Write to Life blog

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 49

I had spent all Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning on the phone, back and forth, with Mark and Tony.  No doubt, Roger Williams was a powerful man.  His hands, rather his money, was all over every relevant person standing between his freedom and his arrest.  Every one of them was a Republican.  DA Abbott, Judge Broadside, Sheriff Walls, and Alabama’s Attorney General Scott Johnson.  All had benefited from Roger’s deep pockets. 

It was AG Johnson’s ultimate decision that tipped the scales against the Williams family.  He was a true politician and all politicians are true opportunists.  Johnson had his eyes set on running against newly elected Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones in 2020.  Johnson knew that if it ever became public he had stonewalled the arrest and investigation into criminal wrongdoing by Roger Williams, his chances to uphold his Conservative, Christian, Character mantra would be forever tarnished.

According to Mark, AG Johnson had driven up from Montgomery late yesterday afternoon and met briefly with DA Abbott.  This morning, there had been non-stop meetings at the Sheriff’s Department with Sheriff Walls, Mark and Tony, Dalton, and Roger’s attorney, Richard Jaffe of Birmingham.  Jaffe was the top criminal defense attorney in Alabama according to publicity and the number of capital murder cases he had handled and won. 

Mark had shared how, in a joint meeting earlier today, DA Abbott had shared that his office had a lot of secondhand information that implicated Roger in wrongdoing, including the gun maker Glock.  But the strongest audio-recorded evidence against him revealed his willingness to pay hush money to a man who was involved in the abduction and imprisonment of Natalie Goble, a young woman pregnant by the suspect’s married son.  Abbott also shared how Roger furnished (absent any good reason) nearly three quarters of a million dollars to Jake Stone, the man Russell alleged had killed Lawton Hawks.  In the end, shortly before noon, it was Dalton’s presentation to DA Abbott and AG Johnson of an email from Roger to Russell that turned the tide.

The email included the statement: “Persuade Gaston to come to Boaz and your financial future will be secure, including equal standing with Alex in my will and trust.”  Most relevant to AG Johnson was Roger’s post script: “P.S. Remember what we discussed about Lawton.  He can ruin everything. He must be neutralized.  Try talking first.”

At 12:15 p.m., Roger Williams was arrested at Grumpy’s Diner in Boaz.  He and his wife Denise, and their grandson Reece, were just finishing lunch and walking outside to leave.    

After Mark’s final call reporting Roger’s arrest, I decided to take my afternoon drive a couple of hours early.  Certain, I needed to clear my head.  I don’t know why I automatically drove Highway 168 east and turned right on Bruce Road.  I guess I just had to see for myself what Roger’s money was being transformed into.  After crossing Horseshoe Creek, I turned left through the open gate and drove across the now well-trodden pasture and into the woods far enough to see a half-dozen trucks, many pulling boxed trailers filled with tools and building materials.  The house was even more impressive than I had expected.  The giant two-story with three-car garage stuck out like a sore thumb.  Jake Stone is a police officer.  Sandra Goble is a bank vice-president and non-beneficiary of Sarah’s will.  It just didn’t fit.  Of course, I already knew that.

On my drive back to the office Blair called and said Erica was waiting for me.  “She doesn’t have an appointment, but she says it’s urgent.”  I assured Blair it was okay.  I told her to sit Erica in the conference room and give her some coffee.  I would be there in five or six minutes.

“Lamar Kilpatrick, I knew I had seen his name.”  Erica said immediately as I entered the conference room.

“Hi Erica.  Nice to see you.  Your statement.  Give me some context.  I know Kilpatrick.  I know of him.  He’s now the Deputy Director of the CIA, second only to Director Gina Haspel.”

“I now know.  When I saw the newspaper, I knew I had seen his name, or an identical name, in Alex’s iPhone, in his Contacts.”

“Which newspaper?”  I asked.

“Today’s Birmingham News.  I picked it up at Grumpy’s.  Sorry, I’m not making any sense.  It was kind of shocking to see your father-in-law arrested.  I had followed him and Denise there.  They had come to carry Reece to lunch.  Ever since Emma and Ella’s death I have been overly protective.  I sat in the far corner.  They never saw me watching them.”

“Back to the newspaper.”  I said.

“Oh, here it is.  I swiped it.”  Erica pulled it from her purse and handed it to me.

I unfolded it and saw, on the front page, above the fold, a photo of Lamar Kilpatrick.  That’s what the caption read.  I had never seen him.  In person or in photo.  He was a tall and thin man with graying and receding hair.  His dark suit looked like it was a couple of sizes too large.

“He’s coming out of the Capital Building in D.C.”  Erica said.

“The article says he testified yesterday before the Senate’s Intelligence Committee.”  I kept scanning the article.

“The reporter interviewed Senator Richard Burr, he’s the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.”  Erica seemed to have almost memorized the article, so I sat it aside.

“I have trouble reading and listening at the same time.  Tell me about the article.  What got your attention?”  I asked.

“He, Burr, said that he and his committee had been surprised to hear that Kilpatrick had failed to report his investigation into the Rouge Five when he had discovered it nearly three years ago.  The Rouge Five was the media name that had attached like a magnet to the former Deputy Director of the CIA and four of his subordinates who were conducting a clandestine operation dubbed ‘Climate Change.’  Burr and his committee grilled Kilpatrick about how he had persuaded the newly appointed CIA Director to immediately fire the five and disband their investigation.”

My interest in Erica’s summary was something less than apathetic, so I forced my politeness.  “Do you believe this is someway tied to Roger?”  I thought this was a good way to bring what had happened yesterday in Washington, D.C. down to Main Street in Boaz.

“How would I know?  But, the last paragraph caught my attention.  It mentions Alex and a ton of other state governor candidates.”

That got my attention as well.  “What does Alex and his peers have to do with Kilpatrick and the CIA?”  I asked.

“Kilpatrick apparently testified about the Rouge Five’s documentation that had revealed a conspiracy among all these Republican candidates for governor to push Creationism and guns.”  Erica said.

“Push them.  How?”  I asked.

“Make them mandatory in their respective states.  Public schools would be required to teach Creationism, and all public school teachers would tote a pistol.”

