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 53
“Sorry about that. I was talking with Natalie. Gained some new insights. What’s up with you?” I asked Joe looking through the trees towards the Playhouse. For some strange reason it was June of 1986 and Amy and I had just returned from our little honeymoon to Gatlinburg. We were both 18 and high school graduates for less than a month. We were so in love and believed we had the world by the tail.
“Connor, you still there?”
“Yea. What’d you say?” Those were happy days, but I couldn’t afford a visit right now.
“Alex is meeting someone at Meadowlark Farms at 4:00 p.m. today.” Joe had been on assignment for weeks. It had seemed like a waste of time. At my command he had tailed Alex Williams all over the state while he was making his final political push before the election next Tuesday. Unfortunately for us and Marissa, Joe’s diligence hadn’t produced a single shred of useful information.
“I take it Alex is in town winding down his campaigning.”
“Right. I just got back last night. Blair called me. Asked me to babysit.” He was referring to Adam’s iPad.
“Who do you think he is meeting?”
“I could hear only Alex, but my guess is that it’s Kurt Prescott.” Joe said.
“Why do you say that?”
“At one-point Alex responded to the caller by saying the books would be balanced by the audit. Later, Alex asked when the examiners would arrive. I figured they were talking about bank examiners.”
“You’re probably right. Pick me up at the office at 3:30. We’ll ride down together. I had already planned on talking to Alex. It’s time to see how he responds to some pressure.” I said.
“Roger. I mean 10-4. I’ll see you in thirty minutes.” Joe said, always trying to inject a little humor.
After Joe picked me up all we heard from Alex through the Open Curtains App was a quick and one-sided conversation, ‘I’m on my way. See you at four.’
We had approached from the direction of Aurora Road and chose correctly. We were sitting just along the crest of the hill looking towards the entrance to Meadowlark Farms when two vehicles, Alex’s Escalade and a Honda Accord, turned left towards Roger’s giant barn.
We waited ten minutes. Nothing. The App was silent. Alex and Kurt, if that’s who the other man was, were obviously out of range from Alex’s vehicle. “Let’s go. Pull up. It’s time we join the party.” I said. For the first time in this investigation, I was ready to push some buttons. Being passive just wasn’t my thing, although it was necessary to being a good detective. I’d learned that from Bobby.
“Don’t you just love the look on those two faces?” Joe said as we pulled up watching the two men standing in the front hallway entrance to the barn.
“I wish I had a camera. That photo would be worth framing. Come on. Follow my lead.” I said.
“Hello fellows. You guys lost?” Alex said, quickly transforming back into his natural bullshitter role.
“We are. And confused. Maybe you can point us in the right direction.” I said being direct and truthful.
The other man was Kurt. My mind raced to find and assemble the puzzle. I was pretty sure that at no time during the investigation had Alex and Kurt been associated. This was a new twist. Before Alex responded he motioned to Kurt and towards his Accord, like he was saying, ‘you leave and I’ll stay and deal with these two jaybirds.’
As Kurt turned and started walking towards his car I said, “why don’t you stay? Joe has a few questions for you.” I could motion too, so I gave Joe the go-ahead-and-deal-with-Kurt look. “Alex, why don’t you and I have a chat. I think your political future might be hanging in the balance.” I knew this would motivate him to have a talk.
We walked over to a picnic table in a small grove of trees to the far-right side of the barn. There was an assortment of red, yellow, brown, and purple leaves all over the benches and table top. I pushed some leaves aside and sat down. He kept standing. “Alex, sit if you like. I think it’s time you and I made a deal.”
Alex laughed out loud. “Why in the hell would I want to make a deal with you?”
“Good question. If you don’t give a rat’s ass about who wins the governor’s race, then you could care less about what I have to say. Well, maybe you would if you valued your freedom and/or that of your father.”
“Okay, let’s hear it. What’s on your mind?” Alex asked.
“Let me first say and I hope you’ll believe me, I have some information that I plan on sharing with Donna Thornton. She’s a friend of mine. She’s also a reporter with The Gadsden Times. If I hurry I think she could get an article in tomorrow’s edition.”
“What information?”
“Slow down. Governor, you’ve got to pay to play. I need you to share with me who killed Adam Parker. I believe you know.” I thought it best to tell him exactly what I wanted to know, first, without divulging why I think this.
“Oh shit. Again? We’ve been down this trail already. I’ve told you I don’t know a thing about Parker’s death.”
“You need to know I don’t have much patience with liars. By the way, exactly how close is the governor’s race. From what I hear its neck and neck. Wouldn’t you think the revelation of one more affair might tip the scales away from you?”
“That would be a lie.” Alex clearly didn’t have any scruples. So much for his ‘Conservative, Christian, Character’ mantra.
“Alex, I know about Paige. I also know a boatload more than that. Let me assure you, your lust for young and beautiful girls is not even close to the worst of your troubles.”
“She seduced me. It was not like with Natalie at all.” Alex said.
“Oh, thank you. Then, I best go, because that resolves everything. I’m sure that’ll persuade every Alabama voter you are lily white. The thought of that young lady seducing the fine upstanding Alex Williams.” I loved sarcasm.
