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 28
Blair was standing outside the office’s front door as Garrett and I walked out of Pirate’s Cove. She motioned me over. “I had just unlocked and was about to walk over and see if you were eating breakfast. Marissa just called. Sounds important.”
Blair walked back inside, and I said goodbye to Garrett. When I reached my desk I almost chose not to return Marissa’s call. I already knew that Adam had been murdered. Gut feelings aside, it was necessary to have this confirmed. I dialed Marissa from the land line.
“Morning Connor. Why is it that I feel even worse now that I know for sure Dad was murdered?”
“I suspect there was a part of you that wanted it not to be true, maybe a hope he simply died naturally. I’m not sure that came out right. Sorry.” I said, opening Flipboard for today’s top news.
“Dr. Singer called late last night. He’s emailing me the official report this morning. Dad died of cyanide poisoning. Singer’s words, ‘the drug screen revealed enough of the poison to kill two horses.’”
“Marissa, I am so very sorry you are having to go through this. And, your mother.” Adam’s body had been exhumed ten days ago. Dalton had not had any trouble convincing Marshall County Circuit Judge Chris Abel to grant the exhumation petition. The Chicago Judge was obligated by the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution to acknowledge and support Judge Abel’s order, but chose to call the Alabama judge just to verify the order’s authenticity.
“She’s taking it pretty hard, living with a lot of regrets.” Marissa said, I could tell she was crying. She had found Dr. Ted Singer, a Board-Certified Pathologist and PhD at the University of Chicago’s School of Medicine. Marissa’s connection had been a colleague in the same university’s School of Divinity, a former classmate at Southwestern School of Theology in Fort Worth.
“Be sure to email me a copy of the official report. Also, if you don’t mind, mail me a hard copy.” I said, wanting to say more to console Marissa but not having a clue how to do so.
We spent another twenty minutes with me updating her on what had happened in Boaz, everything that was even remotely related to the case. Two things got her attention: the abduction of Natalie, and the appearance of Adam’s leather bag with its iPad contents. The last thing Marissa said was, “Steven having Dad’s bag and iPad makes a little sense now, given what he said when I saw him in Nashville a few weeks ago. Steven said, ‘your father was a counselor’s counselor.’ At the time I didn’t have a clue what he meant. I think he was telling me that he had gotten good advice from my dad.”
I spent the rest of the morning with Adam’s iPad trying to work my way backwards through a ton of routes and recordings for all three Williams’. So far, nothing had pricked my interest. A few minutes before noon I called Hannah at Snead State hoping to catch her between classes. She was busy with student conferences and couldn’t talk but promised to call me back around two.
At 1:45 p.m., Blair buzzed me over the intercom and said Hannah was on the line.
“Thanks for calling me back.” I said.
“I’ve been meaning to call you.”
“I’d about decided you didn’t get anywhere with Steven over Adam’s leather bag and iPad but for some reason today I had to know. Something spurred my interest I guess.”
I heard Hannah tell someone, probably a student, to please close her door as she left. “All I know is that Steven and Adam were friends. It seems Steven and several members of his Sunday School class, got caught up in the ongoing public controversy over Adam’s research. They started emailing Adam. All the other members were antagonistic towards him but not Steven. I think they met after Steven asked Adam a question about guns. At some point Steven shared his story, about how he had accidentally shot and killed his twin brother. In time, Steven grew encouraged by Adam’s persistence and his interest in exposing the Southern gun culture. I think, maybe, both men drew encouragement from the other. Steven shared an event that really unnerved Adam. I’m not sure when it happened but the other guys from Sunday School, I think it was Jake Stone, Lawton Hawks, and Jerry Todd, there might have been one other. These guys, alone with Steven, dropped by Adam’s house one night and threatened him if he didn’t pack his bags and move away.”
“You said Steven was with them? When they went and threatened Adam?” I asked.
“By then, Steven had gone undercover if that’s what you would call it. In other words, he was acting openly as a supportive team member with the other Seekers, but privately, he was Adam’s ally.”
What Hannah was saying made sense given what Marissa had said, but it didn’t explain how Adam’s personal items wound up in Steven’s study. “What about the leather bag and iPad? What did he say?”
“At some point Adam became convinced that he was in real danger. He apparently had told Steven about the importance of the iPad and asked him to remove it from Adam’s office if something happened to him. It was hidden in his office and only Adam and Steven knew where it was kept. After Adam’s body was discovered, Steven went and got it.” Hannah said.
