William Kienzle - Masquerade

Sister Marie was the first to grasp her implication. “What did you mean by that?” she demanded, obviously appalled.

“Nothing.” Janet was apologetic. “Only that the three of us were together when it happened.”

“So none of you could have done it!” Marie charged.

“Well, yes: None of us could have done it.”

“Meaning one of us did do it?” Clearly, Benbow was angered.

“Oh, David, I’m sure the Sister didn’t mean to imply-”

“On the contrary, Mrs. Benbow, I’m afraid Sister Janet meant precisely that,” interrupted Winer.

“Janet,” said Marie, “how could you!”

“Marie, I’m not accusing anyone,” Janet protested. “How could I? After all, we are religious people. But somebody shot Reverend Krieg. And whoever it was, it couldn’t have been Father Koesler, Martha, or me. We were together.”

“So you have an alibi. .” Benbow was becoming angrier.

“Just a minute, Father Benbow,” said Winer, “the Sister has a point.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Think,” said Winer. “We, the four of us-” He interrupted himself: “Make that the three of us; Augustine is out of this entirely since he was unconscious at the time of the shooting.” He returned to his premise, “-we were united by two things: We are writers and we hated Klaus Krieg.”

“Hate might be too strong a word,” Marie protested.

Winer shook his head. “I hesitated initially to use the word, Sister,” he said. “As Sister Janet noted, we are people given to religion and hatred should not be part of our makeup-”

“But it is,” Benbow cut in. “It just flat out is. Think back on our conversation earlier this evening. Think of what each of us had to say about Krieg. It wasn’t a case of ‘not a kind word was said’; we were. . taken in by an unscrupulous charlatan and we were angry about it. I can’t see that ‘hatred’ is too strong a word for how we felt about Klaus Krieg.”

“You actually think that one of us killed him?” Marie was incredulous.

Benbow responded simply. “Somebody did.”

“Somebody who had a motive,” Janet added.

“I guess we all had that,” Benbow said.

“This is preposterous,” Martha Benbow cut in. “Perhaps-just perhaps-all of you had reason to dislike the man. But anger and murder are not the same. All of us are angry at people from time to time. That’s no more than human. We get angry all day long at checkout clerks, at other drivers, at parking, at bureaucracies, at government. We get angry at relatives, coworkers, spouses. Some of this anger comes and goes momentarily. Some of it lasts a lifetime. But just because we get angry with people doesn’t mean we’re going to kill them. Good heavens!”

“That’s all very true, Mrs. Benbow,” said Winer. “But there is one indisputable fact that must be faced: Klaus Krieg is dead. In all truth, I must confess I am not sorry. God forgive me, but I am almost relieved. I never thought I would be completely unmoved by another person’s death, but I am. I’ll say it, and I think in our hearts we will not deny it: The world is a better place without Klaus Krieg.”

“And somebody killed him,” Benbow said.

“And somebody killed him,” Winer repeated. “Not likely one of the student waitresses or one of the facilitators. Then, who?”

“An outsider,” Martha suggested. “Somebody who hated him and was physically and emotionally capable of killing him. That must be it! Surely not one of you. Someone none of us knows.”

“I think not,” Sister Janet said. “Since this is the only building on campus in use just now until the workshop students check in, we were able to pull in the security guards, sort of circle the wagons more closely. Actually, this building is quite secure now. I don’t think an outsider could have gotten through without being detected.”

“That pretty much-inevitably-brings us back to us, doesn’t it?” Benbow said.

“The three of us,” Marie said. She seemed almost in a trance. As if this were a stage production and she were in the audience instead of being one of the participants. “Father Augustine was unconscious-or so it seems.” She was unwilling to dismiss any possibility no matter how remote. “And Martha, Janet, and Father Koesler were together. None of them could have returned to the dining area without the others knowing it. That leaves Rabbi Winer, Father Benbow, and. . me.”

Silence.

Everyone knew what the next consideration must be, but no one wanted to consider it.

Finally, Benbow enunciated it. “Given we had motive, which of us had the opportunity?”

The three self-consciously considered each other.

Benbow sighed. “Okay, I’ll begin. I didn’t see either of you after we left the dining room until we returned after he’d been killed.”

“And,” Winer said, “I didn’t see either of you.”

“This is ridiculous,” Marie said, “but I did see Fathers Benbow and Augustine, though only briefly.”

“All right then,” Benbow said, “where were we? We were all headed for the same general location. How did we get separated? Why didn’t we, except for Sister here, see each other? As far as I’m concerned, I started up the front staircase to the second floor. Father Augustine was with me, but he was walking sort of unsteadily, weaving a bit. I asked him if he needed any help, but he just shook his head and mumbled something. I didn’t realize he was not well. So I walked ahead of him. Lost him at the turn of the staircase. Then I went to my classroom.”

“Was the facilitator there?” Winer asked.

“What kind of question is that?” Benbow bridled.

“A very ordinary sort of question,” Winer replied gently, spreading his hands to signify its innocence. “If there was anyone in your classroom, you would have a witness to testify that you were with someone else when the shot was fired.”

“Well. . well. . in fact there wasn’t anyone else in the classroom,” Benbow stated. “But there’s nothing odd about that. The facilitator wasn’t in Augustine’s room when he got there. And he must have arrived there after I got to my room: I left him staggering around behind me on the staircase. His facilitator didn’t get to his room until just about the moment the gun was fired. She found him unconscious-or so it seemed.

“So there was no one in my room to provide an alibi: so what?” His tone was challenging.

“So nothing,” Winer said. “It’s a natural consideration to want to know where everyone was at the time of a crime.”

There was an awkward pause.

Then Sister Marie spoke. “The reason neither of you saw me was that I took the elevator. I saw Father Benbow and Father Augustine start up the stairs. It was as Father Benbow said: Father Augustine was quite unsteady. I thought of offering to help him, but I knew that Father Benbow would be more capable of helping him in every way. . you know, man to man.

“I had to wait for the elevator for quite a few moments; it is very slow.” She looked to Janet for corroboration.

Janet nodded vigorously.

Marie continued. “Finally, when the elevator arrived, I got on alone. The door had just opened at the second floor when I heard the shot. I immediately pushed the first-floor button. When I got off the elevator, I heard the commotion in the dining area and I hurried there. That’s why I was the last to arrive. But I didn’t see anybody from the time the two men took the stairs until I returned to the dining room. I have no way of knowing whether Father Benbow continued up the stairs or doubled back.”

“That, Sister, is a cheap shot!” Father Benbow was nearly shouting. “What right have you to suggest that things did not happen exactly as I described them? What right have you to imply that I might be the killer?”