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 10
Monday evening was good and bad. Emily was already home when I arrived a few minutes before six. We hadn’t talked about it, but for some reason I was expecting her to show up with at least a U-Haul trailer filled with a few pieces of furniture, a ton of clothes, a couple dozen novels, and her iPad. I was right about her iPad. Surprisingly, she had only two suitcases of clothes, no furniture, and no books. Emily loved legal and crime thrillers nearly as much as I did but she declared that she was now fully committed to e-books. “They are cheaper and lighter. I can carry an entire library in my iPad.” Over pizza that Camilla had brought, the three of us spent an hour at the kitchen bar alternating our discussion between Netflix and which series we were currently watching, and how substitute writer, Reed Farrel Coleman, was doing with the Jesse Stone series after its creator, author Robert B. Parker, had died.
It had all gone downhill after I made the mistake of asking a silly question, “I wonder which came first, Jesse or Jake?” Of course, Jesse wasn’t real, but Jake was. My mention of Boaz police officer Jake Stone had prompted Camilla to mention Lawton, which precipitated Emily marching Amy onto center stage. It seems ever since Amy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, she has become sentimental, often cornering Emily and making her listen to stories from high school and the early years of our marriage. After Emily’s orientation at the hospital and during her drive to Boaz, Amy had called and shared a story about Lawton Hawks and Darlene Jenkins.
I was surprised that Emily relayed so many details, and I was surprised she didn’t already know one fact. While Amy and I were in the eleventh grade at Boaz High School, so was Lawton and Darlene. While Amy and I were spending our private time kissing and heavy petting, Darlene was sharing front row seats with Lawton. She had gotten pregnant and, in the spring of 1985, had given birth to a near perfect baby girl. Amy had either omitted telling Emily that Camilla was that child or Emily had failed to listen carefully before.
The tension had gotten so intense between Emily and Camilla, I did what I often do and asked another question. This time, it made things even worse, especially for me. I had asked Emily how Amy was doing. This is when I learned she was moving back to Boaz. My world was growing smaller and smaller. The news wasn’t totally unexpected. I had been surprised that Amy had stayed in Dothan after Brandon’s death. She was now either following Emily or me. The only good thing about the bad thing was it seemed to reconcile Emily and Camilla. I went to bed early to avoid their continual insistence that I had to “be there” for Amy as she faces such a monumental health crisis.
I was halfway through an article from Adam Parker’s light-colored briefcase Marissa had left with me. The author argued that “if fetuses are human persons, one cannot be pro-choice on abortion, just as one cannot be pro-choice on slavery and at the same time maintain that slaves are human persons.” I suspected Parker had a response but before I could read it, Camilla called my iPhone.
“Sorry about last night. I know that was difficult on you. Please know I’m fully committed to you, to us. I’ll do everything I can to help you support Amy.”
Camilla could be a hell-cat when she got her dander up but at her core she was kind, respectful, and encouraging. “Thanks, but you seem to indicate I have some moral duty to my ex-wife.” I said contemplating what my duty would be if Amy stayed in Dothan.
“You do. Mark 10:8: ‘And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.’ Now, you’re quoting scripture? I thought you’d outgrown that book.” I said, realizing how difficult it must be for a Christian to have to live with so many rules.
“In 2011, the one flesh split. We returned to twain.”
“Funny. You want to know something else that is funny, funny in a sick sort of way?” Camilla asked. I figured she was between haircuts or perms.
“Mayor Mohler was in for a haircut. He normally sees Barbara but she’s out today. I don’t think he’s made the connection between you and me.”
I just had to interrupt, comedian that I am. “Twain, you and me.”
“For now. By the way, that’s something we could talk about if you ever have time, all with Emily and Amy coming to live with you.”
“Funny. You mentioned a sick funny, what was it?” I asked.
“The Mayor, like most everybody else, was talking about the first murder in Boaz in ages. I suspect he also doesn’t know that Lawton was my father. Anyway, he said he hoped it, the murder, wasn’t some sort of ritual killing.”
