William Kienzle - Marked for Murder - The Father Koesler Mysteries:

Koesler was clearly a wreck. His hands were trembling slightly but noticeably, particularly perceptible to the trained eye of a psychologist.

Koesler’s state was the principal reason Dr. Rudy Scholl had decided not to return to his office. He wanted to make certain that Koesler would be all right before leaving him. It had been a stress-filled afternoon for everyone, but especially for Father Koesler.

Nor had Koesler’s condition been overlooked by Inspector Koznicki. He thought it might be helpful to keep the priest talking. So Koznicki had asked a series of questions. As, now, “Tell me, Father, how were you able to make sense of those markings left by the branding iron? That really turned out to be the linchpin in this case.”

Koesler’s smile was self-deprecating. “It was last night. I couldn’t sleep. Among the things on my mind were those meaningless marks on the victims. You see, it had never seriously crossed my mind that Father Kramer could possibly have been responsible for these murders. But last night, I finally decided to take Lieutenant Tully’s suggestion and at least consider the possibility.

“One thing I knew that none of the rest of you did was that Dick Kramer was technically illegitimate, at least in the eyes of the Church. The significance of that popped into my mind last night when Lieutenant Tully was talking about his—I guess—well-founded theory on the importance that illegitimacy plays in the eventual crimes committed by quite a few multiple murderers.

“The total impact of illegitimacy hit Dick Kramer just as he became a teenager and applied for entrance in the seminary. I suppose this knowledge would affect different boys in dissimilar ways. Apparently, it devastated Dick and had its effect from that time on.

“All this I knew from talking to an older priest friend of mine who also is a friend of Dick’s.

“So from that point, I asked myself: Supposing just for a moment that Father Kramer could have committed murder—what might motivate him to do the unspeakable? Could he have harbored a grudging resentment, even subconsciously, against his mother? In a mind too tired and stressed to think clearly, Dick might have held his unfortunate mother responsible for his distinctively second-class Church citizenship. After all, traditionally, the man proposes marriage, while the woman accepts or rejects. So perhaps Dick thought that since his father had been married previously and thus was excluded from a Church wedding, his mother should have turned him down. But she didn’t. They were married by a justice of the peace and when Dick came along, he was considered by the Church to be a bastard. And, without special dispensation, he would be barred from the priesthood.

“Then, each of the victims was an older woman. Could that mean that someone—Dick?—was striking out at a mother figure?”

“Very interesting, Father,” Koznicki said. “True, we did not know of the special character of Father Kramer’s irregularity. How could we have known? How were we to guess?”

Dr. Scholl shrugged, responding only because Inspector Koznicki happened to be looking in his direction. Essentially, he continued to study Father Koesler, who now seemed somewhat more self-possessed. Silently, he endorsed Koznicki’s ploy of encouraging Koesler to talk and get outside himself.

Koesler, for his part, was experiencing another of his recidivist urges. He wanted a cigarette. Fortunately none was at hand.

“Now,” Koznicki continued, “how in the world did you come up with the motto that completed the branding marks?”

“I don’t really know. I guess it was some land of fluke . . . a combination of things, as I recall. What triggered my thinking was that I remembered that illegitimacy is no longer an impediment to the priesthood.”

“It is not?” Koznicki was never sure what the new Church would or would not do. He considered for a moment. “That may be a step in the right direction.”

“Oh, I agree,” Koesler said. “But I wondered what that might do to a man like Dick Kramer. Imagine having your whole life turned topsy-turvy by a Church law. To have that law overshadow everything you do. Then, when the Church finally gets around to revising its law for the very first time since it was first codified in 1917, there isn’t even a mention of the previous impediment!

“I thought it very possible that Dick—again, maybe subconsciously—now might be angry not only at his own mother, but also maybe in a more repressed way at Holy Mother Church.

“Then something else happened. You know that older priest I mentioned? His name is Monsignor Meehan. I visit him pretty regularly at the Burtha Fisher Home. I guess it does us both good. We just keep telling each other the same old stories over and over.

“One of the old stories, which I hadn’t heard for a number of years, concerned the selection of mottoes for a couple of Detroit’s auxiliary bishops.

“You know, the first time I saw a picture of those branding marks at the medical examiner’s office, something was knocking at my mind. It couldn’t get in then, but I knew eventually it would.

“It happened last night. And it happened in a simultaneous way.

“At almost the same time as I was recalling Monsignor Meehan’s story about a squabble over mottoes for coats of arms, I was also thinking about how angry Dick Kramer might well be over the Church’s flip-flop attitude on illegitimacy. The two thoughts seemed to converge. Obviously, there was a change of leadership in the Church to bring about such a 180-degree switch in attitude. So someone in Dick’s shoes could project his anger on one or another Church leader who ruled at a significant time. And that leader, now dead, would be personified by the motto he chose to symbolize his life.

“That’s why I visited the archdiocesan archives this morning: to check out this theory. The first possibility, according to my hypothesis, was Pope Benedict XV, who was Pope during the time the first Code of Canon Law was written and published. The second guess was Pius XI, who was Pope when Dick Kramer was born.

“Neither of their mottoes fit the incomplete markings on the victims.

“But the third guess hit pay dirt. Pius XII was Pope when Dick was at first rejected, then accepted by the seminary. This was the time when the enormity of Dick’s situation hit him like a ton of bricks. And Pius XII’s Papal motto fit perfectly in the puzzle the killer left.

“I suppose that would have been enough by itself. But when Sister Clotilde, the archivist, mentioned that Father Kramer had looked up the identical information sometime earlier, well . . .”

“Yes,” Koznicki agreed, “that was a rather neat package.”

Dr. Scholl noted that the tremor in Koesler’s hands increased at this point. The priest began toying with a toothpick in an apparent effort to ease his agitation.

Koesler continued. “The evidence against Dick seemed incontrovertible. And yet I still couldn’t believe that good man could possibly have done it. There had to be something deeply, radically wrong. Some terrible psychological aberration that caused this.

“That’s when I called Dr. Scholl. I’ve referred so many troubled people to him, we’ve come to know each other quite well. Anyway, the doctor was kind enough to take all this time away from his schedule to help.” He looked directly at Scholl. “For all you’ve done today, I will be forever grateful. Especially for, in effect, breaking this to Father Kramer.”

Scholl simply nodded.

“Since Inspector Koznicki didn’t join us until we got to Mother of Sorrows to confront Father Kramer,” Koesler said, “maybe you could now explain your diagnosis to him, Doctor?”

“Well, it’s hardly a full-blown diagnosis at this stage,” Scholl said. “And I’m sure the inspector is familiar with a dissociative reaction.”