“I suspect the Rogue Five contended these requirements, this conspiracy of sorts, was relevant to their ‘Climate Change’ project?”  I asked.

“Yes, Kilpatrick testified how Adam Parker and Kramer Dickson’s research supported this, Creationism and guns, that they were a natural outgrowth of their closed-mind, head-in-the-sand theory that was most likely rooted in religion, or at least partially.”

“Does the article say anything else about Alex?” 

“Not really.  But, it did seem to paint him as the ring-leader.  I concluded this because the article didn’t mention any other governor candidate by name.”

Erica then received a call on her iPhone.  She relayed that Denise Williams asked her to come pick up Reece, that she needed to drive to Guntersville.

In less than two minutes Erica was gone.  I read the full article three times.  I loved the title: “Changes for Climate Change.”

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 48

One thing that had created so much of my trouble in the war room over the weekend was real estate, an eighty-acre tract on Bruce Road owned by Sandra Goble and Horseshoe Creek, LLC.  If Erica had been correct, that Sandra’s mother had left her a boat-load of cash, why would Roger William’s limited liability company be part owner of Sandra and Jake’s dream home?

Finally, by Monday morning, I had figured out what I needed to do.  It was a hunch and probably a long shot, but a will, that is, a person’s last will and testament, normally had to be probated.  This is a formal process supervised by the local probate court.  If a person dies owning property, there is a formal process of transferring that ownership to the deceased person’s heirs.  That process is known as probate.  On my drive to Guntersville, I realized a lot of people make special efforts to avoid probate, by doing things, before death, such as creating joint ownership of bank accounts and real estate with their children.  If Sarah Goble had done this, then her will probably wouldn’t be at the courthouse.

Judge Mitchell’s secretary was reluctant to even admit Sandra Goble’s will had been probated.  I knew that Alabama was one of twenty-eight states that treated wills, and all other documents at the probate judge’s office, as public records.  After a few minutes of back and forth with the bitchy secretary, she finally acquiesced, pulled the Goble file, and insisted I sit at a corner table in the Judge’s office while I inspected the will.

It was a quick task.  Sarah Brown Goble had left all her property, other than her tangible personal property, to the Natalie Suzanne Goble Trust.  The law considered a trust like a living person.  It’s a separate legal and taxable entity, like a corporation.  It was, in a sense, like Sarah had left her assets to Natalie Goble herself, but with special instructions to a trustee to make distributions on a clearly stated schedule.  My guess was that Natalie would receive some of the trust’s income on a periodic basis.  The principal of the trust would be distributed, my guess, as Natalie aged into a mature adult.  The problem for my task was the trust was simply a beneficiary.  Sarah’s will did not include any details about the trust.  She, more likely her lawyer, had created that entity before or at the same time he created her will.  The Probate Judge’s office wouldn’t necessarily have any information on the details of the trust. 

I left Judge Mitchell’s office and walked across the hall to the Records room.  This is where deeds, judgments, and all types of documents were entered into the formal records of the County.  I knew there was no requirement that a trust document, one that created a trust, had to be recorded.  I sat at a computer and quickly learned Marshall County had no record of the Natalie Suzanne Goble Trust.  I made a mental note to ask Dalton, Sarah’s will writer, whether he had also prepared the trust.  I knew he wouldn’t tell me since that would be a violation of the attorney-client privilege.

After leaving the third floor of the courthouse, I walked across the street to see if Mark was in and to hopefully get an update.  I nearly walked out in front of an oncoming car as I pondered the information I had just discovered: Sandra and Jake would likely not have had the money to purchase the eighty acres and build a mansion.  I wondered if Sandra had known about the trust before her mother had died.  The relevant question remained: why would Roger Williams give or loan Sandra and Jake a shit-pot full of money?

After being buzzed back to ‘Investigations’ by the receptionist, Tony told me Mark was with Sheriff Walls.  “He shouldn’t be long.  Sit.  Want some coffee?”

I accepted, and Tony walked across the large open room filled with a dozen or so heads talking on phones and staring at computer screens.  When he returned he asked if Mark had told me the news about Lawton Hawks.

“No.  What news?”  I asked.

“Russell’s been singing like a bird.  I guess he’s decided he favors freedom over family.”  Tony said blowing on his hot coffee.  I’d already burned my mouth on the blazing brew.

“What’s his story?”  I asked.

“That Lawton was about to screw up the Glock deal and got himself killed.”  Tony said, walking back across the room to a giant refrigerator.  I followed him.

“Russell knew this because of his friendship with Gaston Glock?”

“You want some ice?”  Tony had removed a few cubes from the freezer.

“No.  Thanks.”

“According to our bird, Lawton got greedy.  He wanted credit for bringing the giant gun maker to Boaz.  He also wanted a kickback to persuade the City to sweeten the pot, waive some taxes and finance about a half-million dollars of land prep.”

“Any way to verify Russell’s statements?”  I asked.

“That’s why Mark is with Sheriff Walls.  Mark wants to take a trip to Smyrna, Georgia and meet with Gaston Glock face to face.  That won’t happen right now.  Too much other to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Russell is arguing Jake is Lawton’s killer.  Something even bigger.  He, Russell, is about halfway to throwing his father under the bus.  Talks are now at a standstill until the DA decides if he’s ready to make a deal.  Your buddy Dalton has Abbott over a barrel.  If I had to bet, Roger, maybe Roger and Alex, put the rub on councilman Hawks.”  Tony said downing about half his coffee.

“It’ll take much more than Russell’s word to lock up Roger Williams.”  I said.

“Russell vows he can deliver the goods, says he can prove everything he’s arguing.  Of course, that might just be bullshit.

When Mark returned I shared what I had learned from the Probate Judge’s office.  He acted like I had given him a new Corvette for his birthday. “Thanks man, I’ll get a copy of that and set up another interrogation with Jake’s attorney.”

“Here, save you a little time,” I said, handing him a copy of Sarah Goble’s will.

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 47

Sunday morning Camilla and I went to the hospital.  Late yesterday, Dr. Ireland said Natalie would be discharged in the morning if her blood pressure remained stable. 

