Crime & Punishment: The Prequel Ch. 05

"Why? What he doesn't know won't hurt him, and if he finds out just tell him you did it for him."

"He's not Steven. He has a real temper. I fear his reaction."

"He's not a violent man. Take my word having faced one today. Give your husband lots of loving and make him sure of your affection. That way if he suspects, he won't rock the boat. Once you've had your fun with Frank, you can quickly discard him. I've come to the conclusion that keeping them around too long gives them ideas."

"Sounds like you have a problem," Laura suggested.

"In spades girl in spades."

Right at that moment, Tony Greco who had one too many drinks crashed the Rosewood firm's Christmas party. He had the invitation the firm had sent the governor that he had conned from the governor's Albany office secretary. He was not too drunk to be on his guard, and when he saw Steven Fitzgerald, he remembered to put a smile on his face. Steven didn't return the smile. He tolerated Tony, but he didn't have to pretend to like him.

Fortunately, Frank Patterson intercepted Tony before he could reach Fitzgerald. Patterson was intent on pushing yet another Black and Hispanic Caucus agenda item although the legislators had all gone home for the holidays. It was enough of a delay to allow Susan to return before Tony could confront Steven.

"Looks like your friend Greco is on a mission," Steven said.

Susan had gone pale. The last thing she wanted was a confrontation played out before her husband's colleagues. As Greco approached, she leaned in and whispered, "please, I don't want a scene can you give us some space?"

Steven much preferred staying put, but he sensed his wife's near panic. He had been through this before. Susan was breaking it off with Greco. Inevitably her affairs always had a termination. It happened to all her lovers. She broke up with them, and he understood how that must hurt. Some tried to blame him for the breakup. Susan didn't know it, but Steven had been confronted by several of her rejected suitors.

The other men had aired their grievances in an embarrassed privacy. One had even cried on Steven's shoulder as the injured husband tried to explain that with his wife, it was nothing personal, "It's just the way she is." This was definitely the downside of seducing a happily married woman. They almost always return to their husbands if they can.

Susan was frantic with the fear that Tony would expose her affair in public. Steven realized that there was a real danger of Tony making a public scene. He understood what this would do to his wife. That kind of public humiliation would be painful for her, and a scandal involving the governor's staff would wreck her professional standing. Susan might finally be getting the consequence she so richly deserved.

"Please, please my love don't make a scene!" Susan begged.

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Just disappear for a moment and let me handle it,"

Steven looked from the approaching Tony and back to his frantic wife. For all he wanted to, he could not pull the trigger. With a shake of his head, Steven walked away, and Susan moved to intercept Tony.

"We need to talk," she said reaching him.

"Yes, we do," he affirmed as he watched Steven disappear in the opposite direction. That her husband seemed to be running from him gave Tony encouragement.

Susan took Tony's arm and led him toward the club's members lounge. The evening manager saw the couple enter the members-only lounge but made no attempt to stop them recognizing both as being on the governor's personal staff.

Susan started as soon as they reached a secluded spot, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to apologize. I'm sorry if I hurt you. You took me by surprise. I don't want us to end this way."

"Well, I don't either," she said but was unsure she meant it. What she knew was that she had to get rid of him tonight.

"Then meet me later," he said.

"I can't I'm with my husband."

Tony wanted to shout at her to stop this ridicules nonsense. Like her husband didn't know, but he said in as even a tone as he could manage," Later after this is over say midnight at my place."

"No, but I'll meet you at the Lathan Inn at 12:30," she said estimating the time it would take them to get home and for her to make some excuse to go out again.

He agreed and wanted to kiss her, but she pushed him off, "Not here," she said and fled back to the party. Arriving back at the law firm's function only a few people were staring at her. There would be those who would suspect, but gossip she didn't fear. There would always be gossip. She could be the most chaste woman in New York, and there would still be gossip. What people whispered was irrelevant. What was said out loud and in public was what mattered.

Steven caught her by the arm, "Shall we be going. I'm tired, and I have been as sociable as is necessary."

"Let's say our goodbyes, and then we can head out. I'm tired too." She said.

On the way home, she pondered what she would say to Tony. She needed to let him down easy, but she needed to end it before it got any further out of hand.

****

The Cardinal was sipping his tea. The new housekeeper was particularly clever with the tea preparation and other more personal tasks. The Cardinal had never adopted the American practice of drinking coffee after dinner. Having immigrated as a young priest from Ireland to fulfill the chronic celebrant shortage of the American Church, he still retained certain biases from his native land.

America was a part of the world that was perpetually short of priests. This was a worldly nation driven more by money than faith. Which was why it was short priests, and why the church was so determined to see its pulpits remained full. Money was what the Americans brought to the church, and what Rome sought from them. In matters of faith, the land the cardinal found himself in was irrelevant, but money was a different matter.