“You son of a bitch. In any other world, I would squash you like a bug.” Now, finally, Alex was being open, honest, himself.
“Unfortunately for you, that other world has floated away. Let me ask you a question, in our present world, how much do you care for dear old dad?” I asked. Alex now chose to sit across from me. He didn’t bother with the leaves.
“He’s the best father in the world. What’s happening to him is a travesty. You’ll see.”
“Was it him or you or both of you who had Natalie kidnapped and held against her will?”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“Okay. Then it was Roger. What about falsifying Adam’s autopsy? What about Horseshoe Creek, LLC? Ever heard of that?” I figured I’d just keep asking questions.
“Connor, you can keep lobbing your softballs but none of them are getting close to the plate.”
“Okay, let’s see. What about Lamar Kilpatrick? You and he are big buds, right?”
“I know Mr. Kilpatrick. Politically.”
“Have you received your big Glock kickback?” I hoped this one soared across his plate.
“Again, you have no evidence.” Alex, I had to admit, didn’t crack easily.
“Oh, by the way, how much of that do you have to pay Russell? How about dear old dad?”
“You might as well stop. I’m not telling you anything. Because, I don’t know anything relevant to your investigation.” Alex said.
“Okay. That’s a good place to end. Joe and I’ll be going now. Good luck with next Tuesday’s election. Please don’t blame me if it doesn’t turn out the way you want.” I got up, turned, and started walking back towards Joe’s car.
I took maybe ten steps when Alex hollered, “what kind of deal can we make?”
I returned to the picnic table but kept standing. “As I indicated, I’ll not call my reporter friend if you’ll be honest with me. By the way, if I find out you lied to me, even after you’re sitting in the governor’s office, I’ll spill more beans than you can clean up in four years. And, that assumes you survive an impeachment indictment.”
“Sit down, this may take a while.” Alex said, not sounding quite as arrogant. “Dad has always been my number one fan, even more so than Erica. Part of his job, as he saw it, was to clear a path for me. Anything that had the power or ability to stop my political career, Dad would handle. He was the master fixer.”
“Let me interrupt. I need facts, facts relevant to the death of Adam Parker.”
“That’s what I was about to say. Dad intentionally built that wall between us. That was to protect me if he ever got into trouble. It would be all him, and zero about me.”
“Let me tell you. That trick is not going to work. You know things. I know things too, don’t forget.” I was beginning to believe this conversation was going nowhere.
“Connor, in a sense, I’m like you. I’ve had to try to put this puzzle together. Most of what I know is from hearsay, just rumblings.”
“Tell me.” I said.
“Adam Parker was too perfect. He knew too much. That threatened me, my career. Roger dealt with it.”
“I need to hear more details. But first a question. The videotape clearly shows Lawton Hawks with Adam right before he is killed and shows him helping another man put Adam into his car. Dead. Lawton and Roger were opposing parties, both wanted to land the Glock deal. Why was Lawton helping your father?” I asked.
“If that’s what happened, and I’m not saying it did, Lawton would have been trying to play both sides to the middle as they say. He had become delusional about the power landing the Glock deal could do for his own political career. You may not know it but he was planning on running for State Senator.”
“Okay, back to the details.”
“I suspect Jake Stone is Dad’s sidekick, the one who gets his hands dirty. Dad has used him before.”
“Between me and you and those fence posts over there, is it your belief that your father is the chief instigator in Adam’s death?” I asked.
“Yes.” I was a little surprised with Alex’s short answer.
“One other question and please remember my promise, how are you planning on balancing the books at Sand Mountain Bank?” I was proud of how I broached this subject.
“I’m not following you.”
“Uh, let me remind you that is Kurt Prescott over there speaking with my partner. Alex, I know quite a bit more than you might think or imagine.” Surely, that would motivate him to come clean.
“Kurt is another fan. He went alone with a little scheme of mine. The Horseshoe Creek deal was my idea.”
“You had Kurt transfer money from your Dad’s account to the LLC which you fraudulently created. Why? Let me guess. To make it look like Roger paid off Jake Stone?” I asked. “Sounds like you were trying to frame your dear old dad.”
“I had to. He was cozying up to my bastard brother, offering him a third of his empire. Russell didn’t deserve it.” Alex said, rising and now sitting on top of the picnic table. Leaves and all.
“What about the autopsy? Kurt transfer that money without Roger’s knowledge?”
“I don’t have a clue. If he did, I don’t know anything about it.” I didn’t know whether to believe Alex or not.”
“Okay, I think I’ve been clear. You lie to me, I talk. Loud. One other thing. When are you going to start paying your child support? Little Nathan is over a month and a half old. I’d say a few thousand dollars is past due.”
“I agree. I’ll drop a check by your office on Monday. Do me a favor. Have Natalie call me to discuss how we’re going to handle custody and each of our visitation rights.”
“Why don’t I just have little Nathan waiting on you at the office on Monday?” I asked, knowing there was no way in hell Alex wanted custody.
“I get your point.” He got up off the table and started walking back to his Escalade.”
This time, I hollered at him. “Alex, truth only. If you think of anything else to fully answer any of my questions here today, you best call me.”
He just looked back and didn’t respond.
The Pencil-Driven Life 