I welcomed a change of scenery.  Since early Saturday morning I had virtually camped out in the war room.  That’s what always happened after a supernova.  This was Bobby’s term to describe the explosion that took place in a case, especially late in a case, after startling new evidence had been discovered.

The war room was a holy wreck.  Literally and figuratively.  The room itself was a close representation of my mind.  For sure, it looked and felt like an explosion had taken place.  But, early Sunday morning, before showering and dressing for our ride to the hospital I had a mental breakthrough of sorts.  It seemed I had floundered for months, subconsciously thinking that something was missing.  All the evidence before Paige’s disclosure, didn’t seem to generate the necessary motivation for someone to kill Adam Parker.  It seemed what had happened in Alabama was almost a mirror image of what had happened in Tennessee.  Adam hadn’t been killed there.

And, if Alex Williams had believed that Natalie was pregnant with his child, my gut told me (careful Connor) that wasn’t a motive to murder Adam.  To Alex, what would Adam have to do with that?  My mental enlightenment of sorts seemed to push me towards believing that Alex had found out about the ruse and that, combined with the Facebook controversy, was enough to push him over the edge into murder.

As Camilla and I drove to the hospital I felt I needed to be examined and maybe even admitted myself.  My gut was rolling over so much I couldn’t even form a definite gut opinion.  I parked, and we walked to the front entrance.  All I could think about was the air molecules floating all around.  Somewhere, there was one simple piece of evidence that would put this puzzle together.

Natalie was in good spirits when we arrived in ICU.  She looked like she had lost ten pounds since I had seen her Friday morning.  The dark circles under her eyes were gone.  As Camilla helped her put on a jacket I couldn’t help but think about what would happen with her and little Nathan.  She caught me looking at her.  She smiled.  I wondered if Paige had told her she and I had our talk.

It took nearly two more hours before a nurse came with Natalie’s final discharge papers.  During our wait, Camilla and Natalie talked, mainly about how Emily was threatening to kidnap little Nathan.  The two had spent all day Saturday together while Camilla was at work.

We had barely pulled out of the hospital’s parking lot when Natalie said, “Paige tells me she shared our secret.”

The statement struck me as a little odd, so I simply responded, “Paige and I did talk.  Friday evening.”

“I’m sorry I lied.  We should have been truthful from the beginning.”  Natalie was in the front passenger seat beside me.  Camilla was sitting in the back.  Not saying a word.

“Usually, that’s the best approach.”  I was playing it cool, wanting Natalie to direct the conversation.

“What bothers me more than anything is lying to Adam.”  Natalie said.  I could tell from the corner of my eye that she was crying.  Before saying these words, she had pulled a Kleenex from her purse.

“Did he find out?”  It was another trick I had learned from the Master.  He called it the jump question: don’t ask the most obvious question but ask one awkwardly embedded in the subject statement.  The obvious one would have been: ‘what did you lie about?’ or maybe, ‘why did you lie?’

Natalie laughed out loud. “That’s a dumb question.  He was dead already.  You know that.”  Now, I was really confused.

“I can be pretty dense.  Just ask Camilla.  I’m not following.  How did you lie to Adam after he died?”  Now, that was the question I should have asked to begin with.

“You’re not really good at math either?”  It was both an assertion and a question, according to Natalie’s tone and inflection.

“Math deals with numbers.  Correct?  I’m still confused.  Sorry.”  I said.

“Adam died no later than January 1st. Nathan was born October 15th.  That’s a little late if I was already pregnant before Adam died.  Don’t you think?”

It finally dawned on me.  “You had Adam’s sperm implanted after he died?”  I asked.

“Yes.  It was all my doing and against what Adam and I had agreed.”

“Can you explain that last statement?”  I asked.

“The short of it is that Adam backed out.  I guess it was early December when the first implantation didn’t work.  Something happened, and he backed out.  Not fully, but asked me, politely and respectfully, to postpone another procedure.  He said Marissa and he had talked and she was adamantly against the pregnancy.”

“Marissa knew about yours and Adam’s plans?”

“For sure.  She even called me and demanded that I leave her father alone, said he was trying to correct a big mistake he had made over thirty years earlier.”

“Question.  The fertility clinic would have to have had some of Adam’s sperm in storage or on ice, however they preserve it.  Right?”

“There you go again.  Another dumb question.  How else could I have gotten pregnant?”  Natalie was getting a little sparky.

“I’ll ask another question, risking it also may be dumb.  Why did you do it?  Go forward knowing Adam had changed his mind?”

Natalie didn’t respond for nearly two miles.  From the stop sign at Johnson Builders on Cox Gap Road, all the way to Hickory Hollow’s driveway.  “I’ll be truthful but promise me you won’t tell Paige.  Okay?”

“I can keep a secret.  I promise.”  Sometimes I fudged the truth when I believed it important to a case.

“Nathan is not my baby.  The Clinic used Paige’s egg.”

“How on God’s green earth did you pull that off?” 

Natalie once again chose silence.  We were running out of road.  Finally, I pulled into the garage and Camilla got out after seeing my non-verbal directing.  I could sit waiting in the car with Natalie if she wanted.  I hoped she would answer and not rush in to see Nathan, her non-son.

“Before Adam shut down our little plot it was a three-some.  Paige and I, one of us, were going to produce a baby for Adam.  We both had eggs on ice as you call it.  After Adam died, I decided to go ahead.  I hated Alex with all my being.  Nothing could stop me from vengeance.  I was off the rails.  I posed as Paige and moved her eggs to another fertility clinic.  They thought they were implanting Paige’s fertilized egg into Paige.”

What could I say?  “So, Paige doesn’t know that Nathan is her child?”

“No and I intend to keep it that way.  I’m glad you can keep a secret.”

With that, Natalie got out of my car and walked inside to drool over Adam and Paige’s baby.

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 46

I had driven slowly back to the hospital.  It was part of my ritual.  Ever since my apprentice days with Bobby Sorrells I had followed his advice: project the new evidence onto the current landscape.  In other words, do my best to see how the new facts have changed my view of the world, at least the subject case. 

