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 62
At noon, I was sitting in the Emergency Room lobby at Marshall-Medical, when Connie returned my call. “Fred, I hate to be so blunt, but your dad, he’s in the hospital.”
“I know. I’m here. They’re working with him, cat scan, something. The nurses made us wait in the lobby.” After thirty minutes at the office I had tried the number I hadn’t recognized when my phone booted back up. It was Ed, Deidre’s Ed, telling me my father had likely had a heart attack and was being taken by ambulance to the hospital. Ed had still not been able to reach Deidre, thinking she must be in surgery, still dealing with the critical nurse shortage sweeping across the country.
“You know I would come be with you, but I’m torn. I found Tyler. Kind of. He was at Luke’s. I saw them outside earlier this morning. I started to stop and talk, maybe warn Tyler, but I didn’t. I just left. I hate to tell you this. It’s such a bad time for you.”
“What? You have to tell me now.” I hated when people brought up a subject and then reneged on providing details, relevant details.
Connie finally continued: “I rode back to Gabby and Brad’s, having decided to have a little visit with Luke and Tyler. Just as I rounded the curve before your niece’s place, I saw Caleb’s puke-green van backing out of the driveway and heading the other way. Luke got my attention, standing and waving on the front porch.”
“What did Luke say?”
“He was confused why Caleb turned and drove towards Crossville and not Boaz. Luke said the pastor seemed anxious, distracted, but wanted to help Tyler through this difficult time.”
“I wished you had followed Caleb.” I said.
“I know that now, but I didn’t know Tyler was with him and thought something was wrong with Luke.” Connie seemed a little upset with me, raising her voice as to defend her actions. “What the hell would you have done?” Wow, what was going on with the normally calm Connie?
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. I probably would have done the same thing. Now that I think about it, you did exactly what I would have done.”
At 12:30, Ed gave up on reaching Deidre and called the Nurse Supervisors office at the hospital. After ending his call, he looked at me, wide-eyed and mouth-opened: “Kellie said when her and Kara returned from lunch they found a hand-written note from Deidre saying she had gotten sick and had to leave. But, half an hour later, a nurse’s aide had said she had seen Deidre leave with a tall, gray-headed woman.” My stomach did a backwards flip. It was all I could do to keep from telling Ed the truth about Deidre. I should have told him. I don’t know what he could have done but he had a right to know, especially now, the near half-century secret Deidre had kept from him.
For an hour I battled over what to do. My decision was made for me when Dr. Finlay appeared from ER and said we could see Dad in ICU but ordered us to visit one at a time and only stay a minute or so each. “Try to keep him calm.” By now, Gabby and Brad, and Luke and Miranda, were all present. All five directed me to be the first to visit Dad.
When I walked in his room I had flashbacks to earlier days when I was a boy growing up and spending time with Dad at Martin Pond. Now, Dad had tubes coming out his nose, and a series of electrical-looking wires burrowing under his hospital gown. He looked gaunt and like he had lost twenty pounds, pounds he couldn’t afford to lose. “Dad, how are you?” What a dumb ass thing to say.
It took him a while to respond but I sensed he was trying to frame a thought. “Fred, I’m dying. I know it. I can feel it in my bones. In my heart too.” Dad showed his yellow-stained teeth revealing his sense of humor.
“Don’t say that. Doctor Finlay says you can recover. You got to believe that and not give up.” I wanted to be a source of encouragement for the man who had supported me all my life, no matter what I had chosen to do.
Dad’s words were only a whisper, but they packed the rumble of thunder. “Son, there’s some things I need to get off my chest. Things you have a right to know.”
“Not now Dad, you need to rest. And, not worry about anything but staying calm.”
“Your mother and me (I almost corrected his grammar) did a horrible thing, nearly half a century ago.”
“Dad, please. I can’t stay but a minute. Doctor’s orders. Don’t worry about what happened so long ago. Focus on now, getting better.” I felt certain whatever Dad was wanting to tell me wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I had always been a pretty good lawyer, able to project things, figure out what had really happened at a crime scene, or at a car accident.
“If I hadn’t helped her, she would have gone to jail.”
“Dad, I’ve got to go.”
“No.” Dad’s whisper volume plunged. “Harriet shot Johnny Stewart. Had good reason too. Two daughters pregnant by the same asshole.” No doubt my dear father was hallucinating. Deidre was his only daughter.
“Dad just relax. Don’t talk. You’re on some powerful medicine.” Dr. Finlay had told us, and that Dad might not be fully coherent.
“Deidre. And Susan.” Dad’s voice heightened as he said Susan. Our eyes met, and I saw a reflection of my young and strong father, with dark eyes just like Papa Martin’s. My training and experience screamed that Dad had someway suppressed and secluded the effects of his medication and released a long-buried truth.
“Dad, Susan was never pregnant. We’ll talk more after a while, maybe tomorrow.” I said just as a burly nurse with a squeaky voice slipped in behind, ordering me out of Dad’s room. Two younger and smaller nurses slid past me toward the opposite side of Dad’s bed. The burly one followed me all the way to the waiting area where Ed and family all stood up as we entered.
“No more visitors for now. His blood pressure has spiked. Again.”
Almost three hours later, the same burly nurse, Greta Larson, returned and said that Dad was stable but heavily sedated. There would be no more visits today.
After I politely ordered everyone to go home, I rode the elevator to the first-floor gift shop to buy a book. It was going to be a long night. As I exited the elevator, Connie and Tyler rounded the corner, heading towards me. I suddenly had a whole new appreciation of Connie’s investigative skills. Maybe she did need to work part-time for Connor Ford.
The Pencil Driven Life 