“Did he break in or did he have a key to Adam’s office?” I asked.
“He had a key.”
“If that’s true, and I’m not saying it isn’t, I’ll need to talk to Steven. From what I know about Adam, he was never the type to have close friends.”
“I agree he was unique, even weird in a good sort of way, but once you got to know him and didn’t judge him, he was easily likable. I definitely would say the two of us were friends.” Hannah said.
One other question, unless you have something else. Why did Steven keep quiet about having Adam’s iPad?” I asked.
“Of course, he knew about your investigation, but he didn’t know he could trust you, or anyone else. He says he’s still trying to learn more, to hopefully learn something that would help solve the case. Steven definitely believes Adam was murdered.”
I went on to tell Hannah that it was now confirmed that Adam had been poisoned, that we were now dealing with a murder case. She, almost like Marissa, was deeply saddened by the news.
For some reason I had put off talking with Natalie. I left the office early and arrived home in time to see Emily driving off to Birmingham to spend the weekend with Carl. It seemed this had become a regular affair, in more ways than one. Camilla was working until 7:00 so it left me without excuse to have a heart-to-heart with Natalie. She was sitting in the den when I walked in.
“Hey Natalie, how are you feeling?”
“Not bad, but I wish I could have gone with Paige.”
“Where is she going?”
Natalie reached for the remote and flipped off the TV. “Nowhere in particular, she just left and said she might go to the Snead basketball game. I don’t like the sport, but anything would beat being cooped up here.”
“I know you’re used to your freedom, but you see what that got you. Try and be patient as the investigation into your abduction takes place.”
“I guess I don’t have much choice. I’m sure not going home.” Natalie said propping her feet on the coffee table. I was a little surprised that her tummy was as large as it was. The tight tee-shirt she was wearing seemed to accentuate her bulging middle.
“I’ve been meaning for us to have a talk. Do you think that would be okay?” I asked.
“Sure, what do you want to know?”
“To start with, I want your response to something I recently heard.”
“Okay, what’s that?”
“Erica Williams says you are a criminal and that she would bet you killed Lawton Hawks. Sorry, to be so blunt.” I said sitting in my lounging chair across from Natalie on the couch.
“I would think you would know that she hates me. She’d probably say a lot of bad things about me.”
“Other than the obvious, are there other reasons she would not be your biggest fan?” I asked.
“A couple of reasons I could think of. Paige and I gave her hell last year in Sunday School. She was our teacher. It was about the same time the two of us, Paige and me, got tight with Professor Parker. He enabled us to be open about our beliefs. To put it mildly, we were a burr in her teaching saddle. Of course, this cost me and Paige our baby-sitting job.”
“The two of you were baby-sitting for Erica?” I asked.
“Paige for the last few years or so. After Reece was three or four. Me, gosh, forever. I started when I was eleven or twelve, when the twin girls were maybe three.”
“So, you were almost a part of the Williams’ household for seven or eight years?” I asked.
“Yep. I’m nearly twenty now. The twins are ten. Seven or so sounds right. Of course, I haven’t babysat since six or seven months ago.”
“This might get a little personal, but did you babysit any after you started your affair with Alex?” I asked.
“Actually, I did. Made for a weird scene. The two of them coming home with Erica going to put the kids to bed leaving me with Alex. It’s a wonder she hadn’t caught us sneaking a kiss. Looking back, our affair really started way before the sex. Alex, since I was probably fourteen or so, would flirt with me. It’s easy now to see that he had the hots for me even then. Of course, it didn’t help that I was rather mature, physically, ever since I became a teenager.”
“You don’t think Erica noticed anything during all those times?”
“I doubt she thought too much. She just knew her man was a flirt.”
“Changing the subject. Tell me more about your relationship with Adam Parker.” I said.
“After the Facebook attacks against him began, Paige and I started defending him, mainly responding with supportive comments. We both knew him from class, she had him the prior year, and I was a student in Biology I. He didn’t really acknowledge our help until the Post by Jake Stone wearing a gorilla outfit.”
“What? How did you know it was Stone?” I asked.
“Not only was it his post on his own Facebook page, he admitted it by saying something like, ‘cops and non-cops alike can pretend they are an ape. Some folks, like nutty Professor Parker, don’t have to pretend.’ It was stupid. The next day Paige and I went to Adam’s office and had a long talk.”