No doubt, Alex Williams thought he was the father.  Hell, at five o’clock this afternoon he was in Birmingham being virtually assaulted with questions about little Nathan’s illegitimacy.  To reinforce his belief, he had paid Natalie (and her family) $100,000 to keep quiet.  Further, he had attempted to have her abort the baby.  Conclusion: someone (Paige and Natalie and no doubt Adam Parker) was blackmailing Alex.  When I parked in the furthest parking spot from the ER I acknowledged I really didn’t have documented and verified evidence on much of anything.  I walked inside and found Paige sitting alone watching TV in the far corner of the waiting room.

“How’s Natalie?”  I asked.

“Some better.  Blood pressuring is coming down.”

“Nathan was asleep in Amy’s arms.  She’s in hog heaven.”  I said, hesitating before asking the inevitable question.

“Thanks for going.  I shouldn’t have been so forgetful.”

“Totally understandable.  I’m thankful you were there to take care of Natalie.  She’ll be thankful too.”  I said, still standing.  “Do you think we could go to the cafeteria and talk.  Over some coffee?”  Always directing, like any good detective.

“Sure, these chairs are awful.”  Paige said standing up and grabbing her purse from the next chair.

The cafeteria was almost empty.  I ordered us coffee and a Danish and we sat down at the table the furthest from the entrance, my back to the wall.

“Paige, I hope you know that I like you and Natalie very much.  That’s why we need to have this conversation.”  I took a sip of my coffee and watched her eyes.  They had the deer-in-the-headlights look.

“Okay.”  That’s all she said and only glanced up at me.

“I know Adam Parker is listed as Nathan’s father.  I saw it on his birth certificate.”  Life is too short to beat around the bush.  Paige would either engage or escape.

“We were hoping to keep that a secret until after the election, one the asshole Alex loses.”

“Whatever you tell me, I respect the truth.  I am not your judge.  But, I have a job to do.”

“I’m kind of glad you found out.  I’ve really needed someone other than Natalie to talk to.”  Paige said.

“For some reason I cannot see Adam Parker and Natalie Goble having an affair.  Am I correct?”  I said this, asked this, knowing full well that stranger things had happened.  I had seen photos of Adam.  Not a bad looking man, but, thirty or so years older than the young and attractive Natalie.

Paige giggled a little.  “You’re correct.  Little Nathan wasn’t made the traditional way.  It was by artificial insemination.  It was Adam’s idea.”

“I really would like the full story if you’re okay with sharing.”  Kindness, respect, gentleness.  Honey always gets more than vinegar.

“After Natalie and I became Adam’s number one cheerleaders, he started opening up to us.  He no doubt trusted us.  He shared how he had lost a daughter.  At first, neither of us would hardly entertain the idea.”  Paige took a bite of her Danish and two sips of coffee.  After a long pause she said.  “I have to confess and I’m very ashamed.  Alex and I also had an affair.  At first, we kept it secret from Natalie.  He was playing both of us.  Once Natalie discovered the truth things got competitive.  It was wrong.  Looking back, it was sick.  Both of us lost our way so to speak.  We both were supposed to be on birth control pills.  Alex’s requirement.  Unknown to him we both got off them and tried, or at least wanted, to get pregnant.  This was throughout last fall.  We schemed that whoever got pregnant by Alex would have our ticket punched.”  Paige laughed.  “In more ways than one.  We felt he would be bound to his child and therefore to us.  He’s wealthy you know.  Now, I suspect you’ve figured it out.  Alex couldn’t get either one of us pregnant.  And, Natalie was the first one, the only one of us, to get pregnant artificially.”

“I assume it was Adam’s sperm?”  What a question.  I felt dirty, like I was exposing myself to the sweet, not so innocent Paige.

“Absolutely.  Part of what he wanted was more selfish than the typical parent.  Adam wanted a child, so he could continue his research.  He shared how his wife had indoctrinated Marissa with religion.  He didn’t want that for this child.”

“You and Natalie kept the secret from Alex; told him she was pregnant with his child?”  It was obvious, but I had to ask.

“Right.  Terribly mean of us.”  Paige said.

“Let me ask you something else.”  I heard Bobby whispering in my ear. ‘There’s more to this story.  There always is.’  “Did anyone other than the three of you know about your scheme, about Alex not being the father?”

“I can’t answer that for sure.  Maybe.  After it was confirmed that Natalie was pregnant, artificially, we both, at separate times, received anonymous calls.  From a man.  Neither of us knew him.” 

This was getting weird.  I had to know.  “What did he say?”

“That he knew about our scheme and that we needed to talk with him, that he could make us or break us.  He left a number for us to call.”  Paige pushed back her Danish and asked me silently if I wanted more coffee.  She got up, taking her empty cup with her.

I tried to replay the scene in my mind.  I would have called the phone number.  I couldn’t have ignored it.  Paige returned.

“Natalie and I concluded that the man had to be bluffing.  We had been extra careful.  Only me and her and Adam, and the fertility clinic in Atlanta would have known.  Adam, for sure, wouldn’t have said a thing.”  Paige said adding three Sweet-n-Lows to her steaming cup.

“Do you still have the phone number?”  I had to ask but knew that, even if she gave it to me, that it would take a miracle to discover its owner or user.

“I do.  You can have it if you want.”

I was about to ask Paige if she had ever talked with her mother or if Natalie talked with Sandra about any of this, but Camilla walked in.  Natalie was being admitted as an inpatient, and she was being transported to ICU.  Paige smiled and nodded at Camilla and left the cafeteria.

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 45

Late Friday afternoon I was watching Birmingham’s WBRC News in the conference room when Camilla called my cell phone.  I almost didn’t answer because the reporter had just asked Alex Williams about his recently born illegitimate son.  I wanted to hear his response to the breaking story, especially since it was only eleven days until the general election.  Consistent allegiance to my number one priority was essential to my wellbeing.

“Hey babe.  Just two more hours.”  We had talked about a little trip to Outback Steakhouse and the Gadsden Mall, but I knew she had to work until at least seven.  Everybody wanted beautiful hair for the weekend. 

“Sorry, not tonight.  Natalie’s at the Emergency Room.”  It didn’t come as a total surprise.  Ever since Nathan was born she had battled high blood pressure.  It was the most common sign of postpartum preeclampsia.  Even though Dr. Ireland had told her such condition was rare it certainly wasn’t unheard of.  All week, Natalie had also battled stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, and a severe headache.