It was money that was at the heart of the after-dinner discussion the cardinal was having with his principal financial advisor, Monsignor Douglas Mourluck. The monsieur was indeed a clever man when it came to money. He was a faithful and effective shepherd of diocesan finances. Like any good shepherd, the monsieur was one who tended to his sheep. There were wolves who preyed on the church and had to be driven off. Reluctant sheep who often needed to be driven to the shearing shed. Such a reluctant sheep and the accompanying wolves were the after-dinner topic.

"Well, Douglas where do we stand on the Maryann McManus problem."

"I'm afraid the lady is unwilling to cooperate."

"And you're sure she has the file."

"Nothing in this world is certain, but it is the logical conclusion."

"Explain," the cardinal prodded.

"We know the file was in Bishop McManus' safe. It was a high-security system. The bishop showed me the safe himself when we removed the file from our custody on the advice of counsel. Had we not deemed it secure we would never have lodged the file there.

"When I checked the safe on the death of Tom McManus, the file was gone along with McManus' other important legal documents, but all his personal valuables remained in the safe, his Rolex watch, rings, some gold coins, and over five thousand in cash.

"A thief would have taken the valuables and left the papers. The McManus woman would have left the valuables knowing that the real value lay in the documents that would establish her claim to the ownership of all," the monsieur concluded.

"This woman claims Thomas' estate?" the cardinal asked personally outraged at the avarice of women in general.

"Most certainly, she has a will that was executed but never recorded, deeds to the bishop's various properties executed in the joint names of Thomas and Maryann McManus, and copies of trusts for her children.

It was an old ploy. The documents were shown to the bishop's woman and her children but never recorded. Since only a single copy was executed and that placed out of reach of all but the diocesan representative, in this case Monsignor Mourluck, the family had no legal proof of their claim. The monsignor would simply destroy the documents, and all would revert to the church under a prior properly recorded will. In this case, things had gone wrong. Maryann McManus was in possession of everything that the monsignor would have stripped from the bishops safe in the normal course while the family was distracted by the funeral.

"I believe she knew what was there and got to the safe first," the monsignor said.

"And took our file in the bargain. Remind me again why we moved it."

"We had information that father Estes formerly of our legal office disclosed the file's existence to a member of a victims' support group. Our attorneys said if we were served a subpoena, we would be required to turn it over, but you can't turn over what you don't have. McManus was only holding the file until we could arrange to send it to Rome with a diplomatic courier. I had the combination to Tom's safe in the event of his death by arrangement to remove his papers. It was the deal we had with him," the monsieur finished his frustration showing.

The cardinal understood the mistake made by his usually reliable subordinate. Their deal with Bishop McManus was one of long standing. They would overlook his obvious breach of his vow of chastity in return for a surrender of his personal wealth on death. McManus had considerable wealth from family resources. Nevertheless, the bulk of the McManus estate was the result of the money he acquired while managing the diocesan real estate holdings. It was a highly responsible position and an exceeding lucrative one.

The bishop had received a modest salary as a diocesan employee and a far more generous package of salary and benefits as the chief operating officer of the separately incorporated diocesan real estate trust. McManus had been an exceptional manager of church real estate. It was he who had come up with the ploy of announcing church and school closings well in advance. This allowed affected parishes to try and save their local establishment. McManus would at first take a hard line, but eventually, under the auspicious of the cardinal, a reprieve would be arranged if sufficient funds were raised to improve the property.

As McManus had structured the scheme, if the parish failed to raise sufficient funds to make the improvements, the property would be sold, and all the funds raised would go to the diocese. However, if the parish raised the funds needed to make the necessary improvements, then the property as improved would still be sold a year or two later at a far higher price. The diocese could not lose. In an era when all the church sought from its American parishes was money, the McManus bait and switch policy was readily adopted throughout the American Church.

Nevertheless, Thomas McManus was not an evil man. He saw his duty as being to gain as much as possible for his church, and he saw no harm in receiving appropriate compensation for himself. During his lifetime, he took good care of his family. He sent his children to the best Catholic Universities. They wanted for nothing reasonable. He took his wife on lavish vacations. They owned a condo in Fort Myers, Florida. He saw to it that Maryann was dressed well if modestly as befitting her position. Further, he knew the cardinal, his longtime superior, would not let his family become destitute on his death. However, it was agreed that the diocese was to be the inheritor of the bulk of the McManus estate.

Obviously, Tom had not told this to the woman who had lived as his wife for many long years. That he had been driven to create documents, that would establish a claim in Mary McManus, was a testament to how much a woman could pressure a man. The peace in the McManus home was created by false promises. It was a game the Church had played for a millennium. The Church rarely lost. But periodically along came a Maryann McManus.

"I feel terrible. I let you and Tom McManus down. I just don't understand how that woman beat me," the monsieur said.

"We underestimated her. We can't let that happen again. At all cost get that file back. Whatever it takes. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, your eminence," the monsignor said, "but if I can't?"

"Then I trust you will take the additional steps that will be needed," the cardinal said without elaborating, but the monsignor went visibly pale.