Novel Excerpts—The Case of the Perfectionist Professor, Chapter 7

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 7

After Marissa left, I walked to Blair’s office.  I was almost ready to remind both to focus on their work and stop their flirting when Joe said he needed to talk with me but had a quick errand to run.  I told him I should be available all day.

Joe left, and I returned to my office and made a couple of calls.  As I was making out a deposit slip for Marissa’s retainer check my mind made a connection and cleared up some confusion it had since my meeting two days ago with Mayor Mohler. 

The main purpose of his meeting was to again congratulate me on the opening of my new office.  I had given him the tour and we had settled at the round table in my office.  I now couldn’t recall how we had started talking about our lives and backgrounds.  I think it was something to do with my building’s past. 

Mohler shared that Cato’s, a women’s clothing store, was in my building back in the early and mid-seventies.  That’s what led him to mention his ex-wife, Sandy Goble.  Her mother had worked at Cato’s.  The Mayor had gone on to tell me that for the first few years, his and Sandy’s married life was happy and satisfying even though they had to struggle financially.  It was then he mentioned their one and only child, Natalie.  I think the Mayor let his tongue slip just a little when he breathed, “it hurts when your own daughter, step-daughter, seems to favor her police-officer step-father over me, the father who raised her.”  I probably shouldn’t have asked my follow-up question.  

Now, my mind did a little organizing.  Natalie Goble, Adam Parker’s student, was the Mayor’s step-daughter, even though he had first said she was his daughter, indicating, at least to me, that he thought the two of them were especially close, at one point.  Natalie’s mother, Sandy Goble Stone, was Jake Stone’s wife, and Vice-President of First State Bank of Boaz.  Finally, there appears to be some tension between Natalie and her father, and possibly between him and step-father Jake Stone.  Hell, there must be some friction between the two men.  I pondered whether it was true animosity.  I knew that type often led to fist-a-cuffs.

Joe didn’t return to the office until 2:30. He tapped on my door and I motioned him in.

“Thanks for your idea.  It paid off.”  Joe said, introducing a subject, skipping the heart of the issue, and then stating a conclusion.  He rarely did this.

“Your welcome but place me in the correct country before asking me about its weather.”

“Hannah Knott.  Two days ago, you said I should dig a little deeper into Health Connections, the time, ninety minutes or so, everyday Steven spends there.”  Joe said, pulling out his notepad from his jacket pocket.

“You learned something relevant to Hannah’s case.  Tell me.”

On Wednesday afternoon I followed him.  Like clockwork, at 5:00 p.m., he left First Baptist Church of Christ and drove to Health Connections.  This time, I didn’t wait in the parking lot.  I doubt if he even has a membership there.  He walked straight down the hall past the exercise room and through the doors that leads to the swimming pool.  There is an emergency exit door at the end of the hall, past the doors that led to the pool.  By the time I reached the exit door and looked out the glass window at the top of the door, he was in a white Maxima with Peyton Todd, that’s who I assumed at the time.  I was lucky to go back out the way I had come in, get in my car, and find them.  I tailed them.  When they parked and exited her vehicle, I could tell it was Peyton Todd.  I had already done a little research.  She’s shown on the Sand Mountain Bank’s website, standing beside her boss, Kurt Prescott.  She’s really easy on the eyes.”

“You didn’t say where they went.  Where did they exit the Maxima?”  I asked.

“A fairly small brick house down Henderson Road, right beyond the animal hospital.  I checked, it’s a house owned by a Jane Ellsworth.”

“That’s Jake Stone’s sister.  I wonder if it’s her place, or if there’s someone else with that name.  Not likely around here but could be.”  I said, pondering the possibilities.

“I parked in the animal hospital’s parking lot and could see the house quite well, especially with my binoculars.  They stayed for over an hour.  Both days, yesterday and Wednesday, same routine.  They were back at Health Connections a little before 6:30.”

“What all do you know about Peyton Todd?”  I asked.

“She’s been at Sand Mountain Bank since it opened, a little over a year ago.  She’s the main man’s executive assistant, according to the website.”

“Kurt Prescott, the Bank’s President and one of the original founders.”  I added.