“Who took her to the ER?”  I asked.

“Paige.  She spent nearly all day taking care of both mother and baby.  I just got off the phone.  Paige said when Natalie started having trouble breathing she called 911.  It could have been bad.  Seems like all the ambulances were preoccupied.  Paige managed to get her to the hospital on her own.”

“I’m leaving right now.  You come on when you can.”  I said, knowing Camilla was concerned about Natalie but also was committed to her job.

It took me a little over five minutes to reach the hospital.  When I walked in the ER I saw Paige with Sandra.

I had never had any dealings with Sandra Goble.  Without a good reason I had always viewed her as a true feminist.  Why else would she keep her maiden name?  When she married Jake she was Sandra Mohler, Mayor Zack Mohler’s ex-wife.  Before I could walk across the waiting room Sandra walked away and back inside the ER.

“Hey Connor.  They’re running a bunch of tests on Natalie.  She’s really sick.” 

“I didn’t see her this morning, but I know she’s had a rough week.  By the way, where’s Nathan?”  It had just dawned on me someone had to be taking care of the little fellow.

“Amy.  When I found out I couldn’t get an ambulance I called Amy.  He’ll be fine as long as she holds him.”

I tried to picture Amy on a walker dealing with Nathan but put the thought aside knowing someway she would find a way.  She dearly loved babies. 

“Camilla and I can take care of him tonight.  I suspect they will keep Natalie.”  I said.

“Oh shit.  I forgot.”  Paige looked like she had left little Nathan in the freezer or a hot bath.

“What is it?”

“I forgot Nathan’s baby bag.  I should have carried it with him to Amy’s when I dropped him off.”

“I can go.  Tell me what to include.”

“No, don’t worry.  I have it ready.  It’s sitting in the den.  I just forgot it when I was helping get the two in the car.”  Paige said.

I left the ER and drove to Hickory Hollow.  Nathan’s bag was sitting on the floor in the middle of the den.  I saw at least six bottles.  A little overkill.  I grabbed the bag and right as I entered the kitchen headed to the back door I heard the faint ringing of a cell phone.  I started to ignore it but that’s just not my nature.  I walked upstairs.  The sound had quit by the time I reached the balcony, but I knew it came from Natalie’s bedroom.

Her iPhone was on her nightstand.  I activated it and saw she had three missed calls.  The phone was not password protected so I did a little exploring.  The calls had been from Alex.  He hadn’t left a voice message.  I checked her texts.  All were conversations between Natalie and either Paige or Sandra.  I laid the phone back down and looked around the bedroom.  On the desk by the windows was a large leather bag.  I walked over and looked inside.  It held a Toshiba laptop, powered off.  I slid it back inside and closed the top flap.  I knew I needed to go but I could feel a few documents were inside.  I unzipped the underside of the flap.  Curiosity is hard to ignore.  I pulled out the papers and unfolded the first one.  It was little Nathan’s birth certificate.  I pushed it back inside and started closing the zipper.  It was one of those moments that I rarely had.  One that was like seeing an image of an old man in the face of a photographed child.  Something didn’t fit.  Had I seen the word Parker?

I again pulled out and opened Nathan’s birth certificate.  There, right under the word, Father, was typed Adam Parker.  What in the hell was going on?  Alex Williams was Nathan’s father.  I took out my iPhone and snapped a photo of the entire birth certificate and a few closer shots of the Father rectangle. 

I walked back downstairs, grabbed Nathan’s bag, dropped it off with Amy at the Playhouse, and was back at the Emergency Room a few minutes before six.

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 44

Last Saturday I had tried to dig deeper into Blair’s Evernote database but quickly learned, without her guidance, all I could do was conduct a basic search.  Monday and Tuesday, I had once again been tied up in Jackson County with Dalton and his triple homicide capital murder case.  After breakfast with Garrett I sat down in the conference room to several folders, each containing a printout from one of Blair’s carefully crafted searches.

I had just read the query used with her first search which she had written on the outside of a green folder when my cell phone vibrated.  I took it out of my pocket.  It was Erica.

“Hello Erica.”

“Hi Connor, thought you’d want to know that I’m hearing Russell has been arrested.  Alex mentioned it when he was here.”

“You two getting back together?”  I asked, knowing it wasn’t any of my business.

“Hell no.  As far as I’m concerned, he can live forever at the Hampton Inn, of course, assuming he’s not elected to the governor’s office.  No, I let him come to the house to get some of his things.”  Erica said, I could hear a boy’s voice, probably Reece, in the background.  I wondered why he wasn’t in school.

“Thanks for telling me.  I hope DA Abbott can get him and Stone to talking, now that he’s got both in the same jail.  I hope Russell reveals how Stone came into so much money.  Maybe, they’ll incriminate each other.”

“You are talking about all that money Stone is showing down Bruce Road?”  Erica asked.

“That would be some of it.”

“Sandra’s mother, Sarah, left her a boatload.”  Erica said.

“You know this for sure?”  I asked.

“Pretty sure.  The old woman was loaded.  Sarah had worked at First State Bank of Boaz for like 50 years.  My good friend, Jane Ellsworth, Jake Stone’s sister, used to work in the accounting department at the bank.  Gosh, that was probably ten years ago.  Jane told me then that Sarah was worth over a million dollars.  It doesn’t hurt that Sandra was an only child.”

“When did Sarah die?”  I felt one of my solid hypothesis melting into a puddle.

“It’s been a while, maybe the first of the year.”

“You’re a fountain of knowledge.  I appreciate you calling.”  I said.

“I’ll call back if I hear any more concerning Russell.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it.”

Our call ended, and I sat silent and still.  I was perplexed.  The asshole Jake Stone wasn’t looking as guilty as I earlier thought.  The money thing certainly didn’t mean he wasn’t involved in criminal behavior.  Hopefully, the tan-colored Nissan van would be his undoing.  I couldn’t think of anyone I wanted more to have a long visit at Kilby Prison.

The document in the green folder was a result of Blair’s search for the words Josh Wray or Josh or Wray, and David and Caleb Patterson, or either one of them.  The query had uncovered two things: a couple of Adam’s journal entries, and a New York Times article.  As predictable, Adam had a copy of the article indexed and cross-indexed in his files. 

