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 Boaz Safecracker, written in 2019, is my seventh novel. I'll post a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
Book Blurb
Fred Martin, a 1972 graduate of Boaz High School, returns to his hometown after practicing law and living in Huntsville for over thirty-five years with two goals in mind. First, to distance himself from the loss of Susan, his wife of thirty-seven years who died in 2013 of cancer. And second, to partner with his lifelong friend, Noah Waters, to crack the safes of Elton Rawlins and Doug Barber, two men who got under their skin as high school football players.
Little did Fred and Noah realize the secrets the two old Mosler safes protected. Who murdered three Boaz High School seniors in the fall of 1973? Is a near-half-century-old plan to destroy Fred’s sister and steal the inheritance from a set of 44-year-old illegitimate twins still alive and well? How far would Fred’s mother go to protect her family?
What starts out as an almost innocent prank turns life-threateningly serious the more Fred learns and the more safes he cracks. All the while, he falls in love with Connie Stewart, his one-date high school classmate who may conceal a secret or two herself.
Chapter 37
I woke up Sunday morning with a dull headache and a nauseous stomach. Yesterday afternoon, while coolly dreaming under a hot shower, I had convinced myself I would wake up today, naked, with the lovely Connie similarly dressed in her king-size bed. Hopes and dreams, the earlier blessings from the gods, all had suddenly vanished.
Just as I had walked into the sun room to a smiling Connie sitting in her swing, her iPhone had rung once again. This time it was her mother announcing that Aunt Julia had suffered a stroke and was in the Emergency Room at Marshall Medical Center South. I learned quickly that Connie had a special relationship with the mother of the late Johnny Stewart. “My dear aunt, she’s suffered more than Job. Losing her only child when he was a senior in high school, and the sudden death of Uncle Bill last year, is more than she can take. I have to go be with her.”
That had ended mine and Connie’s wonderful day together. As we had been about to walk outside, her to her Camry headed to the hospital, and me to leave for home in my own car, she handed me an old photo and an equally old Alfa life insurance policy. “Angela said give these to you. She found them going through Doug’s jam-packed study. She thought you’d like the picture and could help her collect from Alfa.”
I had hardly looked at either item until I arrived home. The photo looked to have been taken at Boaz High School during the fall of 1973. What tipped me towards the correct time-frame was a large hand-lettered and painted banner along the wall behind the information desk inside the library where the photo was taken. It read: “Pirates Pound Pennington.” It was odd this brought back such a memory. Even though Susan and I were both sophomores at Auburn, I recalled how we had wanted to drive home to attend the game. It was the first time Boaz had played the Blount County School since I was in the ninth grade. The memories ran deep since I had been called on by Coach Hicks to fill in for the injured Ted Parker, or, it might have been Sidney Wheeler. How I had intercepted a pass and ran it all the way back for the winning touchdown was still my biggest mystery.
I easily recognized everyone in the photo. My dear sister sat on a leather couch between Angela Ericson and Rebecca Aldridge. Deidre was smiling but both Angela and Rebecca were wearing stern faces, maybe even scorn since their eyes were slanted toward the disliked person between them. Standing behind the couch was Johnny Stewart, Allan Floyd, and Tommy Jones. Johnny was directly behind Deidre and had his right hand on Deidre’s shoulder. I turned the photo over and read what I assumed was Angela’s printed note. The smudged ink read: “Last time I’ll ever sit beside the Deidre bitch, unless she’s on her deathbed.” Then, the writer had listed the names of everyone captured in the photo. At the bottom right hand corner was written, “photo taken by Doug Barber with Elton Rawlins’ new camera.”
I thought it impolite for the grieving Angela to have sent the photo to me. Was she trying to tell me something? It seemed that a normal, respectful person, would have kept the rude and vulgar picture to herself, and let bygones be bygones.
I was even more surprised with the Alfa life insurance policy. The contract listed Doug Barber as the insured and First Baptist Church of Christ as the policy’s owner. Another oddity. Why would this policy be in Doug’s possession? Usually, owners maintain their own property. I flipped the page and noticed that Rachel Roden was the primary beneficiary, and that Angela Ericson was the secondary beneficiary. The oddities continued. The policy was dated May 15th, 1974. Angela was at that time a senior, about to be a graduating senior, at Boaz High School. This was years before her and Doug married. Hadn’t he been married to Rachel Roden first, maybe for thirty or more years? I couldn’t keep my legal mind from activating. Why would First Baptist Church purchase a life insurance policy on Doug’s life?
I sat in my recliner most of the morning, sipping coke and nibbling on saltine crackers. A few minutes before noon, I couldn’t avoid the feelings any longer. My sickness wasn’t from yesterday’s disappointment in having to end mine and Connie’s day way too soon, or from the unsatisfying taste I had from Angela’s photo and policy. Clearly, it was caused by me dreading to walk up the road to Martin Mansion for Sunday lunch. No doubt, I was afraid to face my family, and what seemed a certain crucifixion for me brainwashing Luke.
The Pencil-Driven Life 