that threat is gone.”

“Yes, it is!” Her tone bordered on the defiant. “At the time my father and I parted, after he made his threat, I considered that our final confrontation. There was no room for any compromise. Either I married Bill or I called it off. Depending on that decision, he would either sit on the tapes or circulate them. Now, of course, there’s no doubt. That was, for sure, our last confrontation.”

So , Koesler thought, the pattern remains intact.

First Cameron, then Claire and Stan, now Judith. Each had reason to hate Moe Green. But, more than that, each had recently been grievously threatened and/or grossly mistreated by Green. With Green alive, Cameron stood to lose his most precious achievement, his Virago. With what Claire and Stan had recently learned, they would have to live with the awareness of Green as the unindictable murderer of Claire’s child.

And now Judith. If her father had lived, she would have had to wrestle with the dilemma of calling off her marriage to the man she loved, or see both herself and her husband destroyed by the vengeful Moses Green.

Once again the serendipity of Green’s death of natural causes. These deus ex machina occurrences were convenient to the point of unbelief.

But it was growing late. Glancing toward the widow Green, Koesler noted a break in the line of mourners. Though “mourners” seemed an inappropriate term in the present case.

Koesler thanked Judith for her attempt to set the record straighter. He moved toward Margie, but had taken only a few steps when a young man blocked his path.

Koesler had no memory of having met this man before. But, if the priest had a last dollar, he would have bet that this was Moe Green’s only son, David.

Any doubt was dissolved as the young man introduced himself. David Green, a student at Detroit College of Law.

“You must be the priest that mother’s been talking to everyone about,” David said. “Father Koesler, isn’t it?”