The article had been written the summer after Josh Wray’s death, 2014, and before Adam was fired from the University of Tennessee.  The NYT reporter, a Nate Baker, contended there was a connection between the murder and a lawsuit filed by a non-profit organization called Faith Forever.  Baker provided a complete list of its members, which included both David and Caleb Patterson.  The lawsuit contended that both Adam Parker and Kramer Dickson were public school teachers.  Even as Ph.D. professors at UT, Tennessee law clearly considered them public servants.  The civil suit contended the two teachers were engaged to prohibit the free exercise of religion.  In sum, they argued the government’s (public school teachers) research was an attempt to curtail their freedom of religion.  To me, the Faith Forever lawsuit was likewise a First Amendment violation and attempt to suppress Adam and Kramer’s right of expression.

At the end of Mr. Baker’s article, he mentioned a company called Knoxville Concrete.  He asserted that without this company’s owner, an Everett Aldridge, a Faith Forever member, the costly lawsuit could not have been prosecuted.  On a hunch, I did a Google search for Aldridge.  I was shocked to learn, via a Knoxville Tribune article, that in 2012, Aldridge had sold his fifty-year-old concrete company to the Rand Corporation based out of Boaz, Alabama.  So, it seemed Roger Williams had known about Adam Parker before he ever moved to Boaz.

By 3:00 p.m., I was tired of reading and decided to go for a drive.  This was something I had started a few weeks ago.  It seemed to clear my head and energize me to return to the office for a more productive final push for the day.  I had just past Boaz Country Club when my cell phone vibrated.  It was Mark.

“I hear Russell Williams has been arrested.”  I said, skipping the preliminaries.

“Hello to you too.”  It was nice to have a good friend you could be open and fully yourself with.  “Deputies brought him to the jail around ten this morning.  Darden Clarke, the DA’s investigator, has been interviewing him ever since, less a lunch break.”

“You hear anything?”  I asked.

“Not much really, although he says he can feed us some big boys if the DA will cut him a deal.  Clarke’s holding to standard, you know, tell us what you’ve got, and we can talk about it.”

I thought about the cards Clarke had available in his hand.  Why couldn’t he put pressure on Russell with evidence provided by the money trail.  That seemed to me his strongest weapon and the subterfuge he used to persuade Dr. Culbert to skip town.  A murder charge should be forthcoming.  That should get the skinny Russell to squawking.  “Clarke’s a smart detective.  He’s probably just playing with Russell like a cat does with its helpless little mouse.  I’ve heard that’s Clarke’s style.”

“You’re right but I don’t like it.  Too damn time consuming.  I better not say much.  I’m not doing much better.”

“You’ve had a shot at Russell?”  I asked.

“No, I’ve been working Stone.  We’ve got them side by side, interrogation rooms three and four.  They know it too.  So far, all Stone will say is he had no knowledge of what happened to his old Nissan van after he sold it to Sam at Sand Mountain Transmission for $1,000.”

“I assume Trevor has got him on a short leash.”

“That’s one attorney I don’t like.  Well, that’s one more attorney I don’t like.  Too smug.”  Mark said.

“He’s alright once you get to know him.  I do prefer Dalton though.  By the way, who’s Russell’s attorney?”

“Says he doesn’t want one, that he’ll provide his own representation.  Daddy’s not liking that.”  Mark said.  I could imagine Roger Williams standing outside the jail hollering at Russell to not say a word until he has an attorney.

I heard Tony say something in the background before Mark continued.  “I suspect Russell boy will wise up and call for legal counsel before he spills too many beans.  One other thing.  When I questioned Stone about Dean Naylor’s video and accused him of being the man wearing the black hood, he said, ‘Lawton Hawks and I weren’t the only members of the Seekers.’  That’s their Sunday School class.  He wouldn’t say more.”

“I think there are about fifteen members of that class, from what Steven Knott has said.  He also has said there were four who took a special interest in Adam Parker.  It was him and Lawton, the class’s teacher, Stone, and Jerry Todd.”

“Listen, we can talk Sunday School later.  I’ve got to get back.”  Mark said, attempting to be funny.

I continued my drive down Lackey Gap Road past Meadowlark Farms.  I almost pulled in to amble around Roger’s giant horse barn, with hopes of having another talk with Carlton Ennis, but decided against it when I saw Roger’s big red Ford 250 topping the hill on the driveway coming from the barn.  I sped away confident he hadn’t seen me.  If I had to bet, I would put money on Mr. Roger Williams as the head conspirator in the death of Adam Parker.  Hopefully, that was more than a gut feeling.

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 43

Saturday morning, I was thankful for Garrett’s call.  Gina was in town and wanted to talk.  Little Nathan had been up crying half the night, so I needed a break.  I guess Camilla did too since she left for work at 6:00 a.m., a good hour before anyone would show up for a haircut.

Garrett and Gina were waiting at his favorite back-corner table when I arrived at Pirates Cove shortly after 7:00.

“We’ve already ordered.  For you, a Southwestern Omelet with extra bacon.  You’ve probably had enough bull this week.”  Garrett could be assertive and a borderline ass, but I couldn’t argue against my favorite breakfast.

“Hi Gina.  Nice to see you.”  I said looking and smiling at the disheveled professor.

“Back at you detective.  Sorry for my appearance.  The bulls are down my way too.”

The three of us bantered back and forth about the early cold snap while Gloria made two trips with our food.

“I was sorry to hear about Kramer Dickson.  I know you two were working together.”  I said, wanting to be respectful.

“He’s why I asked Dad to invite you.  I figured you’d be interested in some back story.”

“I’m always interested in a good story, especially if it’s a little suspenseful.”

“Well, we’ll see.  Did you know that Adam Parker was like a father to Josh Wray?”  Gina asked.

“I assume you’re speaking of the young man murdered in Dayton, Tennessee and whose case is still unsolved as far as I know.”

“She is.”  Garrett said.  “Listen up.”

Gina took a bite of her biscuit and gravy and said, “Josh’s own father was in prison during his teenage years.  A local banker, Kurt Prescott, befriended the young man but it was Adam Parker the boy took to.  It seems Parker was instrumental in convincing the high school’s drama department to develop a play, a reenactment of the Scopes Monkey Trial.  Josh was a descendant of the original Scopes.”

