Maxima Culpa

In 'Maxima Culpa', three priests have died at times convenient to Father Jerome Stevens' advancement in the Church. Unable to accept these deaths as the Will of God, he has become extremely distraught and has concluded that Satan has a sinister plan to advance him in the Church only to have him do it harm. His friend, Father Francis Goode, asks his detective brother, Ig Goode, to inquire into these deaths to show that no priests have been murdered. Ig uncovers circumstantial evidence that one priest was murdered and locates a suspect. His confidant and mentor from graduate school, Dr. J. L. Dillan, recognizes some of the suspect's activities as those of a professional killer. Ig tails the suspect from his home base in Louisville to Pensacola and confirms that the suspect is, indeed, a hit man. Evidence is slim, however, that this killer has murdered priests. Of the three possible deaths, Ig effectively discounts two as murder. While Ig works on the third death, the suspect is caught in an attempt to kill again. He is shot. Father Francis, who is nearby, runs to offer him a last confession. Francis learns all, but his lips are sealed; Ig will know only what Francis is able to confirm, indirectly. The development is in eight parts: The Fatherless Father; The Last Ditch; The Bishop Moves Obliquely: All Too Vivid; The Voyage of the Ester; Goode News, Bad News; Crimson on Sugar White Sands; A Not So Free Lunch with Dillan.