“Why would he say that?” I asked.
“I was about to tell you. Quit asking questions and listen. It seems there were three B’s etched on his back.”
“Like bumblebees?”
“No stupid. The letters, alphabet. B as in boy.” Camilla said.
“Can I ask a question?”
“I doubt if I could stop you. But hurry, I have another appointment walking in.
“Did the Mayor say anything else, like what he thought the B’s stood for?” I asked.
“Nope, just said three capital letter B’s were carved, no, I think he said etched in. He did later, I think, say the B’s were burnt into the flesh.”
“Let me know if you hear anything else.”
“I will. It’s a shame, my callousness is a shame.”
Camilla didn’t give me a chance to respond. Her feelings for her father, and even her mother, were so foreign to me. I had always been close to mother and her mother, my maternal grandmother, and even though Dad and I knocked heads, I could never in a million years imagine me being so nonchalant after he passed, not to mention, if he died in such a brutal way.
I spent the rest of the day at my round table reading from both of Adam’s briefcases. I didn’t even leave for lunch, opting instead for a grilled cheese and a small bowl of vegetable soup from Pirates Cove. Blair was evolving into a real asset. These days, secretaries were eager to avoid domesticating their jobs for their boss. I was glad Blair had made it a part of her everyday routine to ask if I was hungry or needed a cup of coffee. I guess, since I was such a father-figure, she felt compelled to take care of her daddy.
At 5:30, just before I was about to leave the office, Marissa called. She relayed that Adam’s funeral yesterday had been the hardest thing she had ever endured. No doubt, her and her father were close. She said staying with her mother had been nearly as difficult as watching her father’s casket lowered into the ground. I learned that Adam and Anna Parker had divorced in 2000. According to Marissa, Anna just finally gave out; Adam had driven her crazy from his growing perfectionism. In 2001 he had left lab work and accepted a job teaching Biology at the University of Tennessee. I learned that he had stayed there until moving to Boaz in 2014 to teach the same subject at Snead State Community College. The main issue Marissa had with staying a few days with her mother was that she had become a literal hoarder since Adam moved out in 2000. “Her place stinks, books, Bibles, and garbage are everywhere. I saw several rats and no cats. I can’t believe I stayed with her.”
I shared with her a little of what was going on in my own personal life—something I rarely did with clients. “When are you coming back to Boaz?” I asked.
“Not for a while. I’m headed back to Nashville in a couple of hours. I can’t stand another night in this rat hole. Anyway, I’m a month behind at school and I’ve only been away ten days. I have two article deadlines to deal with, not to mention two courses to teach.”
“Sometimes, I’d like to hear more about your work, maybe learn something about your religious philosophy.” I said.
“My theology might surprise you. Listen, I’m needing to go but wanted to share something else, another sort of surprise.”
“Okay, I’m listening.” I said.
“Mother shared with me some email correspondence she had recently with dad. He had contacted her about his will, something about her going ahead and deeding the house to me instead of leaving it in their names and having to go through probate when the last of them died. I got the feeling that dad was somewhat anticipating his death, but I may be wrong. He may have just been his usual self, trying to plan out every little thing.”
“Estate planning is important. More people need to do it before they die or become legally incompetent.” I said.
“Sounds like a lawyer. Of course, you were one for, what, ten years?” Camilla asked.
“Actually, I’m still licensed to practice law. But, those days are over.”
“I bet you’ve got some stories to tell. Since you’re interested in my work, we’ll have to swap our fishing tales sometimes.” Marissa said.
“Seems like everybody here lately is interested in my past. I suggest we focus on learning what killed your perfectionist father.” I said.
“Okay, we’ll talk about his past and leave yours alone. Bye for now.”
After we got off the phone I made a note to visit Adam’s office at Snead. I figured that’s where he kept his computer.
The Pencil Driven Life 