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 39
Bobby Sorrells had once told me that everything I needed to solve a case was closer than I could imagine. He had gone on to say that key evidence is like air molecules, it’s floating all around us.
About a week ago Camilla and I were sitting out on the back porch where I had tried, unsuccessfully, to crawl in the hammock with her. She said that just because she was lying down wasn’t necessarily a signal she wanted me to join her. For some reason our little exchange had triggered a memory. She said that just because a girl drives a van doesn’t mean she is looking for a shagging. It was an odd statement for Camilla to make. I had almost let it go but curiosity got the best of me. I asked her was she thinking about buying a van. She said no, but she had one in high school.
The air molecules were floating around. From my continued probing Camilla revealed that her father had given her a van on her sixteenth birthday. That was May 11, 2001. The van was a 1998 Nissan Quest and it was tan-colored. She had driven it throughout the remainder of high school and halfway through nursing school at UAB. Around 2005 or 2006 the van started giving her trouble and her father had helped her buy a used Impala. Camilla didn’t know what had happened to the van but figured her father had eventually sold it.
I had spent the past week, off and on, trying to learn what Lawton Hawks had done with Camilla’s van. I knew it had to be more than a coincidence that the van used to deliver the dead Adam Parker back to Snead College and his parked car was also a tan-colored Nissan Quest van. Darlene, Camilla’s mother, had been helpful. She recalled that Lawton had kept the van parked in their back yard (this was before they divorced) for months and finally carried it to Sand Mountain Transmission. They put a new transmission in it but Lawton wouldn’t ever go pick it up and pay for it.
I had gone to Sand Mountain Transmission and learned that after they had threatened to sue Lawton he had titled the car to them for a $1,000, and they had eventually sold it. When I asked him who bought it, Sam told me, in colorful language “that asshole cop, Stone, Jake Stone bought it.” Again, the air molecules had pushed some evidence my way. Now, I wasn’t for certain, but it seemed the old Nissan van used to transport the dead Adam Parker was owned by Jake Stone. I was surprised that Sam had been able to give me a copy of the van’s title. He was that much like Adam, both good record-keepers.
Right before lunch Blair paged me and said that Erica Williams was here and would like to see me. Finally. It had been almost two weeks since I had met with her. I told Blair to bring her to the conference room.
“Hey Erica. How are you?” I asked as I pulled out a chair for her.
She put her purse on the floor and sat down. I couldn’t help but notice her windblown look: independent hair and a blistered face. I also noticed her sun-tanned legs supporting nicely fitting short pants. I could have gotten distracted. Then she spoke. “First, I want to apologize. I know I promised to call you last week. Reece and I have been in Gulf Shores for nearly two weeks. I just had to get away. Alex didn’t take the news very well.”
“You told him you were leaving him?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I hope the trip was good for you and your son. How’s he making it?”
“Better. I think. But, he still talks nearly non-stop about Emma and Ella. For a seven-year-old, in many ways, he’s stronger than I am.”
“What are your plans?”
“Mom and Dad want me to come home. That’s not going to happen.”
“Where’s home?”
“Fayette, Alabama. The arm-pit of west Alabama. Poor, poor area. There’s no future there for Reece. Me either.”
“How did you and Alex meet? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“At Tuscaloosa. I could never have gone to college without my scholarship. We met freshman year in an English class. Him, the confident, outgoing, girl-chaser. Me, the homely little country girl. If the professor hadn’t made the students sit in alphabetic order I would have never crossed his radar. Erica Willette.”
“You must be a comedian because you are the furthest thing from homely. I hope you don’t take that as being too forward.” I said.
“Thanks for the compliment. You’re sweet. And, probably busy or ready for lunch. I just wanted to come by and apologize. Oh, I also wanted to give you this.” She reached down to the floor for the large purse she had brought in.” It’s today’s Gadsden Times. I wanted to make sure you saw an article that might strike your fancy.”
Erica opened the newspaper to the fifth page and folded it over. The article was titled, “Glock Siblings Visit Boaz.” I scanned it, learning that Gaston and Ginny Glock, brother and sister, had visited Boaz yesterday to work out the final details for the upcoming ground breaking for their multi-million-dollar facility to be built in the Boaz Industrial Park next door to the Rand Corp. I figured the Sand Mountain Reporter would also have something to say about this, but it wouldn’t arrive until after Blair picked it up at the Post Office during her lunch hour. Also, I should have already heard this from Garrett, but he had to bail out on breakfast this morning. Sick stomach.
“The article mentioned all three of the Williams’ being present: Roger, Alex, and Russell. Question. I have heard that Russell and Gaston were or are friends, that Russell worked for Glock in Smyrna. Right?” I asked.
“It’s kind of a long story but I’ll summarize. Several years ago, Russell met Ginny, Gaston’s sister, at a drug rehab facility in Cave Springs, Georgia. Obviously, they both had a drug problem. The two hit it off and Virginia, she goes by Ginny, introduced Russell to her brother. A year or so later, Gaston offered Russell a job at their Smyrna, Georgia plant. That’s the short of it and you can easily conclude that’s how Alex got a door into Glock Manufacturing.”
“That’s a little surprising given the bad blood between Russell and Alex. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. Has the Glock project smoothed that over, or did I just hear a rumor?”
“It’s a lot more than rumor. The competition, maybe even hatred, runs deep. Roger always favored Alex. He was smart enough to recognize his meal ticket and future opportunities lay with his father. Rich Roger. Russell, as the wild child, always butted heads with Roger. This didn’t mean Roger didn’t help Russell. If it hadn’t been for Roger, Russell would probably still be in prison from drug charges. The big divide came when Roger updated his will and estate plan and pretty much cut Russell out. With one stipulation. He had to prove himself. After the Glock project set sail it looked like, even to Alex, that Russell had earned his wings so to speak. But Roger didn’t see it that way. I truly don’t know who Russell hates more. Roger or Alex. All three are trying to keep things halfway civil until the Glock deal is final.”
“I thought it was final.” I said.
“I don’t think the money has changed hands.”
“You’re speaking of payment for the ten acres Roger sold Glock?” I asked.
“You sure are gullible for a private detective.” Erica said revealing her beautiful smile.
“How so?”
“I suppose it shouldn’t be public knowledge, but Glock is set to make, let’s say, a significant contribution to Alex’s political campaign. And, I don’t know for sure, but I would bet there is a pile a money for Alex, all of them, if Glock gets the contract to arm every public-school teacher in America.”
I was about to ask Erica more about the controversy between Alex and Russell when her iPhone vibrated. “Sorry, I’m going to have to go.”
“Problem?” I asked.
“No, it’s my mother. She’s out in the car with Reece and he’s ready for lunch. Mother really doesn’t know how to manage him without me around.”
“Good to hear your mom’s in town.”
“Thanks. She’s a fish out of water around the Williams’ but her and Dad are about the only people in the world I can trust.”
“I hope to earn your trust. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you.” I said as I walked Erica out the back door of the office.
The Pencil-Driven Life 