“Yes, Peyton did work at Wells Fargo.  I’ve asked around.  It seems she had worked there for several years but had been out of work for nearly a year before being hired by Prescott.”  Joe said.

“You don’t know why she left Wells Fargo?”  I asked.

“No.”  Before Joe could say anything else, Blair buzzed my intercom and said Hannah Knott was here to see Joe.

“You’ve got a visitor.”

“I knew she was coming.  Would you mind meeting with us?”  Joe asked.

“No problem.  Let’s meet in the conference room.”

I hadn’t seen a photo of Peyton Todd, but I couldn’t imagine why Steven Knott would do anything to risk losing Hannah.  She was drop-dead gorgeous.  There was no better way to put it.  Sometimes clichés said it better.  The ones that were true that is.  She was tall, maybe five feet eight.  She was shapely.  I was surprised she was showing me how curvy she was.  And, everybody else who was looking.  Her tight black dress accentuated her peaks and valleys.  It was almost dizzying.  I thought it odd especially given mine and Joe’s previous conversation where he had said she was a devout Christian and all she wanted was for Steven to admit his sins and restore their marriage.  She sat down, barely smiling.  To me, her dark hair was a little disheveled.

I pushed the pleasantries through quick.  Hannah spoke. “Joe, you said on the phone Steven is spending time with a Peyton Todd.  Are you sure they are having an affair?”

I thought the woman must be quite gullible.

Joe looked at me like he was thinking the same thing. “No, I don’t know for certain.  I haven’t seen them kissing or in bed or anything remotely close.”  I was glad to hear that Joe could get straight to the point and be clear with his client.

“You think because for two days he and this Peyton woman have spent time alone, they are having an affair?”  Hannah’s beauty obviously compensated for her thick mind.

Joe again looked at me, like he wanted me to speak.  “Hannah, I’m sure this is difficult, but in my experience, someone who is engaged with such subterfuge is not out spreading the Gospel.”  I said that intentionally, wanting her to face the music, no pun intended.  Her wonderful, godly, Southern Gospel singing husband, wasn’t satisfied with Hannah’s beauty and her abilities beneath the sheets.

“Subterfuge?”

“Steven isn’t pumping weights and making laps in the pool.  He’s working on his biceps and abs in a more natural way.”  I said, thinking, ‘do I need to draw a few pictures.’?

“You don’t have to be so graphic.  You might be wrong you know?”  Hannah Knott, the woman with a knotted brain.

I was glad Joe spoke up.  I was growing tired of this lame conversation.  “Hannah, do you have an idea of what else Peyton and Steven would be doing for over an hour at Jane Ellsworth’s house after he had sneaked out of Health Connections two days in a row?”

“I need to be completely honest with you two.  Steven had a gambling problem.  It’s why we now live in Boaz.  We moved here nearly two years ago.  It wasn’t a move we really wanted to make.  We both were from Montgomery and Steven had a great job with First Baptist Church.  Until, he was fired.”

“Why?”  Joe asked.

“The pastor and Deacon board got wind of his gambling.  And, his affair.”  Hannah said reaching into her purse for some Kleenex.

“Were the two connected?”  I asked.

“Is that like a chicken and egg question?  A ‘which came first’ type of thing?”  Hannah asked.

“Sort of.”  I said.  I assume the gambling came first.  I’m curious if that lead to the affair.  And, why.  Of course, the affair may have led Steven to gambling.  It’s an odd world.”

“That may go to the point I was trying to make a while ago when I asked Joe if he knew Steven and Peyton were having an affair.  I feel like I might be detecting a pattern.  Steven gets into hot water with his gambling and then he starts looking for a way out.  That’s how it happened in Montgomery, or that’s what he told me.”

“Elaborate on that a little.”  Joe asked.

“The woman there, I don’t even want to say her name.  It disgusts me.  She was a banker.  Seems like he’s attracted to women and money and banks.”

“Normally, that’s where the money’s at.”  I said, feeling quite astute.

