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 32
I couldn’t wait to get to the office. Late yesterday afternoon Dalton had called and said he was expecting to receive by courier a copy of Roger Williams’ second deposition first thing Tuesday morning. This entire scenario was sheer luck if it was anything.
A couple of weeks ago, over lunch, Dalton had said his Sand Mountain Bank case had become more complicated. Roger Williams had counter-sued the Bank and Kurt Prescott for defamation. Roger claimed that Kurt, as an individual and in his role as the Bank’s President, had said he was a crook and a con, that he had paid out a fortune over the years to bail out his two sons from certain shipwreck, and even claimed that Kurt had accused him of having contributed to the death of Adam Parker.
Normally, in a civil case, depositions are taken once. Around two months ago, Dalton had taken Roger’s deposition. Those questions had all dealt with the Bank’s lawsuit alleging Roger had and was continuing to violate his investment contract by overstepping his authority. But now, Judge Broadside had granted Roger’s motion to amend his Answer, his response to the Bank’s original Complaint. Since there were now new issues in the case, the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure expand the right of parties to depose. Again, luck or fate had opened a door of opportunity and Dalton had gone along with my idea. It was a no-brainier since my questions for Roger, via Dalton, were relevant to his defense of Kurt and the Bank. Dalton’s need, even duty, to carefully probe the veracity of what Roger was alleging in his counterclaim was nothing but a gift for my investigation. At least, that’s what I thought two weeks ago.
At 8:30 I was at my desk reading the mornings news when Blair walked in and handed me a package. “Debbie just dropped this off, said give it to you.” The large Bearden, Tanner, Martin & Lewis label on the thick envelope told me this was Roger’s deposition.
Inside the front cover Dalton had placed a sticky note listing the relevant pages, the places where he had asked the questions I had requested he ask of Mr. Roger Williams. On Page 8, “In 2014 did you pay $125,000 to a Ben and Dorothy Taylor of Guntersville, along with their daughter Gabby in exchange for their silence over your son Alex’s affair that resulted in Gabby’s pregnancy?” At first, Roger denied the accusation. After Dalton showed him a copy of the confidentiality agreement (thanks Adam Parker), Roger had no choice but to agree. Dalton never was able to get Roger to agree that Alex had forced Gabby to have an abortion, since that was never mentioned in the Agreement.
On Page 11, Dalton had asked, “How much did you pay Jake Stone, Sandra Goble, and Natalie Goble for their silence from Alex Williams affair with Natalie and the resulting pregnancy?” Roger denied paying any money, even denied all knowledge concerning the affair. Since Dalton and I weren’t so fortunate as to have a copy of this Agreement, there wasn’t much Dalton could do to pressure Roger to tell the truth. Of course, this money might not have come from him. Alex himself may have purchased this silence with his own money.
On Page 14, Dalton asked, “do you know Dr. Harry Culbert?” Roger denied knowing him. Dalton expanded this question to include Bart Collins. After about a dozen questions related to the Adam Parker autopsy performed by Dr. Culbert, his sudden move to Wyoming, money and real estate transferred to him, and the falsification of the autopsy report, Dalton gave up. There simply was no way Roger was going to admit any knowledge of anything even remotely connected to the death and cover-up of Adam Parker.
Dalton didn’t fare any better with questions concerning Glock, Inc., or the recent abduction of Natalie and her imprisonment at Roger’s lake house. Roger denied all knowledge of any kickback scheme related to Glock. The only thing he admitted was that Glock had purchased from him a ten-acre tract of land beside Rand Corp in the Boaz Industrial Park. The purchase price was three million dollars, which, to me, was clearly excessive.
The next six questions dealt with Roger’s involvement with his son Russell’s criminal cases. After reading the first two, I saw the pattern. Roger denied that he had played any role in the sweet deals that Russell had obtained from the Marshall County District Attorney’s office. He denied making any direct or indirect payments to anyone. The only thing that came close was his payment of $50,000 to DA Abbott’s last campaign. Dalton had someway been able to learn this but was unable to tie this to the favorable dispositions of any one of Russell’s cases.
After rereading every one of Roger’s responses to the questions I had proposed, I couldn’t help but wish I had known two weeks ago about his involvement with Tommy Lee Gore. Since I just learned about this last Sunday, I would have to depend on Goldstein’s efforts, and my own, to determine the extent of their relationship.
After my review of Roger’s supplemental deposition, I was disappointed I hadn’t learned more.
I couldn’t believe I had spent nearly ten hours yesterday at Albertville’s Main Street Music Festival. Someway, I had allowed Camilla and Emily to convince me I needed to relax and celebrate our Nation’s birthday. Not only had my girlfriend and daughter entrusted me with protecting Natalie, they had insisted I needed a day away from Hickory Hollow. The conspiracy had continued. The two beautiful ladies concluded my size, strength, and skills uniquely qualified me for the best choice to push my dear ex-wife’s wheelchair among and around half the folks on Sand Mountain.
Today, all I wanted to do was sit in my office and see if our air-conditioning system could soothe my sunburned head, neck, and arms. I wished I had worn a hat so now I might not feel like a grilled hamburger.
