Man Who Loved God

Zack looked puzzled. “Didn’t you know? I thought he-or somebody-would tell you. He’s gone. A vacation.”

“A vacation!” Zoo’s reaction seemed out of proportion to the event;

“That’s right. I don’t know how long it’s been since he’s had one. I don’t think’ he even knows himself. But if anybody deserves to get away, it’s gotta be Bob Koesler.”

Zoo seemed stunned. He had stopped eating.

“It’s funny with people who don’t vacation,” Anne Marie said. “They get to resemble big oak trees that are sort of dependable. They’re always there.”

“That’s just it ….” Zoo seemed to be coming out of his self-inflicted daze. “He isn’t here.”

Anne Marie was concerned. “Of course he isn’t here, dear. He’s on vacation.”

“What if we need him?”

“What do you mean, ‘What if we need him?’ Why would we need him?”

“Hey,” Zack said in a joking tone, “what am I, collard greens? I’m a priest! It isn’t that you’re left with nobody to take care of your spiritual life. Besides, after what you said, I didn’t think you’d panic if there wasn’t a priest to bring you sacraments!”

“It’s not me.” Zoo was deadly serious. “What if we come up with one of those cases like the ones that Koesler always helps us with … you know, where we’ve used him as a resource person?”

“What kind of chance would that be, honey? I mean, what are the odds?” Anne Marie said. “It’s not as if Father Koesler were on a retainer for the department. Or even that you. really expect to use him some more. For all you know, you’ll never need his expertise again.”

“Still and all, I’d feel better knowing he was here … that he was available if we did need him.”

“Zoo, he’s not that far away,” Zack said. “He’s just up in Georgian Bay.”

“Where’s that?” Zoo shot back. “I can’t place it off the top of my head.”

“It’s in Canada.”

“Canada’s a big country.”

“Well, it’s in Ontario, that much I know.”

“Can you reach him?” Zoo asked.

“It’s more a question of will he leave us alone down here,” Zack answered. “He left this afternoon, after making sure I knew where all the nooks and crannies are. I didn’t think I’d ever get him out of here.

“And then-can you believe it? — who should phone from en route late this afternoon but our reluctant vacationer, Bob Koesler.”

“He’s really not that far? He’s in touch? We can reach him?”

“Zoo …” Anne Marie maintained her light tone. “You never seemed so dependent on Father Koesler in the past. Why, I’ve even heard that there was a time when you resented his involvement in a homicide investigation.”

“That was before I got to know him. After I got convinced that his involvement wasn’t just because he wanted to meddle in police business. He’s not pushy. He just puts himself at our disposal when we invite him to help out.

“I guess I must’ve grown to depend on him being here.”

“Brother,” Zack said, “I am taking his place. Why don’t you lean on me if you come up with some problem that needs help? I had a talk with Father Koesler before he left yesterday. He explained to me, and gave me some examples of how he’s helped you over the years.

“All he was doing was leading you through the maze that the Catholic Church is so good at creating. No reason why I can’t help you out if, by rare accident, you happen to come up with a ‘Koesler situation.’“

“I don’t know … he’s good.”

It was all the priest could do to stop himself from laughing out loud. “Well, for what it’s worth-and it looks like you don’t think it’s worth all that much-I offer my services.

“Besides, with Bob Koesler you were dealing with a working pastor. All the while he was helping you, he was supposed to be caring for the day-to-day operation of a-busy, as far as I know-parish. But I’m not going to be weighed down with all that. Bob assured me-and from what I’ve seen it’s true-that the parish secretary can take care of the nuts and bolts of the parish. I’m just there for the ride.

“So: unencumbered with demanding parochial responsibilities, I am yours for the asking. If the need arises. And my hunch agrees with Anne Marie that neither Father Koesler nor I will be needed by the Detroit Police Department.”

The threesome seemed to be taking turns alternately talking and eating.

“Look at it this way, honey,” Anne Marie said. “Supposing that what we don’t think will happen does happen. What would you do? You wouldn’t call poor Father Koesler in, away from a very well-deserved vacation?”

Zoo looked off in the distance. Of course he would call Koesler. And not just for a phone consultation. Lieutenant Tully would fully expect Father Koesler to come right back and provide whatever help he could. And in fact, the supposition would have it that Father Koesler would want to return and help. It-this dedicated commitment-would be the exact way Lieutenant Tully himself would react.

“I know you,” Anne Marie said. “If you’re pondering my question that long, you don’t think it’s all that cut and dried. But your answer would be, Yes, you would certainly call him and expect him to come running home … wouldn’t you?”

“Well … yes, I would. I know what I’m supposed to say. But this is how I feel.”

Zack waved a chicken wing lightly. “We’re getting sidetracked. I want to get up to date with you folks. And here we are trying to provide for something that has little chance of happening.”

“No, Zack. I know the lieutenant.”

“I like to be prepared,” Zoo explained.

‘“Chance favors the prepared mind,’” Anne Marie quoted.

“That’s good,” Zack said. “Original?”

Anne Marie swallowed and smiled. “No. Louis Pasteur. But it is good, isn’t it?”

“I thought if Pasteur said something it would have to be, ‘Wash up.’”

“But,” Anne Marie said, “it does highlight Zoo’s approach to life … at least to his work-which is sort of his life.”

“That’s it,” Zoo affirmed. “I want to be ready for anything and everything. I’m in a business of reacting to things I have no control over. I mean, we’re sitting here eating and talking while somewhere in this city some guy is getting worked up enough to kill his enemy. Or he got burned in a drug deal. Or he thinks his woman is dissing him. Or his baby is making too much noise.

“And there are hundreds of like scenarios. He’s gonna shoot or stab or strangle or run over.

“But I don’t know this till we get called to the scene. We look at what he’s done. Then we’ve got to play catch-up. We’ve got to react to what he’s done. Already we’re behind. And the longer it takes us to track down the guy who did it and collect enough evidence to take to the prosecutor, the less likely we are to finish our operation successfully.

“So,” Zoo concluded, “the more I can depend on sources-like Father Koesler, or technicians, or. snitches-the faster I can make progress in wrapping up the case.”

“That makes sense,” his brother allowed.

“Right. See, I pretty much know by now how Koesler’s brain works. You’re unknown territory.”

“So you want to see beforehand what areas, if any, I could help you in before you need me. I’m maybe one of the ways you can be prepared. If I could be a good resource … if I could help you prepare your mind … chance or accidental slipups could favor you. Something like that?”

“Something like that.”

Father Tully laid his utensils on his plate. He had finished the main course, which had not been preceded by four other courses. “What can I tell you that will help you know whether or not I could be of any assistance to you?”

“I don’t know.” Zoo finished his meal. “Well … okay: Father Koesler keeps mentioning a Church council that changed everything-or at least lots” of things-for Catholics. It’s nothing that happened ages ago … more kind of recent.”

“Gotta be Vatican II.”