“Tell me about it.” I said.
“He really didn’t seem too concerned, said he’d been through it before. He told us about his research, how he was gathering data to support his hypothesis that, what he called, southern delusion, was working to further alter or modify every succeeding generation that continues in the closed-mind cycle.”
“What did he mean by that?”
“Slanted education really. Seeing things from a slanted perspective. By the end of our long meeting, he had enlisted us as, I guess you could say, guinea pigs.”
“Let’s back up just a little so I can really understand. Why did you and Paige support Adam to begin with? What caused you two to write comments that were, I assume, clearly counter to the consensus?”
“In a way it was luck or fate. Have you ever heard of post traumatic church syndrome?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“It’s when something major happens to cause you to question your long-held spiritual or religious beliefs. Paige’s event was in high school when her best friend killed herself. Mine was when Alex started slipping his hand down my pants. Sorry to be so blunt. Both events triggered Paige and my questioning: does the God of the Bible actually exist?”
I stood up in front of the fireplace. For some reason I was cold, like a blast of cold air had entered the room. I almost stopped our conversation to build a fire, but I didn’t. “You and Paige started questioning your faith? Right?”
“Over the next several months, he, Professor Parker, guided us through a number of experiments. We even enlisted some of our diehard Christian friends to participate. The common element in each of the experiments was an attempt to determine why a person relied on faith and not fact. To me, it seemed rather simple: if you were brought up in a community where virtually everybody believes the same way and you are conditioned to fear being ostracized (not to mention suffering eternal damnation) from that community, you don’t dare allow yourself to question. This so-called principle applied to not only Christian beliefs, but also every position the community held. For example, issues such as guns, abortion, capital punishment.”
“I see now how you and Paige might have gotten under Erica’s skin as she tried to teach Sunday School.” I said, sitting back down in my chair.
“Erica’s skin apparently wasn’t the only skin we troubled. It seems the more Adam included us in his testing’s, the more Paige and I questioned Erica in Sunday School, and the more the Facebook attacks and the pranks occurred.”
“What do you mean by pranks?” I asked.
“It became clear that Jake Stone, Lawton Hawks, Jerry Todd, Paige’s father, and probably Alex, were involved in ever increasing pranks. They became something totally different. Towards the end, right before Adam’s death, they became vicious.”
“Natalie, you’ll know soon enough, so I might as well go ahead and tell you. Adam Parker was murdered. We have recently learned that he was poisoned. It could not have been anything except murder.” I said.
“That’s no surprise at all. Paige and I have known since the Sunday Adam’s body was found, that he was murdered. Of course, we couldn’t exactly prove it, but we knew nonetheless.”
“Tell me more about the vicious attacks you mentioned.”
“Trying to run him off the road, killing his dog, breaking into his house and leaving a headless chicken on his table. I’m sure I could go on, but you see my point?”
I was about to ask Natalie a few things about Alex when Camilla walked in the back door. She had gotten off a little early and run by Walmart to buy a cake.
“Are you ready?” She asked, standing beside the refrigerator putting in a gallon of milk.
“Ready for what?” I could feel I should know what the lovely Camilla was referring to, but to save my life I was turning up blanks.
“Amy’s. Dinner.”
“Oh yea. Can I take a quick shower first?” I said looking over at a smiling Natalie. It was like she could see inside my head, clearly recognizing the thin ice I was on.
“Go ahead, but hurry.” Camilla said.
I walked upstairs to the bedroom and for some reason flipped on the TV hanging on the wall to the right of the bathroom door. As I was pulling new underwear and a tee-shirt from my chest-of-drawers, I heard, “tell us Ms. Thornton about the controversial legislation that just passed this afternoon.”
The channel was 27 and the station was Trinity Broadcasting Network out of Gadsden. I don’t know who had turned our TV to this station. I walked over and stood watching. The news anchor was interviewing a Donna Thornton with the Gadsden Times newspaper who had spent all day in Montgomery.
All I learned before Camilla came in and shooed me into the shower was that the Alabama legislature had today passed a bill that required all Alabama public school teachers to complete a six-week intensive gun use and safety course. Ms. Thornton had just mentioned the bill’s sponsor, Alex Williams, when Camilla turned off the TV and closed the bathroom door.
The Pencil-Driven Life 