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 Stenographer, written in 2018, is my fourth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Book Blurb
Walt Shepherd, a 35 year veteran of the White House’s stenographic team, is fired by President Andrew Kane for refusing to lie.
Walt returns to his hometown of Boaz, Alabama and renews his relationship with Regina Gillan, his high school sweetheart, who he had ditched right before graduation to marry the daughter of a prominent local businessman. Regina has recently moved back to Boaz after forty years in Chicago working at the Tribune. She is now editor of the Sand Mountain Reporter, a local newspaper.
Walt and Regina’s relationship transforms into a once in life love at the same time they are being immersed in a growing local and national divide between Democrats and traditional Republicans, and extremist Republicans (known as Kanites) who are becoming more dogmatic about the revolution that began during President Kanes campaign.
Walt accepts two part-time jobs. One as a stenography instructor at Snead State Community College in Boaz, and one as an itinerant stenographer with Rains & Associates out of Birmingham.
Walt later learns the owner of Rains & Associates is also one of five men who created the Constitution Foundation and is involved in a sinister plot to destroy President Kane, but is using an unorthodox method to achieve its objective. The Foundation is doing everything it can to prevent President Kane from being reelected in 2020, and is scheming to initiate a civil war that will hopefully restore allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.
While Walt is writing a book, The Coming Civil War, he is, unwittingly, gathering key information for the Constitution Foundation.
Will Walt discover a connection between the Foundation and the deaths of three U.S. Congressmen in time to save his relationship with Regina, prevent President Kane from being reelected as the defacto head of a Christian theocracy, and the eruption of a civil war that could destroy the Nation ?
Chapter 22
Ginger’s email had read: “Kyle Daniel of Gadsden is taking the deposition of the defendant in a civil assault and battery case. Be at the law offices of Maynard Cooper & Gale at 9:00 a.m.” She had also included the address.
I left the house at 7:00 a.m., Monday morning, with the intention of arriving early at the law office of Maynard Cooper & Gale in Huntsville. Pouring rain and a turned-over tanker truck at the intersection of Highways 431 and 79 in Guntersville, made me five minutes late. I was happy to learn that Ginger had built in thirty minutes of extra time with her scheduling.
A pleasant receptionist greeted me as I walked inside the giant wooden double doors from the elevators on the tenth-floor. She led me down a long hallway, introduced me to Kyle Daniel as we crossed paths, and secured me in a large conference room. She told me Mr. Daniel would be in shortly. She referred me to a document at the far end of the long table. “We call it a steno-briefing. Something we’ve done for years. It gives you guys an overview of the case. Introduces you to the players, so to speak, the parties, their attorneys, just a bird’s eye view of the case. It should help prepare you for the deposition.” I thanked her as she went for some coffee.
I walked to the other end of the room and set up my stenographic machine. I sat down and read the title page, “Bruce Kinsley vs. Rudolph Paige, In the Circuit Court of Madison County, Civil Lawsuit for Assault & Battery.”
The receptionist, Greta, said I could call her, came with my coffee. She lingered just a little too long. I sensed she was wanting to or was trying to flirt. I didn’t have much interest; job responsibilities always held my attention.
Greta finally left, and I began to read. Early last summer Huntsville Mayor Bruce Kinsley and his wife had been confronted coming out of Conners Steak and Seafood. Rudolph Paige shouted obscenities and complained about Kinsley’s statements to a Huntsville Times news reporter opposing President Kane, saying “he is as qualified to be President of the United States as I am to design a nuclear rocket, or to earn the quarterback job for the New England Patriots. Kane’s a total buffoon.” The confrontation quickly escalated. Paige pursued Kinsley and his wife as they attempted to reach their vehicle. When Kinsley turned his back, Paige hit him on the side of his head with a wooden walking cane. The police arrived within seconds of Kinsley falling to the pavement. Paige was arrested and convicted of the crime of assault in early December. Paige is serving a one-year jail sentence at the Madison County jail. This civil action was brought during the last week of December.
Before I could finish reading the briefing, Kyle, Kinsley’s attorney, and several others, walked into the conference room. Kyle introduced me to his client, Bruce Kinsley, Mr. Paige, and his attorney Brad Caudell. After Kyle directed the seating order, he didn’t waste any time motioning to me that we were going on the record. He stated the usual preliminary and standard deposition rules including the necessity for the non-questioning party to timely object if he intended to object if the deposition and question made its way to the judge’s ears and the related trial. So far, Mr. Caudell hadn’t said a word, although he had nodded a couple of times as Kyle ran through his introductory speech.