At 9:00 a.m., I had Blair walk across the street to Pirates Cove and buy me a large tea. “I got you extra lemon.”
“Thanks.” Blair poured the tea from the large Styrofoam cup into my Alabama Crimson Tide thermos already sitting on my desk. “Gloria said it’s okay to bring my own thermos.”
“I know. I forgot. Oh, Garrett said to give this to you.” I had noticed Blair had a newspaper cupped under her arm when she walked in.
“He still at the Cove? A little late for him.” I said.
“He was sitting with that group of old codgers who spend half their morning drinking coffee and solving the world’s problems. Garrett said for you to look at page two.”
After Blair left, I scanned the first page with about a dozen snapshots of yesterday’s fireworks show in Gadsden along the Coosa River. When I flipped to page two, I saw an article titled, “Alex Williams is Pro-Kerry.” There was a photo of Alex superimposed with Kerry Arnold who is President Kane’s Supreme Court choice to fill the slot being vacated by the retiring Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The article told of Williams speech yesterday at an early morning political rally in Birmingham where he was asked if he thought Kerry would be confirmed by the Senate. After answering in the affirmative, another questioner had asked Williams what he thought about Tuesday’s firing of the Deputy Director of the CIA and four of his subordinates.
The article quoted Alex as saying, “I think the President was absolutely correct in cleaning out those despicable rogues. They are a disgrace to our Christian nation.” The reporter’s last paragraph got my attention. “The Gadsden Times has confirmed the five CIA employees fired were secretly working on a project they had dubbed ‘Climate Change,’ and that three of the five were former University of Tennessee students who had earned their PhD’s with the controversial Kramer Dickson as their faculty advisor. The reporter said all her efforts to contact and interview Mr. Dickson had so far failed.
After reading the article a second time I laid the newspaper to the side of my computer and returned to catching up on the news on Flipboard. One of the featured stories was the CIA firing. It had taken place late Tuesday afternoon, and given yesterday being the Fourth of July, either the story had gotten buried or I just hadn’t paid attention. The Flipboard article from NBC News said that ‘Climate Change’ was simply a code or a cover for the true intent of the dismissed group of five. After an inspection of their files, both physical and electronic, it was discovered the five rogues (there’s that word again) believed the greatest threat to our Nation was the lack of interest in and commitment to following the truth where ever it led. The five had written a paper titled, “A Plea for Sanity” which not only addressed the need to confront and contend with the threat posed by weather changes, but the threats from an unwillingness by a majority of Americans to rationally discuss science theories related to guns, abortion, and religious myths.”
Once again, I reread. The mention in the Gadsden Times of Kramer Dickson and now the NBC words that sounded as though Adam Parker could have written them, triggered my request to Blair for her to run a query in her Evernote database. I asked her to see if the abbreviation, ‘CIA,’ or the phrase, ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ were mentioned in the thousands of pages she had scanned and organized for me in the Adam Parker investigation. It didn’t take long. As soon as I returned from the restroom I heard her yell. “Conner, come here. Quick.” I was glad there was no one else in the office.
I nearly jogged down the long hallway to her office. “What is it?” I asked.
“Look here. These are notes from Adam’s office computer. You know, from the “Deep State” folder I found. I now have all those files loaded in my Evernote database. When I ran a search on ‘CIA,’ several entries popped up.”
“Open up that first one.” I said. She did and we both read it together. Then, I had Blair print out this note and the other five. I walked to the conference room and spread all six notes out on the table and read them in the order Adam had written them. I could hardly believe what I had discovered. The so-called “Rogue Five” had hired Kramer Dickson and Adam Parker and were using their research to develop a theory. The theory was embodied in the project titled, ‘Climate Change.’ It seemed three of Kramer’s former students, all who were at UT at the same time as Adam Parker, had gone to work for the CIA and had been, along with the Deputy Director, commissioned by President Kane to do two things. One, determine why most Americans did not believe human conduct was causing changes in the earth’s climate, and second, whether there is a link between that reason and Christianity?
In the last document, which was the most recent in time, Adam had described a physical meeting he and Kramer had with ‘Team CIA,’ his phrase. Apparently, the four men and three women had met two months before Adam’s death in a hotel in Mount Ida, Arkansas, a town of about 1,000, and as Adam wrote, “as far out in the sticks as we could find.” At that meeting, Adam referenced his and Kramer’s recent confirmation that their hypothesis concerning God and guns were about as central to Southern Baptist Christianity as Jesus and the Resurrection. The note listed eighteen states, including Alabama, where the Republican candidates for governor were all committed to pushing legislation that required the teaching of Creationism in high school science classes and to oppose all efforts to regulate the ownership and possession of guns.
Reading this final note spawned for the first time, the thought that what was going on in Alabama was going on throughout America. I couldn’t help but wonder whether Kramer Dickson was in danger. I had long ago convinced myself that Adam was killed because of his research. I made a mental note to ask Garrett what he knows about Mr. Dickson and whether he and Gina are continuing Adam Parker’s research.
The Pencil Driven Life 