This was old news to me, in part.  “I thought it was Kurt Prescott that was the main moving force behind the play?”  I asked.

“Kramer said it was Adam.  He had plans for widespread distribution.  Meaning, he wanted every school in Tennessee to put on the play.  Seems like he, with Josh’s help, had convinced a good number of high school students to participate in an intensive study.  On several occasions Adam, in a sense, had brought his lab to Dayton.  This is where it gets suspenseful.  At least a little.”

“Connor, drink your milk.”  Garrett often sounded like my father.

Gina continued.  “The local pastor, David Patterson, stirred up most of the locals.  He saw the play as heretical to his Christian faith, as did most of the townsfolk.  They didn’t believe in human evolution at all, rather God had created Adam ex nihilo, instantly, out of nothing, about six thousand years ago, then Eve from his rib, just like it says in Genesis.  It’s believed that David and his cousin, your own pastor Caleb Patterson, killed Josh Wray.  Of course, that has never been proven.”

Garrett wiped his mouth and said, “most folks would call it God’s will.  Maybe it is.  I suspect its fate or coincidence.”

“What’s that?”  I asked.

“How Adam Parker and Caleb Patterson wound up in the same town.  Gina, tell Connor.”

“Kramer thinks there is a connection.  He doesn’t know for sure which came first.  You know, the chicken or the egg dilemma.  But, one move, caused another move.  Kramer believed that after Adam was basically run out of Tennessee, David and Caleb plotted to get Caleb pastor at First Baptist Church of Christ.  When Adam was hired on at Snead College, Caleb was still a pastor in Prattville.”

I was confused.  “Why exactly would the two cousins care about Adam now that he was out of David’s hair?”

“Grudges run deep my friend.  You should know that.”  Gina said.

“I’m not exactly following you.”  I said.

“David’s daughter, Deanna, was an Adam Parker convert.  Some way Josh had convinced her, a classmate, to participate in Adam’s study.  It was a test of sorts he and Kramer developed that, at least the two hoped, would serve as the first push toward thinking.  In other words, it was like a dose of medicine, like a shot of adrenalin.  Kramer compared their little exam, a series of exams, to a needle penetrating through the skin and inside a person’s DNA to modify the gene or genes that enslaved the mind.”

“So, David, in a way lost his daughter and sought-after revenge?”  I asked.

“Kramer believed there was a connection between Adam’s death and Caleb Patterson.  Do you know that Adam was pushing the same thing here in Alabama?”  Gina asked.

“Meaning using students as guinea pigs for his study?” 

“Basically yes, but also promoting the Scopes Monkey Trial, rather, the reenactment.”

“Tell Connor about Paige and Natalie.”  Garrett said.

“As you know, these two young ladies befriended Adam.  Although they were already out of high school they tried their best to persuade their former drama teacher to present the Scopes play.  That got them in very hot water.  The girls were rather naive, I guess.  The teacher, Lawton Hawks, was a die-hard creationist.  They should have known he, as the science teacher who pushed his Noah’s Ark and young earth ideas, wouldn’t be receptive to a story about human evolution.  The whole thing erupted, and this was the beginning of the public attack on Adam Parker.  Of course, you can guess who partnered up with Lawton Hawks.”  Gina said.

“None other than Caleb Patterson?”  I asked.

“Yep.  Here’s the bottom line.  Southern Baptist Fundamentalists feel greatly threatened by real science.  In this regard, they are correct.  They should be threatened.  The truth of science destroys their beliefs, the ones that make naturalistic claims, like how we as humans got here and how old the earth is.  Now, the bottom line.  Kramer believed that Adam Parker’s death could have almost naturally flowed from the now-old science vs. religion controversy.”

“One final question before I have to go.”  For some reason I was in a hurry to walk across the street to the office and dig once again into Adam’s journals.  “What became of Deanna Patterson?”  I wasn’t sure why I asked this, why this was relevant in any sense.

Gina took the last bite of her biscuit and gravy, pushed back her plate and said, “That’s another interesting fact.  I did promise suspense, didn’t I?  She was killed in a car accident a couple of years ago outside Decatur, Tennessee.  It was late on a Sunday afternoon.  She was returning to Knoxville and the University of Tennessee where she was a Biology student.”  Gina answered.

“Maybe just one more question.”  I said, knowing I had veered off the rails of anything relevant.  “Was she still a Southern Baptist Fundamentalist like her father when she died?” 

“Not at all.  It seems Adam and Kramer’s study had opened her eyes and mind, had turned on her curiosity.  She started asking questions.  You know that’s deadly to the Christian faith.”

Garrett insisted he buy my breakfast.  I thanked Gina and again shared my sympathy over the loss of her colleague.   I walked across the street to the office and sat down at Blair’s computer.

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 42

It had been a long three weeks.  I hated waiting, and it seemed all I had done was sit around and twiddle my thumbs, helpless.  Sitting, pondering, and worrying about Natalie who had been in the hospital for over a week with high blood pressure and a baby refusing to make its first appearance.  And, contemplating what would be learned at Jake Stone’s preliminary hearing which was set for this afternoon.

The Tuesday after the Nissan van was seized Mark had asked me to meet with him and Marshall County District Attorney Charles Abbott to discuss Jake Stone.  Mark believed I might be helpful in persuading Abbott to arrest Stone.  After watching Dean Naylor’s video, reading Dr. Culbert’s affidavit describing his ordeal and belief Stone had been one of his callers, and my detailed account of the tan-colored van, DA Abbott had asked Mark and me to go with him to see Judge Broadside for consultation.  That meeting had ended with Abbott’s decision to have Mark arrest Jake Stone.  That was twenty days ago and today is the deadline for Stone’s preliminary hearing and a formal finding of probable cause to justify the arrest.  Otherwise, the Sheriff is required to release him from jail.

Natalie’s condition is known as preeclampsia, a condition that can be fatal if not properly treated.  It had taken her doctor and the hospital all week to get her high blood pressure under control and to lower both the swelling in her hands and feet, and the protein level in her urine.  This condition had delayed the birth of her baby, which was now nearly two weeks past due.  If her stability continued, the plan was for a Cesarean section to be performed later today.

