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 Case of the Perfectionist Professor, written in 2018, is my sixth novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Book Blurb
Late on New Year’s Eve in the small town of Boaz, Alabama, Snead State Community College teacher Adam Parker was found dead slumped over in his car. A preliminary investigation indicated the fifty-year-old biology professor died of a heart attack. Marissa Booth, Adam’s daughter and Vanderbilt School of Divinity professor, didn’t agree.
Four days later, Marissa hired the local private detective firm of Connor Ford to investigate her father’s death. She declared local police officer Jake Stone had likely murdered her father. She pointed Ford to a multi-month Facebook feud between Adam and several local people, including Stone and Boaz City Councilman Lawton Hawks. The controversy allegedly related to Adam’s research that contended that, in layman’s terms, long-term indoctrination caused actual genetic mutations that directly affected future generation’s ability to reason.
Over the next year, Connor Ford discovered multiple and independent sources of motivation to quiet and possibly murder the controversial professor. Ford learned that a civil lawsuit and widespread public outcry had effectively run Adam out of Knoxville, where he was a biology professor for over thirteen years. Ford also learned that Adam had become the number one enemy of Roger Williams, a self-made local businessman, and his son Alex, who is a Republican candidate for governor of Alabama. Adam had discovered Alex and Glock, Inc., the Austrian-based gun manufacturer, was exploring not only the possibility of setting up a large facility in Boaz but also supplying pistols for Alex’s highly touted and controversial ‘arm the teachers’ proposal.
Connor Ford has his hands full enough with these suspects. Add in his need to determine whether Lawton Hawks and Jake Stone are friends or foes of Roger and Alex, which accentuate the pressure no normal small-town private detective can handle.
Will Connor’s discovery there is a link between Dayton, Tennessee, and the 1929 Scopes Monkey trial and a rogue group of CIA operatives bend Connor and his two associates to the breaking point?
Read this mystery/thriller to find out if Adam Parker was murdered and how, and what role the long-standing controversy between science and religion had in destroying the life of a single perfectionist professor.
Chapter 4
I decided to eat a bowl of oatmeal at home this morning. Garrett, my regular Pirates Cove breakfast partner, was visiting his oldest daughter in Birmingham. Garrett Lane, a retired Methodist minister, was my senior by at least twenty-five years, my parent’s minister for twice that time, and now, the only one I allowed within earshot to attempt to pierce my hardcore logic armor with stories of faith, the supernatural, and a unique brand of Bible inerrancy.
After finishing my oatmeal and two slices of toast laden with a thick layer of strawberry jelly, I walked to my study and opened the Adam Parker journal I had brought home with me last night. I had meant to read some in it last night but got distracted when Camilla called. She had gotten in late from an all-day workshop at The Cosmetology Center in Huntsville. It was still hard for me to believe she had shelved an eight-year career in nursing to become a hair-dresser.
Parker’s 2018 journal was almost full. Out of a total of 200 pages, he had filled up 160. The first entry, dated January 1, 2018 read: “Lawton Hawks’ comment, ‘Life begins at conception. Abortionists are killers. The law should prosecute them for the murders they commit just like anyone else who kills. Unfortunately, the law says otherwise.’ Hawks’ reference to Acts 5:29 is troubling. I’m unsure exactly what he meant but it could be he believed vigilante justice for all abortionists is justified. I wonder if Hawks would include me as a conspirator to murder, since I believed in a woman’s right to choose?” I turned to my side table holding my desktop computer and opened Facebook. I searched for Lawton Hawks and scanned the comments my query produced. My suspicion was confirmed. Boaz Councilman Lawton Hawks had, on December 31, 2017, written the quoted comment as a response to a post shared by Jake Stone, a post showing an alleged twelve-week-old human fetus laying inside an adult’s hand.
As I continued to read Adam’s journal entry, my iPhone vibrated. It was Joe Carter. “Morning Connor. My dentist’s office just called and is trying to change my appointment to 8:00 instead of 10:00 this morning. I have a favor to ask.”
“I bet it has something to do with that stack of subpoenas we received yesterday from Dalton.” I said, knowing Joe had a full day ahead of him, even without a dental appointment.
“Would you mind serving two of them first thing this morning. Timing is a little more difficult with these. I can take care of the others after my teeth cleaning.”
“No problem. I don’t have an appointment until 11:00. Who are they?” I asked.
“Ansley Mandy. She’s a nurse and drives to Birmingham five days per week. Gets home late. She lives on North Main. The other one is for Jake Stone. You know, the police officer. He’s usually at the police station first thing every morning.”
“Okay, no problem. Be sure and leave them on my desk. I’ll leave the house right now, so I can catch Ms. Mandy.”
“Thanks Connor. I owe you.” Joe said.
I closed Adam’s journal, walked to the kitchen, grabbed my keys off the bar and headed out. It was already seven o’clock. I hoped I could swing by the office and get to North Main in time to catch Ms. Mandy.
During my drive to town my mind thought back to the last time I served a subpoena. It was Labor Day 2004. I was still working for Bobby Sorrells, Investigations in Dothan, Alabama. Just two weeks earlier, I had also started attending law school in Birmingham five nights per week. Billy Arnold, a highly successful, local business man, had just been acquitted of rape a few weeks earlier. The alleged victim was now suing Mr. Arnold to recover financial damages for the alleged assault. I had no problem serving the subpoena. Arnold, who insisted I call him Billy, even invited me into his home and offered me a cup of coffee. I refused but got the feeling he was a conman. Bobby always said, “feelings will get you killed.”
