Man Who Loved God

his life closely patterned on the Bible. And remember: women do not fare all that well in Scripture.”

“Not too badly though,” Anne Marie pointed out.

Father Tully studied the ceiling for a moment. “True enough,” he admitted. “There were some heroic women in the Old Testament: Esther, Ruth ….”

“And in the New Testament,” Anne Marie added. “Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary, the Blessed Mother, the women to whom Jesus appeared after His resurrection … and so on.”

“Right you are, Anne,” Father Tully said. “But, by and large, it is a man’s story. And besides, Tom Adams is, or seems to be, an extremely faithful son of the Catholic Church. And we all know where women stand in the Church: absolute equality except where it counts-the priesthood … bishops. So he’s got a lot of heavy example there.”

“Conceded,” Anne Marie said.

“I didn’t know this wrinkle, about women not being allowed in the upper echelon of Adams Bank,” Zoo said. “Interesting, but a detour. So Nancy Groggins is not in danger as manager of the bank-not from any of the execs, that is. But you two are overlooking the point that neither was Al Ulrich in danger from the execs. He was in danger from his new neighbors. One of them, stoned on dope, killed him. End of case!”

“Easy, easy, brother.” Father Tully laughed. “If my short-term memory serves, you were the one who brought up my theory a few minutes ago. But you see, I’ve abandoned that theory; I agree with you. In fact, when I talked to Barbara Ulrich about it, I went out of my way to try to convince her to let the police handle it. I told her not to meddle or get involved in something that is distinctly and exclusively police business.

“Now, I ask you, brother, have you ever heard that sentiment before?”

Zoo chuckled as he dug into some pasta. “My very own words. I wasn’t sure you were paying me any mind.”

“Case closed.” Father Tully stabbed an asparagus spear, dabbed it in hollandaise sauce, and nibbled on it.

He noticed that Anne Marie seemed to be toying with her food rather than eating it. “Something wrong, Anne?”

She smiled briefly. “Oh, I was just thinking … your visit with us is almost over. That makes me sad. We’ve had so much fun together. Isn’t there some way you can extend your visit? Maybe you could get a Detroit parish? They seem to be short of priests around here ….”

“Hey,” Zoo said, “that’s a great idea. How much longer can you stay?”

“Until Bob Koesler returns. That’s open-ended, sort of. He could be gone a month. But I’m betting he’ll show up any day now. And I don’t know about getting a Detroit parish. By the way, Anne, is the coffee done?”

She glanced at the counter. “I think so. Let me get you some.”

She poured the coffee. He tasted it. Hot. And good. He had yet to divine Father Koesler’s technique that turned out such unpotable brew. “The major problem with my staying in Detroit on a permanent basis is that I’m a Josephite-an order priest. The Josephites don’t have any benefice in this part of the country. Not a parish, a seminary, or any other operation.

“So, as a Josephite, I’ve got no reason to be here full time. I guess when my time’s up, I’ll just have to return to Dallas.”

“Wait a minute,” Zoo said. “It seems to me we’ve been through this before. A couple of years ago there was this priest who belonged to some missionary outfit … can’t think of the name just now …”

“Maryknoll,” Anne Marie supplied.

“That’s a foreign missionary order,” Father Tully said.

“You know about them?” Zoo asked.

“Sure. They’re distinctively an American order-as are we. Except that they aim at evangelizing in places like China and Africa and South America. What was a Maryknoller doing here? If he found a way to stay, maybe there’s hope for a transient Josephite.”

“I’m not sure how that worked,” Zoo said. “You’d have to ask Father Koesler.”

“Or me.” Anne Marie smiled. “I remember the priest. He was on sort of a sick leave from his Latin American assignment. He got mixed up in a homicide case. He was cleared, of course, and then he decided to stay here. He went through some sort of Church process. He’s still here, so I guess he was successful in becoming a regular fixture. Now he’s pastor of a southwest Detroit parish.”

Father Tully had emptied his plate. “He must’ve gone through excardination and incardination. I assume that when he came to Detroit, he still belonged to Maryknoll. He was incardinated in that religious order. Evidently he wanted to belong to Detroit, for whatever reason. In effect, he had to belong to somebody-in this case, either Maryknoll or the Detroit archdiocese.

“It’s something like passing the baton from one runner to the next in a relay race. Only in this case it’s a priest who’s being passed from one organization to a diocese. Maryknoll agrees to free up this priest-and excardinates him. The Archdiocese of Detroit agrees to take him and authorizes him to function as a priest here- incardination. That must be what happened in the Maryknoller’s case.”

“So,” Zoo said, “what’s stopping you? Get on the stick and start the process going.”

“There’s only one problem with that, Zoo: I like being a Josephite.”

Silence.

Clearly, neither Anne Marie nor her husband had considered that there could be a contest between keeping this newly formed family together and their brother’s religious, order. “You mean you’d rather belong to your order than stay with us? At least within visiting distance of us?” Zoo asked.

Father Tully compressed his lips in concentration. “That’s a tough one. I’ve been wrestling with this the whole time I’ve been here.

“It was one thing to learn about your existence from Aunt May. That was exciting. And I couldn’t wait to meet you. But the reality of being with you has been so much more than this. In no time at all, I’ve come to love you-twice as much because we’ve missed so much of each other’s life.

“All I can tell you is … I’ve been thinking and praying about this. I haven’t reached a decision yet. But I’m trying to. And it’s not that I don’t love you … or even that I love you more-or less. It’s that I loved my order before you came along.

“But when I do decide you’ll be the first to know.”

“We appreciate that.” Anne Marie wiped away a tear.

Father Tully grinned. “But I still think there’s something fishy about those three execs ….”

“Leave it, brother,” Zoo said. “Intuition fits better on the womenfolk.”

They laughed and started stacking dishes.

Twenty-One

It was just after ten Tuesday morning-time to start the day.

Barbara Ulrich groaned inwardly. She looked several times at the clock on the nightstand. She never slept in. But then she also never had as much to drink as she’d had last night.

Simply, she had tried to drown a disastrous day.

The funeral had taken much more out of her than she’d bargained for. That was followed by two consecutive strikeouts: Martin Whitston and Jack Fradet.

Definitely a bad news day. Today had a lot of catching up to do.

Lou Durocher was expected at eleven, less than an hour from now.

She sat up and quickly clutched her temple. Uhhhh!

Coffee might help. Slowly she made her way into the kitchen, where she started things percolating.

Next, a shower. She padded back into the bedroom. She let her nightgown slip to the floor and turned to study her body in the full-length mirror. Flawless. But one of these days … one of these days the new one would begin to show. Long before that, this would all have to be straightened out.

The shower seemed to help. She absorbed its pulsation and forced herself to think about good old Lou