William Kienzle - Bishop as Pawn

“Then there was Michael Shell, another suspect and possible killer.”

“He had an alibi,” Koznicki interjected.

“See? I didn’t even know that,” Koesler said. “Then there was-almost for lack of any other suspects-Lieutenant Quirt. Or, perhaps, one of those crazy movie people trying to steer the story their way.

“Or, it could’ve been almost anybody. One of the hospital personnel intent on a mercy killing. A relative of Mr. Demers trying to hurry nature along. But none of those candidates seemed a logical choice.

“Then came Brad Kleimer. As I said a while ago, he fit the bill physically. Of course, a lot of people could qualify in that category-especially with the brief glimpse he gave the hospital personnel.

“The ultimate reason why I zeroed in on Brad Kleimer was his motive-or what I suspected his motive to be.

“You see, granting that Father Carleson did not do it, whoever killed Demers did it to reinforce the charge that Father Carleson killed Bishop Diego. So I thought, in this scenario, whoever killed Demers didn’t really care one way or the other about Demers’s death. Demers’s death only served to help convict Don of the bishop’s death.

“Something I heard in Ste. Anne’s rectory last Wednesday evening sort of came to mind. One of the priests was complaining about an opponent’s high-handed way of playing chess: He used his more precious pieces-knights, castles, and bishops-as pawns.

“That seemed to be it in a nutshell. Bishop Diego, Lord rest him, used others as pawns in a game for his own advancement. And now somebody was using the death of Bishop Diego as a pawn in a game for that somebody’s advancement.

“And that someone was Brad Kleimer.

“Kleimer saw the trial over the bishop’s murder as a grandstand opportunity. It was drawing national and international coverage. For the trial to work to Kleimer’s benefit, the killer should be a priest and Kleimer should convict the priest.

“For the bishop to be murdered by some drugged kid would be news. But not the sensation that would come from a priest who murders his bishop with premeditation and in cold blood. If he could make this charge against Father Carleson stick, Kleimer would become a household word.

“Still and all, I didn’t think that even this fantastic reward would be enough motivation to cause an otherwise sane prosecuting attorney to actually murder an old man whose life hung by a thread. I could understand how fame-celebrity stardom, if you will-could make Kleimer at least consider murder as a means to this goal. But I couldn’t envision his actually doing it.

“But you see, what impressed me most about Brad Kleimer in the brief time I’ve known him, is the degree of vengeance he has toward his former wife.

“I wish we had the time … and-” Koesler chuckled. “-I wish you were interested enough for me to explain how very complex and intricate are the marriage laws of the Catholic Church. Not to mention their number.

“Before being engaged to a Catholic girl, Brad Kleimer had been vaguely aware that the Roman Catholic Church had an enormous number of laws governing entering matrimony and another pile of laws regulating getting out of a marriage once entered.

“He actually made a painstaking study of these laws. I’ve never before experienced a similar case. Why, there are priests who aren’t as conversant with these laws as Kleimer was!

“And he did all that with one thought in mind: to hold his wife in-as far as the Church was concerned-an inescapable bond. He contrived to make sure that should their marriage fail, his wife could never get an annulment.

“I’ve known people, especially those in failed marriages, to be unhappy in direct proportion to their ex-partner’s current happiness. But Brad Kleimer took the cake. The whole purpose of all that study and those precautions was to lock his wife in marriage in the eyes of the Catholic Church- her Church.

“This would be of no concern to him personally. He didn’t care about Church laws as they affected him, because as far as he was concerned they didn’t affect him.

“But they did affect his Catholic wife. And, sure enough, after their civil divorce, his wife discovered that as far as the Church was concerned, she would be considered married to him until one of them died.

“Now his wife did eventually marry. But she had to marry without a Catholic ceremony. And, just as Kleimer had planned, at her core she was miserable.

“Then Father Carleson came on the scene. To make a long story shorter, he passed over every single one of those many, many Church laws and witnessed the marriage vows of Kleimer’s former wife and her present husband.

“Kleimer didn’t discover this until after Father Carleson was indicted for murder. Kleimer was already determined to convict Father. Imagine how he felt when he learned that his former wife was happy and there wasn’t much of anything he could do about it? Even if he tried to get some ecclesiastical action against Father, he’d likely not be successful in this diocese. And even if he were successful, it wouldn’t take away his wife’s bliss. She had her marriage in the Church; she had returned to her sacramental life.

“And that was it!” Koesler concluded on a triumphant note. “That’s what tipped the scales in my mind toward Brad Kleimer as the murderer of Herbert Demers. It wasn’t only the fame he saw slipping from his grasp; it was that Father Carleson had utterly destroyed Kleimer’s carefully planned revenge against his ex-wife.

“I think it was almost a miracle that he killed Demers and not Father Carleson. But he had better plans for Father-plans that included shame, disgrace, conviction, incarceration.” Koesler shook his head in sorrow. “Not, all in all, a very nice person.”

Koznicki and Tully had listened with rapt attention. Each realized how truly helpful this priest had been in this case, as well as in past cases when a crime carried an essentially Catholic character.

“Now that Father Carleson is no longer behind bars and Kleimer has been charged with the murder of Herbert Demers, how goes the case against Julio Ramirez?” Koesler asked.

“Better than I had any reason to expect,” Tully replied. “Ramirez and the two Sanchez girls are out of the hospital but in custody. Julio’s memory is improving. And the details he can’t recall, Estella Sanchez is supplying.

“According to their three individual statements, they knew-as did lots of others-about the bishop’s stash. It was Julio’s idea to take it. His plan was to just go right up to the rectory when they knew the bishop was in his office. They staked out the rectory Sunday afternoon. They spotted the bishop and Carleson when they got back around 5:00. They waited till the lights went on in the bishop’s office. Then they just walked up to the door, rang the bell, and waited while the bishop deactivated the alarm system. He let them in. They gave him a sad song-and-dance about Julio’s mother being in great need. None of them had eaten in days, so they told him.

“It hadn’t occurred to Julio they’d have to kill the bishop to keep him from identifying them. Vicki Sanchez had brought along a piece of lead pipe. When the bishop was sitting in his chair, she passed the pipe to Julio and whispered what he must do.

“So he clobbered Diego in the back of the head. One blow did it. They got the money. They ditched the pipe a few blocks away. Then they bought enough crack to keep a pretty big gang senseless for a long while.

“They even brought us to the pipe. So now we have the murder weapon, complete with prints. We even got it down to this: Doc Moellmann estimated-based on the height of the bishop, the fact that he was sitting down, the angle of the blow-that the perp was about five-six or — seven. Julio is five-seven.”