William Kienzle - Deathbed

Even Koesler was aware that this was becoming awkward. Everyone in the room knew he was out of his depth. There was no need to belabor the point.

“What I’m getting at,” Koesler finally explained, “is that I think I know who tried to kill Sister Eileen.”

There was a brief, uncomfortable silence.

Harris cleared his throat. Was there a hint of a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth? “Nobody tried to kill Sister Eileen,” he stated.

“But . . .” Koesler was bewildered. “. . . but she was the patient being operated on. It’s perfectly possible—probable—that the tank was supposed to explode while the operation was in progress.”

“Immaterial,” Harris said.

“But—” Koesler felt his face redden.

“You see, Father,” Harris’s tone was that of an adult explaining something simple to a child. “At the time the tank was tampered with, there was no way of knowing who would be the first patient in that room. No way of knowing, even, if the first patient would need the use of the nitrogen tank.

“Sister Eileen collapsed and was taken immediately to the operating room from emergency. The tank had to have been tampered with before she was brought in as a patient in need of emergency treatment. Whoever sabotaged that tank could not have known that Sister Eileen was going to be operated on, let alone that she would be first and that the nitrogen tank would be needed for her.

“So,” Harris concluded rather pleasantly, “nobody was trying to kill Sister Eileen.”

In the brief silence that followed, Koesler considered how many kinds of fool he was.

Before he lapsed into another contemplative state, he heard Inspector Koznicki say, “As I was saying, if Mr. Whitaker is telling the whole truth— and, to be perfectly honest, I now believe he is—then there must be someone else in this hospital following him around remedying his mistakes. But who? And why?”

“I’m not that ready to believe Whitaker,” said Harris, “though if, as you say, there is someone else, I suppose he or she would be trying to accomplish the same thing as Whitaker.

“But I can’t think of why anybody would want to, or who would be doing it.

“Personally, I think Whitaker did it all and now is doing nothing more original than trying to alibi out of it by blaming some nonexistent person for picking up some loose ends that were never there in the first place.”

Harris quickly was tiring of this case. He wanted to get back to homicide cases, which were what he was being paid to work on. God knows there were more than enough homicides in Detroit to work on. The only reason Harris and the other homicide detectives were here was because Inspector Koznicki had called them in. And the only reason Koznicki had entered this case was the coincidence that he’d been the inspector on Code 2400 the night all this had happened.

As the officers discussed the possibilities in the hypothesis that there had been a second person involved, Koesler’s mind had taken another tack suggested by something Harris had said.

All right, thought Koesler, if Sister Eileen was not the target in the operating room, why would someone bother to improve on the bumbling Whitaker’s ineffectual plan? Why would someone complete the alteration of a medical chart to actually accomplish what Whitaker intended? Why indeed?

Unless . . . unless the two were in basic agreement. Both wanted to create a media event. And why? Because both wanted the same thing: the exposure of the medical moral practices of St. Vincent’s Hospital. And who might that second person be? Someone who would for some reason be attracted to and in agreement with either Whitaker’s ultimate goal . . . or a side-effect of that goal.

And that would be . . .

Of course!

Koesler stood abruptly. “Excuse me.” He had no idea what was being discussed at the moment, nor who was speaking. He knew only that there was urgency in getting to the bottom of this conundrum.

One thing was certain: With his movement and the tone of his voice, he had everyone’s attention.

“Uh, excuse me, but I think I have it now. “ There was no time for further preamble. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just outline my reasoning. If I’m correct, I think it may be important to take some action quickly or something terrible may happen. But first, let me sketch what I believe did happen.

“Bruce Whitaker came to this hospital with one purpose: to create a media event that would focus attention on St. Vincent’s. And through that coverage, he hoped to expose certain practices, which, as a matter of fact, are not in strict accord with official Catholic teaching.

“I was made aware of these practices, and I must say that, on the one hand, given this hospital’s purpose and other circumstances, I do not disagree with what’s being done here.

“On the other hand, there has been some fudging with official Catholic teaching. There is a tendency in this archdiocese, particularly when it comes to the core city of Detroit, to look the other way when it comes to certain, one might describe them as fringe, precepts of Catholic morals and dogma.

“But if the news media were to headline the fact that a Catholic hospital is in violation of Catholic teaching and law—a rather newsworthy story, I think you’ll agree—the archdiocesan authorities obviously could overlook the violations no more.

“Okay, so that’s the objective of Bruce Whitaker. The problem is that Bruce Whitaker has trouble tying his shoelaces and combing his hair. His attempts at creating a media event are, in chronological order, the mutilation of curtain hooks; the alteration of a patient’s medical chart—an alteration which is so imperfect it will accomplish nothing—and finally, the emptying of a gas tank that, when the absence of its contents is noticed, will simply be replaced.

“Next, apparently, someone becomes aware of Whitaker, sees what he is doing, and correctly surmises why he is doing these things. Now I know this sounds a bit tenuous, but believe me, it is amazing the leap of comprehension that can occur in two like minds.... particularly two similarly fervid minds. In any event, it does not take this person long to observe Whitaker’s, uh . . . difficulties in trying to accomplish his goal. So this person begins surreptitiously to fulfill what Whitaker has attempted so ineptly.

“This person follows Whitaker to Millie Power’s chart, sees that the alteration as it stands will do nothing; Whitaker has merely attempted to put the patient in the test program by changing her protocol number. Which means she would routinely receive penicillin to which she is allergic.

“But Whitaker has neglected to remove the notation signifying that Mrs. Power is, indeed, allergic to the drug. That dichotomy would, of course have been noticed by the staff, a check would have been made, and she would never have been given the drug. So the person removes the allergy notation. Now Whitaker’s plan will go forward.

“But, quite by accident, I learned of Mrs. Power’s allergy and also that she had been given the penicillin. So that scheme goes by the board.

“Then Mr. Whitaker plans on shutting down the operating room, which closure undoubtedly would have drawn in the media. But his plan, as usual, is destined to fail. Until this mysterious person intervenes. As a result, we have a good-sized hole in the wall and the local media are here in force.

“I think the conclusion is inescapable: This person and Whitaker have an identical objective: to draw the media into the operation of this hospital.

“As far as Whitaker is concerned, once the archdiocese is forced to act, St. Vincent’s will no longer be allowed to overlook the letter of Catholic teaching. And that is all he wanted to accomplish.