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 Schoolteacher, written in 2018, is my fifth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Book Blurb
In the summer of 2017, Katie Sims and her daughter Cullie, moved from New York City to Katie’s hometown of Boaz, Alabama for her to teach English and for Cullie to attend Boaz High School . Fifteen years earlier, during the Christmas holidays, five men from prominent local families sexually assaulted Katie. Nine months later, Katie’s only daughter was born.
Almost from the beginning of the new school year, as Katie and fellow-teacher Cindy Barker shared English, Literature, and Creative Writing duties for more than 300 students, they became lifelong friends.
For weeks, Katie and Cindy endured the almost constant sexual harassment at the hands of the assistant principal. In mid-October, after Cindy suffered an attack similar to Katie’s from fifteen years earlier, the two teachers designed a unique method to teach the six predators a lesson they would never forget. Katie and Cindy dubbed their plan, Six Red Apples.
Read this mystery-thriller to experience the dilemma the two teachers created for themselves, and to learn the true meaning of real justice. And, eternal friendship.
Chapter 10
“You two dumb asses. In broad daylight. Are ya’ll just itching to go to jail for the rest of your lives?” Fulton said as he walked inside the cabin. Ryan and Justin were sitting at a round, hundred-plus year oak table. Warren was still outside on the porch finishing a phone call on his cell.
“We didn’t have time to plot this out. When Justin and I discovered the tape was missing we knew that Darla knew.” Ryan said standing and leaning against the kitchen sink.
“I think we got lucky.” Warren said appearing in the open doorway from the porch. “My contact in Germany says the combination of Clonidine, Xanax, and alcohol in the right proportions can be a deadly cocktail for anyone, but more so for someone suffering from Syncope.”
“Well duh. We already knew that. She’s dead as old Abe.” Ryan said looking over at Justin.
“Where’s Danny?” Justin asked sipping the last drops of his third Bud Light.
“He had a late closing and was running by to see Ralph Williams. Don’t worry, the visit won’t raise any suspicions. Danny said Ralph had asked him last week about the ten-acre pasture for sale across the road from him.” Warren said accepting a beer from Justin.
“Okay, let’s sit down and review every detail of what’s happened.” Fulton said looking around the room and imagining his ancestors gathering around this same table to discuss business deals and unfortunately, things more sinister.
Club Eden, as it was called, was not only the name for the private 289-acre tract of land on the southwest side of Aurora Lake, but also the unofficial name of the organization formed in the 1890’s by five families who had immigrated from Georgia and settled in Boaz ten years earlier. Five generations separated Fulton, Warren, Ryan, Justin, and Danny from their original forebears. Each of them hoped the crazy evil stunt they pulled in 2002 wasn’t about to be revealed.
“Let’s start with the tape. I thought it was destroyed fifteen years ago. That was the agreement.” Fulton said, looking over at Ryan.
“Maybe he forgot. Granddad, Raymond, was a pack rat. No one would have ever known about our private little session with Katie if Raymond hadn’t been coming out of Aurora Market when we left here. You all remember. We had to confess. Damn, he followed Justin’s van and saw us toss Katie out at the deserted end of town. This was just one of a dozen mistakes we all made that night. I’m talking about how and where we left Katie. More stupid than that was videotaping our little romp.”
“Why in the hell did Raymond keep the tape? I doubt it’s because he’s a hoarder.” Warren asked.
“Maybe he was into porn.” Danny said, like Warren earlier, silently appearing in the cabin’s open doorway. “You guys might want to be a little more careful. I parked on the other side of our bridge just to see if I could sneak up on you lamebrains. Guess what? I did, and I just heard you talking about the tape.”
“Point taken. Right?” Fulton said looking first at Danny and then at the other three sitting around the table.
“I’ve heard Dad talk enough about Raymond to know he was as cunning as they come. Granddad probably believed the tape was some type of insurance, that he could use it to protect me if need be. You do recall that I’m not shown in the video.” Ryan said.
“You were doing the taping and turned it off when you were having your turns with Katie. You are as cunning and disloyal to the rest of us as Raymond was.” Warren said.
