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 52
I didn’t tell Camilla, but I was glad she had to work today. The weight of Adam Parker’s case was weighing down on me so heavily there was no way I could spend Saturday just hanging out at Hickory Hollow with a house full of females.
It always seemed to happen this way. Every time a case reached the fourth quarter, or I thought it had, my mind chose its own way. It would latch on to a troubling question and not let me redirect my attention until I had tried my best to discover an answer. That question this morning (as it had been all during my tossing and turning last night) was centered on Paige Todd and what she had done that must be kept quiet if she expected to live a normal life.
I was sitting at Blair’s desk by 8:00 a.m. For some reason I had decided the best place to start was Adam’s database. As far as I knew, no query had been made using the keywords: Paige, Natalie, Paige and Natalie, or any other combination using their last names and any other word. My search for ‘Paige’ had turned up several hits, all from Adam’s private journals. Three of them dealt with how their relationship started and developed.
One entry caught my attention. It was dated December 24th. The two girls had come over to Adam’s for a Christmas Eve meal. This is when he had decided to tell them that he was ending their baby-making scheme. Adam wrote: “This was the first time I realized how jealous Paige was of Natalie. She said, ‘why don’t you just admit it, you are afraid I will get pregnant and that displeases you. You favor Natalie’s genes over mine.’” Adam had gone on to describe his regret over creating such a ‘monster’ as he put it.
Before continuing my reading and research I sat back and grabbed a notepad and pen. “Engage in some what-if thinking.” I could hear Bobby saying it over and over. When a good detective is knee-deep in facts, most all of which seemed disjointed, it was helpful to hypothesize. So, that’s what I tried to do. In the center of the top sheet of paper I wrote the name ‘Paige’ and drew a circle around it. I asked myself, ‘out of all the facts, both solid and those slightly flimsy, along with all the hearsay, what is the worst thing (s) that Paige could have done that would cause severe problems for her if discovered?’ I wrote out to the right side of my circle: Paige killed Adam Parker. I kept thinking. Then, I wrote out to the left of my circle: Paige killed Lawton Hawks. These were the worst things. Murder was far worse than blackmail or extortion or any other thing I could remotely imagine from my case file as it currently stood.
At that moment my stomach rolled over and I thought I was going to vomit. My mind fed me a thought I didn’t like, nor did my stomach. But, I knew it was right. I had to confront Paige and Natalie. Even at the risk of turning them against each other. Marissa was my client. I owed it to her to do whatever I had to do to learn the truth about Adam’s death.
I first wanted to talk with Natalie. It seemed I owed her since I had promised to keep secret that little Nathan’s mother was Paige. I drove to Hickory Hollow and found Natalie sitting out on the back porch with Emily. Walking up the steps I gave Emily the look, along with the nod in the direction of the side door. It was the look she understood from years of having a detective as a father. She politely excused herself and walked inside the house.
“Hey Natalie. Where’s Nathan?”
“Amy wanted to keep him a couple of hours.”
“Thanks for being so nice to Amy. She dearly loves babies. I’m sure being with Nathan helps her forget about her own troubles.”
“I like Amy a lot. It’s still hard for me to imagine why the two of you aren’t still together.”
“Let’s not go there. We don’t have a lifetime to explore that. Natalie, there’s something else we have to talk about.”
“Okay, what’s on your mind?” Natalie asked.
“I think Paige is in trouble. I think she knows something and doesn’t want it uncovered. I need you to be totally open with me.”
“I’ve told you all I know.” Natalie said.
“I’m going to talk with Paige and I may have to divulge your secret. I’m sorry.”
“No. You can’t do that. You promised.”
“I know I did but my duty is to Marissa and Adam.” I said.
“What if I told you something that helped you. Would you keep our secret? Like you promised?”
“I might, if it was relevant and led me to Adam’s killer.”
“Connor, think about it. If my secret, that Paige is Nathan’s mother, isn’t tied to your case then there is nothing to gain by you telling her.”
“I don’t know that I agree. She would know the truth, that she has a son. Seems pretty relevant to me.” I said.
“Your focus and concern should be resolving Adam’s case. Right?”
“Primarily.”
“Oh hell, what more of a mess could I make? Paige knows something about Lawton Hawks’ murder. I think she might be involved.” Natalie said, standing up and looking over the balcony railing into the woods.
“What do you know? Why would you say that?” I asked.
“The morning Hawk’s body was found behind Dollar General I saw Paige. She had missed classes and was sitting in her car in the Snead parking lot when I came out at mid-morning. She was a wreck. She asked me to come with her. We drove to the old nature park, you know, the one the City closed down because of all the drug-dealing, the one behind Summerville Homes.”
“I know where you’re talking about.” I said, trying to be patient.
“She drove to the back side of the park and we got out. Her clothes were dirty, and she said that she had done something awful. She couldn’t even speak coherently. She mentioned Lawton Hawks and Jake, her father. I asked her a dozen times to tell me what had happened. She made me promise to never tell anyone.”
“There’s something I don’t understand at all. Let’s say Paige killed Hawks or did so with Jake’s help. Why would she do that? What motive would she have had?” I asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but I suspect it was one of two things. After Adam’s death, Paige and I saw him, Hawks, at the Waffle House. You know already about the time that he and Adam got into it. This time, he was coming out when we were going inside the restaurant. He spouted off something like, “evening ladies, isn’t it a nice night? The world is such a better place without Adam Parker. Don’t you think?” This made us both madder than hell. I thought Paige was going to claw his eyes out. I had to separate them.”
“What was the other reason, or possible reason, Paige might want to kill Hawks?” I asked.
“Paige and I both knew that Hawks was trying to weasel his way in between Glock and Alex. We had learned that from Adam and Alex.”
“Let me interrupt. Alex told you that?”
“No, silly. Paige and I played some games with Alex. After our love-making. Whether he was screwing me or Paige, we snooped around after the act. Alex would always hit the shower. We would look at his cell phone. Rummage through his wallet, and if we were at his house, we pilfered in his closet and study.” Natalie said turning towards me and continuing to lean against the railing.
“You sounded like both of you were there at the same time.”
“I told you we played some games. One of them was for the one who didn’t have the date to sneak in the house while the love-making was going on. Don’t ask me the details. All I’ll say is Paige and I both had a front door key and the disabling code for his security system.”
“Gosh, ya’ll were sly. And brave.”
“I think it was a voicemail from Roger that revealed what Hawks was up to. Anyway. My guess is Paige’s motivation came more from my first reason, what had happened at Waffle House and a couple of Facebook posts Hawks made that denigrated Adam.”
At that moment my cell phone buzzed. It was Joe.
“Joe, hold on just a minute.”
“Natalie, thanks for being honest and open with me. I’ve got to run.”
“Connor, please keep your promise. I’ve given you all the information I know. Remember, my secret, our secret, divulged, will not help you with Adam’s case. Please, I need you to promise me again that you won’t tell Paige she is Nathan’s mother.” Natalie said. I had never seen her so desperate.
“I won’t reveal our secret unless it is necessary to resolve Adam’s case. That’s all I can promise.” After this statement, I got up and walked off the porch and towards the Playhouse just to get out of Natalie’s earshot.
The Pencil-Driven Life 