Kyle’s words were slow and methodical. He was a stenographer’s dream. I was refreshed to start my little part-time job with Rains & Associates with such a slow-pitch. Kyle followed a chronological type plan. He began questioning Mr. Paige about his background, including his education, work history, and political affiliations.
The pace was so slow that I had time to think about the information I was learning. Rudolph Paige was a 65-year-old man, quite a success, even though he only had a high school diploma. He owned and operated a swimming pool construction and maintenance company. It seemed he had been extremely lucky growing up in Huntsville, with its highest per capita income of any city in Alabama.
Paige, not saying it directly at first, to me at least, was a racist. He, as a Republican, at first, had loved President George Bush, but became completely disenchanted when in 2008, he choreographed the GM and big bank bailouts. It was obvious that he hated President Barack Obama. Responding to one of Kyle’s questions, “the black bastard was born in Kenya, he’s not even a U.S. Citizen.”
This answer was the perfect segue to Andrew Kane. To Paige, Kane was God’s gift to America. “He’s perfect because he ain’t no damn politician. He’s going to drain the swamp.” It was clear Mr. Paige had little knowledge of American history, and certainly little understanding of how the U.S. Constitution created three branches of government with a plethora of checks and balances.
Kyle had done his homework and did a masterful job of getting Mr. Paige to admit his involvement with the grassroots organization widely known as Kane Tribe. He admitted active membership and involvement, even shared how it was imperative that many real Republicans win the mid-term election coming this November. Kyle let Paige rant a little—above Mr. Caudell’s opposition–about “the blithering assholes that call themselves Republicans now serving in the U.S. Congress.” Paige seemed to catch himself when he said, “enemies of freedom must get a change of heart or face ….” He caught himself right as I think he was about to say ‘death.’ Paige finished this statement by saying, “embarrassment come mid-terms.”
Kyle ended his questioning with nearly forty minutes spent on the confrontation and assault outside the Conners Steak and Seafood restaurant. Paige, at first, denied even being there, and certainly denied it was him that hit Mr. Kinsley. After an off-the-record discussion with Caudell taking his client out in the hall for nearly ten minutes, Paige admitted he had confronted, cursed, and struck Mr. Kinsley. I guess Caudell had told him, “look Rudolph, you have already been convicted of the crime of assault. This civil case is not about whether you did the deed, it’s about how much you are going to have to pay for the injuries and other harm you caused.”
When Kyle finished his questioning, we took a fifteen-minute break. I went to the restroom and then was given another cup of coffee by Greta as I was coming back into the conference room. I sat down and started flipping through recent texts on my iPhone and was reminded that Ginger had sent me a message early yesterday morning that there had been an add-on deposition. It would take place after Mr.
Paige’s. Ron Suttleworth was a key witness for Kyle.
After the break, Mr. Caudell had only a few questions for Mr. Paige, mostly questions clarifying what he had said in response to Kyle’s previous questions.
Mr. Suttleworth’s deposition took nearly an hour with Kyle going first. He had the most to gain from deposing the chief witness. Kyle already knew from the criminal trial what Mr. Suttleworth was going to say. Of course, Caudell did too but he wanted another opportunity to see if he could detect a crack somewhere in what he had seen that might decrease his client’s financial exposure. I’m sure Caudell would love to hear Suttleworth hedge his response to “are you absolutely positive that Mr. Kinsley didn’t trip and fall,” or some silly surprise that might arise.
I found it strange that Caudell hadn’t arranged to depose Mr. Kinsley. It seemed this would be the perfect time to ask the plaintiff a whole host of questions about his injuries. I later learned, as Greta caught me about to enter the elevator, that Kinsley and two of his doctors were being deposed tomorrow, same time, same place. I was happy that Ginger hadn’t assigned me to those. I had a feeling that recording a doctor would be a lot more difficult that what I had just experienced.
Greta invited me to lunch, but I begged off by claiming to have another appointment in Gadsden. Sometimes, lying really came in handy.
The Pencil-Driven Life 