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 54
During the drive back to the office I called Mark and shared with him what I had learned during my talks with Natalie and Alex. I also laid out an outline of why I thought Paige was involved with Lawton Hawks’ murder. I agreed with him that it wasn’t much more than a gut feeling, not enough to arrest her. I encouraged Mark to try and pressure Jake. I believed he would give up some valuable information in his attempt to protect Paige.
Joe dropped me by the office and I drove to the home of Jerry and Peyton Todd, hoping to find Paige. She wasn’t there. Jerry said she should be at my house with Natalie. I drove to Hickory Hollow and not only didn’t find Paige, I didn’t find Natalie. Emily had gotten home around 4:00 just as Paige and Natalie were leaving. They were headed to Amy’s with Nathan. I hustled the hundred yards or so to the Playhouse and saw Paige’s Mustang parked in the side yard next to the garage. I was surprised she had driven it since she had complained so much about its many problems. Amy answered my knock with a loud ‘come in.’ I opened the door and saw Amy sitting with Nathan in front of her gas-fireplace. In two minutes or less I learned Natalie and Paige borrowed her car and wouldn’t be back until at least Wednesday. I was about to leave when Emily walked in toting an overnight bag. Seems like she was there to help with little Nathan. All part of a grand plan apparently.
It was nearly ten-thirty when Tony called. Camilla and I, after she had gotten off from work, had driven to Guntersville to eat at Top O’ The River. We had stopped at Walmart for milk and bread, and just finished watching the ten o’clock news.
“Hey Connor, Mark wanted me to call with an update.”
“Where’s Mark? I liked Tony, but he wasn’t near the detective Mark was. Tony was great with electronics but hadn’t yet developed the skills to properly assess the technology of the human mind, especially the criminal one.
“Just left for home. He’s beat, been here since 6:00 this morning.”
“Okay, what you got?” I said, knowing it was Tony or nobody.
“Mark finally got Trevor to come in. You know the drill, no attorney, no talk. Anyway, I’ll give you a summary, but you can read Jake’s confession. I just emailed you a copy.”
“Thanks a bunch.” I said.
“Here’s the gist of it. According to Jake, it was all him, Lawton Hawks, and Kurt Prescott.”
“Kurt?” I said.
“Listen, I’m tired too. Let me give you the summary, then you read Jake’s written confession. If you have questions, call Mark tomorrow. Okay?”
“That’s more than fair.” I said.
“Paige doesn’t figure in at all. Jake denied that she had anything to do with anything, including Lawton Hawks’ murder. No Roger either. Motive, I know you’re dying to ask the ‘why’ question. Lawton and Jake killed Adam because he was a heretic. Jake’s words, he blasphemed the Holy Ghost. Jake and Kurt killed Lawton because of the Glock deal. Jake said he was about to ruin things for Alex.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“No, that’s about it.”
“There is one quick question if you don’t mind. What about Kurt? Is he being arrested?”
“Deputies just picked him up. Looks like they caught him packing a suitcase.”
“Thanks Tony. You go get some rest. You deserve it.”
“Thanks, talk later.” Mark was fortunate to have Tony. In time he will become a great detective. Heck, he’s worth his weight in gold right now. He’s electronically brilliant.
I gave Camilla a brief update, told her to go on to bed, and walked to my study. I sat down at my desk and booted up my desktop.
Tony’s email was titled ‘Cop Confesses.’ I opened it and gave it a cursory review noting one main thing. Russell had simply been a stooge. Doing a few favors for Jake and Kurt just for a few thousand dollars.
A detailed reading of Jake’s handwritten confession revealed that Roger Williams was totally oblivious to all wrong-doing. Even though it was his money that had financed both the falsification of Adam’s autopsy including the grand scheme of moving Dr. Culbert and family to Wyoming, and the purchase of the Horseshoe Creek property for Jake and Sandra, his only involvement was with Glock and trying to manipulate them, albeit legally except for over-charging for the ten acres he sold in the Industrial Park.
Jake had provided a detailed accounting of how Adam was killed. His statements all seemed to reconcile with the Snead College videotape. The cop was thorough, I had to give him that. He provided an alibi for Paige. According to Jake, Paige and Natalie were at an Eagles concert in Huntsville the night Lawton Hawks was allegedly killed. I wasn’t surprised that he knew about the triple B’s burned into Lawton’s back. Although that information hadn’t been made public, Jake was one of the first police officers on the scene after the body was discovered.
I read the confession one more time and closed my computer. I sat there another ten minutes just staring through the double French doors into the darkness. I almost verbalized my triple-shit thoughts: shit, shit, shit. This all was too damn tidy. To me, there was no way in hell Jake was telling the truth. I simply couldn’t get my mind around his motive, or the motive of him, Lawton, and Kurt. Alex had been kept behind a wall. Roger, no doubt, would be released, as would Russell, although he would face one or more much less serious charges, maybe criminal fraud at the worst. Just as bewildering was Kurt Prescott. He flat out didn’t seem like the murdering type. I shook my head and reminded myself that Jake had never said Kurt participated in any murder. His conduct, like Russell’s, was serious but not to Jake’s level.
I opened the French doors and walked out onto the balcony. It was nearly midnight before I moved away from the railing and went upstairs to bed. I don’t think Camilla ever knew I laid beside her. Finally, an hour later, I fell asleep with Paige Todd still lingering alongside every thought.
The Pencil Driven Life 