“Steven has told me that after the affair started, she, that woman, suggested she help him out.  He was already in debt.  I’m not sure, to answer your question, if the affair started before the debts mounted.  Anyway, the woman thought she was smart and tried to redirect some bank funds for Steven’s benefit.  He declares he knew nothing about it.  The long and short of it is First Baptist let him go.  I never have been able to figure out how he got the Minister of Music job here in Boaz.  I suspect the Montgomery church kept quiet, probably didn’t want to tarnish their reputation.  Apparently, First Baptist Church of Christ relies on God’s guidance more than a thorough investigative report.”  Hannah became quiet and stared at her iPhone.

“Let me see if I followed you.  You are hesitating to conclude that Steven and Peyton are having an affair because you believe he is pursuing her for financial relief, even though you admit that in Montgomery, it was the woman who initiated the idea to screw her bank?”  I asked.  “Does that sum it up?”

“Pretty much.  Maybe I’m being a little naive.  It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to think that she would appear out of the blue and offer Steven money.  She’s after something.”  Hannah said, now, curiously, for the first time, looking around my office.  She seemed entranced by all the novels staring back at her.

“Or, Steven’s after something or maybe two somethings.”  I said.  I suspect his gambling problem simply coincided with his sexual desires.  Sorry, no insult intended.  I’m jumping over a foggy abyss.  We don’t know what we’re saying.  Has Steven returned to gambling?  Is he in debt again?  Is Peyton aware of this?  If so, has she offered to help him out?  If so, how?  Is she amenable to nicking the bank?  Again, we have more questions than answers.  One thing I would bet on, is that your husband is having an affair with Peyton Todd.”  I always liked to ask questions.  There is normally one more that needs to be asked.

“What else do we know about Ms. Todd?”  Joe asked.

“I’ve done a little research myself.  It seems there are several folks around the College who have lived here all their lives and seem to feel the heartbeat of the city. Peyton has one daughter, Paige Todd, who is a student at Snead State.  She’s one of my English Literature students.  Peyton is the ex-wife of a Boaz police officer, Jake Stone.”  I thought I would lose my dentures and I didn’t even have false teeth.  What a world, what a city.  It was almost as if everybody was related in some way, everybody had been married to everybody else’s ex-wife or husband.

“So, Paige Todd is Jake Stone’s step-daughter?  Funny, I just learned that her best friend, Natalie Goble, is also Jake Stone’s step-daughter.  He is currently married to Sandy Goble, the Mayor’s ex-wife.  I’m going to need to draw a diagram.

Blair stepped in the conference room and motioned for me to meet her outside in the hallway.  “Hannah, thanks for coming in.  I have an issue to deal with, so I’ll leave it with Joe to figure out our next move.”  I knew Blair’s hand-signal meant that I had an important phone call and it didn’t need to wait.

An hour later I was still sitting at my desk reeling from what Bobby Sorrells had told me.  He had called from Dalton’s office.  At first, I thought he simply wanted to ask me a few questions about the preliminary investigative report I had prepared on Dalton’s capital murder case.  It wasn’t that at all.  It was a simple six-word sentence that had thrown me into a tailspin: “Tommy Lee Gore has been released.”

Tommy was the brother of Brandon Gore, the man I was accused of killing.  I did kill Brandon Gore, but I didn’t murder him.  I knew that from day one, but it took the Houston County Sheriff and District Attorney nearly fourteen months to learn differently.  During that time, I stayed in jail.  I stayed for three reasons.  One, I didn’t have enough money to post a million-dollar bail.  Second, I wanted to build a bank of days towards my sentence in the event I was found guilty and sent to prison.  And third, I hate to admit it, but I was a little afraid of Tommy Lee Gore.  After discovering his dead brother, he swore to kill me.  I believed him capable of doing so.  Now, after three years in jail over a drug trafficking conviction, he was free as a bird, other than the terms and conditions of probation.  I had no doubt he still held a deep grudge against me for the death of his brother.  I hoped he didn’t know that Bobby Sorrells and I had furnished most of the grease that had slid him north to Harvest, Alabama and Limestone Correctional Facility. 

I left the office at 4:45 and looked every way but up as I crossed the parking lot to my truck.  I was glad Camilla and I had planned a weekend at the Mentone Inn north of Fort Payne.  It was our favorite getaway.  I doubted Tommy Lee would think to look for me there.