As I sat at the red-light at Highway 431 my mind changed gears. My life had been a whirlwind ever since I served that last subpoena. I had left Bobby Sorrells and completed law school. Practicing in Dothan with Teague, Loggins, and Spradling for eight years, my divorce in 2011, my murder trial and acquittal in early 2014, and finally, my return home to Boaz in October 2014. I was out of the office in two minutes and turned into the driveway at 410 North Main Street, in another three. I felt blessed the swirling winds had landed me in a business of my own and a job I thoroughly enjoyed.
Unfortunately, I was late. According to her sister, Ansley Mandy left five minutes ago. I backed out onto Highway 205 and headed south. In less than five minutes I was sitting in the parking lot across from the Boaz Police Department. I grabbed the right subpoena and almost opened my truck’s door. I realized I should have thought about how to use this opportunity to get some type of reading on Jake Stone’s current feelings about Adam Parker. I should have used my driving time to develop some form of strategy.
Before Marissa Booth had entered my life, all I knew about Jake Stone was that he and his sister, Jane Ellsworth, owned the Brass Lantern Restaurant. It was another long-dissolved business that had recently been revived. I looked at the subpoena. The parties to the civil lawsuit were Sysco Foods, Inc. and Jake Stone. He was the defendant. I was curious why I didn’t have a subpoena to serve on Jane Ellsworth. I made a mental note to ask Dalton. Maybe, Jake was the responsible party, the one who had guaranteed the contract with Sysco Foods.
I chose to ignore my idea to craft a strategy. I chose to wing it. I got out of my truck and walked across the street. As I was walking up the hill to the dispatch window the front door opened, and Jake Stone walked out. I assumed he was about to head out on patrol. At first, he didn’t see me.
“Mr. Stone, do you have a minute?” I asked, now almost within hand-shaking distance.
“What does it concern? I’m now on duty.” Stone said pushing his Billy club into a side-slot on his belt.
“I’ve been instructed to deliver you some papers.” I reached out toward him with my right hand holding the blue-wrapped subpoena.
“And, I’ve been instructed not to accept them.” He replied.
“Consider yourself served.” I followed him over to his car and laid the papers on the hood right next to the driver’s side windshield.
“Consider yourself devoured.” Stone said opening his door.
“Mr. Stone, I take that as a negative, very improper, way to address me. Would you like to explain?” I asked.
“Hell no, I wouldn’t. Now, get your ass out of my face.”
“Let me ask you, Jake, may I call you Jake?”
“No, don’t call me anything, except Mr. Stone.”
“Okay Jake, did you ever tell Adam Parker, ‘Consider yourself devoured’? I asked, seeing if I could get a further rise out of the asshole Stone.
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. What’s that to you?” Stone asked.
“It might just become part of my full-time job. You hated Mr. Parker, didn’t you?”
“I sure as hell did. The world’s a better place now that he’s in hell.” I couldn’t remember when I’d had such a delightful conversation.
“You’re pretty smart aren’t you Jake, using hell two different ways. Are you smart enough to cover your tracks, or am I going to find you killed Mr. Parker?” I was way out of line. I was letting my feelings govern my words. Bobby would be very disappointed in me.
“You’re Connor Ford, aren’t you? Are you going to kill me like you did that Gore fellow a few years back? Yes, I know you. All of us are keeping an eye on you.”
“I would guess you consider me a killer just like you do everyone who performs an abortion.” Stone slammed his door and walked towards me. I saw his right hand slid down towards his club.
“Mr. Stone, Jake, you need to back up. I won’t play word games with you like Mr. Parker did.” I said hoping he would realize he couldn’t bully me.
“Shut the fuck up, you smart ass.” I braced myself when I saw both his hands coming towards my chest. I wanted to punch his face but had to maintain control. If he wanted to fight, I had to let him take the first action. I suspected someone was watching us through the big glass window beside the police station’s front door.
I let him push me back. No doubt he was strong. I couldn’t retain my stance, but I didn’t fall to the ground. I recovered and acted like I was going to turn back towards my truck behind me. Just as I did, just as I feigned fear by breathing in, opening my eyes as wide as I could, I swung and landed a solid right uppercut to the underside of his left jaw. He fell back across the hood of the car but didn’t stay there long. Even though he was a little taller than me, maybe six-two, I had at least forty pounds on him. He bear-hugged me and lifted me off my feet. We slammed down on the pavement and both struggled to gain the top position. Just as I rolled him to my right and was about to swing my right fist at his head, two officers came outside and pulled me off. The fight was over. Jake’s mouth was bleeding.
It was nearly 11:00 before I got to the office. It had taken Dalton nearly three hours to convince the City Attorney to release me without filing any charges. If it hadn’t been for Karen Lee, the dispatcher, who said that Jake started the fight, I probably would have been charged with third-degree assault. I figured her job would be in jeopardy.
While I washed my hands and face looking in the mirror I told myself I was getting too old for these school-yard tussles. I also hoped the Adam Parker autopsy gave me even the slightest evidence he had died under suspicious circumstances. Jake Stone was a bully and needed a good licking.
The Pencil Driven Life 