“Whatever reason Raymond had for retaining the tape, it was a bad decision. The bottom line is the tape still exists. Back to Darla. Are you sure you didn’t leave any evidence that can come back to haunt us?” Fulton asked, looking at both Ryan and Justin.
“No. None.” Ryan declared. “By the way, there is a limit to loyalty. You all know that.”
“I’m confused as usual.” Warren said writing something on his notepad. “Why were the two of you at Raymond’s to begin with?”
“I had visited granddad two days earlier. He asked me to visit Darla but also to bring back his will. When I opened the safe I saw the videotape and started to take it but for some reason didn’t. When I went back to see Raymond yesterday, to take his will, he gave me another one, a new one I guess, and asked me to store it in his safe. I guess he had his lawyers make a change or two. I didn’t read it. This time I took Justin along to occupy Darla. When I was in his study and opened the safe I noticed the videotape was missing. I knew it had to be Darla. I confronted her about it and she blew up. Apparently, she either knew the safe combination or figured it out after seeing me there two days ago.” Ryan looked at Justin as though to prod him to take over describing what happened next.
“We had hoped Darla would still be in bed and wouldn’t know we were there. That’s why we had gone so early. After her and Ryan got into their screaming match, Ryan and I walked back to Raymond’s study. Then, we heard her on the phone. We figured she was calling Katie. We couldn’t let her get the tape to Katie.
“I doubt if I would have done anything different.” Danny said. Darla was clearly a threat. If it weren’t for the stupid tape, we were in the clear. Even if Katie came forward and accused us all of rape, we could simply deny it. It would be her word against ours.”
“Unless, she knows which one of us is the father of Cullie.” Justin added.
“That still wouldn’t be our downfall. If I were the father I could say that Katie and I had an affair. Not good for my reputation but a hell better than going to prison.” Danny said.
“So, you fed Darla her prescription meds?” Fulton asked.
“By the handful. Also, made her drink nearly half a bottle of Jack Daniels.” Ryan said popping open another Bud Light from the twelve pack on the table.
“That’s all you gave her? The Clonidine, Xanax, and alcohol?” Warren asked. Nothing else?
“We’re apparently all dumb asses. Maybe it’s the beer but here’s the million-dollar question. Where in the hell is the videotape?” Fulton asked throwing a half full bottle of beer into a garbage can.
“We didn’t have much time to look, but it has to still be at Raymond’s. We know from a review of the security system that Darla never left the house after Ryan first removed Raymond’s old will, two days ago.” Justin said.
“Other than leaving the house dead when we took her out yesterday morning.” Ryan added.
“That was assumed dumb ass.” Justin added, confident that his best friend knew he was only joking about his mental acuity.
“We darn well better find that tape. I suspect that if anything suspicious turns up in Darla’s autopsy that law enforcement will be searching her house. We cannot allow that tape to be discovered. It could ruin us all.” Warren said scribbling rapidly in his notebook.
“Ryan and I will go back to Raymond’s tonight soon as we leave here. We’ll find the tape.” Justin said attempting to assure the others there was nothing to worry about.
“One other thing, Danny, what did Ralph Williams say? Any problems there?” Fulton asked Danny who had walked over and plopped down on a leather couch while typing a text.
“We lucked out. Ralph said he was in the house on the phone with his son in Houston for over an hour. Said he came out to his barn around 8:15 and had just gotten on his tractor to move a bale of hay to the pasture when he saw what he first thought was a bunch of ducks lined up along the edge of the pond. He said he drove on down and before he got through the gate he could tell it was a body. He also said he hadn’t seen any traffic going past his place.” Danny said just as his cell phone rang.
It was Tuesday night, near midnight, two hours after everyone had gone to bed and the house was finally still, that Katie walked outside, opened the trunk of her car, and rolled Darla’s stuffed suitcase inside. After removing clothes, shoes, a large toiletry bag, three novels, a couple of journals, and a videotape, Katie went to bed hoping the Audio-Visual Department at school would have an old eight-track video player she could borrow.
The Pencil Driven Life 