The primary aim of the "Novel Excerpts" blog category is to showcase my creative writing, specifically from the novels I've written. Hopefully, these posts will provide a glimpse into my storytelling style, themes, and narrative skills. It's an opportunity to share my artistic expressions and the worlds I've created through my novels.
The Boaz Scorekeeper, written in 2017, is my second novel. I'll post it a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
A ‘Not Guilty’ verdict is uncommon, an almost unheard-of thing in a capital murder case. And, finding a person who has avoided a guilty verdict in two capital murder cases in one lifetime is rare indeed. Even though I had not received a “Not Guilty’ verdict in either case, I still believed I was a rare commodity. It was impossible to reconcile the two forms of justice I had received in my two criminal trials. It was also impossible to understand the role mercy and justice played in the shoot-out at Oak Hollow.
A week after I was discharged from Gadsden Regional Medical Center, Karla drove us to Atlanta where we spent the night and caught a flight to Jackson, Wyoming for a two-week vacation that included two nights at the Trial Lawyer’s College in Dubois. On Friday night, I was introduced as the only member of the tribe who had truly experienced what it was like to be a capital murder defendant, who had exchanged bullets with four of his accusers, and who had represented capital murder defendants all the way from pre-indictment through death-penalty sentencing. Friday night, I shared the story of my most recent case, and on Saturday afternoon, sat on a panel with three other non-lawyer, former capital murder defendants, and with two tribe member lawyers who had either won outright ‘Not Guilty’ verdicts, or had won on appeal, or through other post-trial proceedings. The rest of mine and Karla’s time in Wyoming was spent taking day trips to the nearby Rocky Mountains and at night, after grilling steaks over a campfire, sitting by the Wind River behind the cabin we had rented. The night before we were to fly back to Atlanta, Trevor had called and said Wade and James were now locked away at Cumberland Island Federal Penitentiary in Georgia. Two days later I was in the law office. I continued to practice law although I did limit my work to murder and capital murder cases
The year 2020 was unique and special for many reasons including the opening of Sparksburg on the site of the old Boaz Spinning Mills. My client (the strawman of course) did everything he promised, and then some. He also purchased nearly a city block’s worth of property across the street to the south, razed all the old buildings, and built a huge parking lot with a 100-foot statute named Murray Tower. At its base, was a four-foot square bronze plaque that memorialized the lives of the four Murrays and the tragic events that ended their lives. It was a miniature Statute of Liberty.
Two other reasons 2020 was memorable was the opening of a Home Depot store across from the new Radford Hardware and Building Supply facility on Highway 431, and just north, the opening of Prader Volkswagen on the south side of Adams Chevrolet, Buick, & GMC that had relocated across from Marshall Medical Center. My strawman was instrumental in the opening of these two new businesses. However, that would have been impossible without the interest and connections of Terry Lynn Gaines. By early 2019, when my plans began unfolding, Terry was a veteran U.S. Senator serving as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and a frequent contributor to all the major TV news networks. With his substantial power and growing influence it wasn’t easy to convince Terry to come to Hickory Hollow and hear my demands. In early January, in the quiet and privacy of my library, Terry signed over title to Oak Hollow, and agreed to fully support my Boaz investment plans.
Later that afternoon, I was amazed how powerful and persuasive Terry Lynn Gaines truly was. So much so that phone calls to the CEOs was enough to clinch the two deals. However, his influence just went so far. Over the next several months, it took dozens of phone calls and two trips to Nuremberg, Germany to convince Helmuth Katz to participate in the Grand Opening and ribbon cutting ceremony. A visit from Michael Horn, president of Volkswagen of America, was the final tipping point.
On a dark and stormy afternoon in late December 2020, 94-year-old Katz stood between his 70-year-old twin-daughters, and cut the golden ribbon for the first new car dealership to open in Boaz since Earnest Adams and his son Eugene started Adams Chevrolet in 1920, a hundred years ago to the day. I thought I had put five million of Club Eden’s money to good use.
The other million, along with the $43,276.81 of interest earned, was contributed to Castenada Academy. Nico and Santiago fulfilled their promise and opened the first private Christian school in America dedicated solely to educating Hispanics. They won a $3,000,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and, along with my assistance, persuaded Terry Gaines to enlist the help of all four Hispanic U.S. Senators, Mel Martínez, Ken Salaza, Bob Menendez, and Marco Rubio, to host a one-day telethon promoting the Academy. It raised nearly $4,000,000 and enabled Nico and Santiago to purchase sixty acres on College Avenue only a mile west of the Platinum Foods facility, and to build a modern, high-tech campus. Nico and Santiago hired the best teachers from across America regardless of their race or ethnicity. On a hot and muggy day in mid-August 2021, nearly 2,000 Hispanics from as far away as Fort Payne, assembled in 118 classrooms to experience the beginnings of a world-class education, tuition free, thanks to the Trump Administration’s Charter School and Voucher Programs.
Karla retired from teaching school in May 2021. Lewis remarried and moved to Chattanooga in 2031 after Kaden graduated from Sardis High School. Kaden earned a full scholarship to Emory University and was set to stay there for law school but changed his mind, over my objection, and chose George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. instead. After graduating and passing the Bar he worked several years in D.C. for the firm of Hastings and Hoogle before moving to New York City to specialize in intellectual property with the law firm of Bainbridge and Shuttleworth.
Losing Matt was traumatic, something only mildly tolerable even until now, but losing Karla in 2033 was the single worst thing that I had ever experienced. I was unprepared for her death. I suppose I had subconsciously thought after she got sick that she would likely die before I did, but I assumed it couldn’t be worse than the loss of Wendi and the aftermath that followed. I think it was the trust factor. She was truly a woman of faith. She didn’t need evidence for her beliefs. She said she had faith. She trusted God completely and she did likewise the same with me, although in one big regard, I didn’t deserve it.
In January 1, 2045, my two law partners, Trevor Nixon and Dalton Martin, gave me a triple dose party celebrating my retirement, my 91st birthday, and of course, the New Year. Overall, I enjoyed my party but I couldn’t help but feel sad and nostalgic recalling the day Matt was gunned down at Oak Hollow.
A few months after Karla’s death, I started writing this book. Someway, the pain and difficulty of reliving the rough spots of my life was the antidote to the painful depression I was still enduring from Karla’s death. My writing was the only thing that got me up in the mornings. But, it didn’t last. By 2035 I was in the deepest funk of my life. I truly don’t know what happened over the next nine or ten years. However, for some strange reason, my retirement party gave me the push I needed to return to my manuscript. Even then it was a slow slog. It took me until early 2046 to complete a full first draft and almost another eight months before finishing. On October 5, 2046, I completed the final edit and on October 16th, I held my one and only book, a hardback titled The Boaz Scorekeeper.
Reading the back cover and flipping through the pages I almost wished I had titled my book, Micaden Lewis Tanner, the Tyrant Slayer, but then was reminded that there were still two members of the Flaming Five who were alive and well, walking, eating, and breathing, albeit in a Federal Penitentiary. Wade and James had avoided the ultimate justice they deserved. So far at least.
At 92, I had to reconcile myself to the likely fate for Wade and James. They would die in prison. I just couldn’t see the Federal Pardons and Parole Board granting them parole in two years even though both would be 95 years old. I rationalized that my overall score was better than fifty percent:
The Boaz Scorekeeper 3
The Flaming Five 2.
If there was an afterlife, I hoped Wendi and Cindi, and Bill and Nellie, were all giving me the thumbs up. But, I suspected that Gina was still not completely satisfied that she had received justice.
The Pencil-Driven Life 