At 1:30 p.m., Mark and I again met with DA Abbott, just minutes before the start of Stone’s preliminary hearing.  Abbott reviewed with us the Department of Forensic Sciences report on the Nissan van.  The report had arrived just this morning and Abbott was confident Judge Broadside would find probably cause against Jake Stone. A few minutes before two o’clock the three of us walked down the hall to the Courtroom.

Abbott first called Dean Naylor to authenticate the Snead College video recording.  He was then dismissed, and I was called to identify the persons being shown on the Courtroom’s big screen TV.  I could only testify as to Adam Parker and Lawton Hawks, and had to deny knowledge of the third man shown.  I was however able to make a strong case the tan-colored van had been owned at the time by Jake Stone.  Mark then testified the VIN of the van seized during execution of the search warrant was the same as that on the title Sam at Sand Mountain Transmission had provided and Abbott had offered into evidence.  The technician from Forensic Sciences confirmed receiving and inspecting a 1985 Nissan Quest van with the same VIN number.  All this set the stage for Dr. Karen Alford’s testimony.

What I heard produced mixed feelings.  I was sad for Marissa but was once again impressed with the perfectionism of Adam Parker.  Abbott, through Alford, a scientist with the Department, offered one small paper receipt.  It was no doubt from Adam.  Alford described that it was found under the carpet in the back of the van, along the edge next to the driver’s side seat.  From Mark’s photos, I had seen the only two seats remaining in the van were the front two.  The rear seats had been removed at some point.  Judge Broadside interrupted the testimony and had Abbot replay the portion of the video tape that clearly showed Adam returning to Snead College carrying a Zaxbys bag.  Alford testified she found an unusual amount of Adam’s DNA on the front side of the receipt.  In her professional opinion, Adam had simply licked the receipt right before hiding it under the van’s carpet. 

Abbott went on to ask Alford a hypothetical question: would Adam have been conscious enough and physically able enough after being injected with a large dose of Cyanide poisoning to manage and manipulate himself and the receipt, all while dying?  Stone’s attorney, Trevor Nixon, Dalton’s partner, who Stone had hired, did not object.  He already knew that DA Abbott had the autopsy report that had been prepared after Adam’s body was exhumed.

Although Judge Broadside would not allow Abbott to offer Dr. Culbert’s affidavit, he still found probable cause in the case of the State of Alabama vs. Jake Tyler Stone.  Finally, some official headway had been made towards resolving the mysterious death of Adam Parker.

After the hearing, I drove to Marshall Medical Center South and found Camilla and Emily, along with Sandra Goble, and Paige and Peyton Todd waiting on news from the delivery room.  The hope was high, even given the circumstances of the baby’s father, that Natalie would soon deliver a healthy baby boy.  After her sonogram over six months ago Natalie had accepted the fact the male Williams dynasty would have two chances to continue, Reece and his eagerly awaited step-brother.

The delivery went perfect and Nathan Goble made his debut.  At 7:30 p.m., I walked to the cafeteria and saw Peyton and Paige eating a late dinner.  Paige saw me and motioned for me to join them.  I had never spoken with her mother, but she smiled, and I took that as a mother’s approval.

Paige asked me if Natalie and Nathan would be returning to Hickory Hollow after they were discharged from Marshall Medical.  I told her they were welcome, but the decision was ultimately up to Natalie.  Peyton had asked me about the status of Jake when Sandra Goble came in and told Paige Natalie wanted to see her.  The two of them left Peyton and me in the cafeteria.

“Steven keeps me updated on the Adam Parker investigation.”  I was surprised by her statement and felt emboldened.

“Don’t be offended but I have to ask you about your relationship with Steven.  I suspect he has told you that Joe and I, Joe works for me, have invested a lot of time trying to determine if you and Steven were having an affair.”

“No doubt it would have looked like that, probably still does.  But, that’s not what happened.  We became friends back last fall.  It was weird that we both sided through Facebook with Adam Parker.  One thing led to another and before we knew it we were doing a little investigating on our own.  You know I’m Kurt Prescott’s executive assistant.  He’s rather intriguing in many ways.”

“How so?”  I wanted her to keep talking.  I wanted to know more about Prescott.

“I can’t afford to lose my job.  Can you keep this confidential?”

“I can.”  I said.

“Kurt doesn’t know that I know but he made a large transfer out of one of Roger Williams accounts.  I’ve seen the authorization form and it’s not Roger’s handwriting.  This was several months ago.”

“Who was the money sent to?  The transfer?”  I asked.

A bank over in Georgia, Smyrna Georgia.  I can’t remember the person’s name.  A woman I think.”  Peyton said.

“I’m curious.  How did you learn this?  In other words, what would make you look at bank transfers, whether a customer made them, or a bank officer made them?”  I asked.

“Normally, I wouldn’t have been interested, but one day I heard Kurt talking on the phone.  He was on his cell phone and it was after closing.  He was in the Bank’s kitchen and thought everyone had gone except me and thought I had gone downstairs for the daily balance report.  All I heard was, ‘I can backdate the transfer before the statements run.’  The word ‘backdate’ got my attention because that is a no-no of no-no’s in the banking industry.  I have access to the wire transfers report.  The next day there was a million dollars transferred from one of Roger Williams’ accounts.  I went to accounting and located the physical authorization form.  Written authorization is required for all outgoing wires.  There was no doubt the signature didn’t match Roger Williams.  I’m not saying it was way off, but I had seen his signature enough to know that he didn’t make a ‘W’ like I was seeing on the form.”

Peyton got a call a few minutes later and had to leave.  She said it would be okay to call her if I had any more questions.

I walked back up to the third floor to see Natalie again before heading to Hickory Hollow.  During the drive home, Camilla knew I was preoccupied and seemed a little pissed.  I was smart enough to know it was in my personal and best interest to set aside the latest twist in the Adam Parker investigation.

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 41

I was getting too old to function with only seven hours of sleep in two days.  After leaving Meadowlark on Saturday morning I had called Mark Hale.  It had taken him until late Sunday afternoon to secure a search warrant for Roger’s horse farm.  If it hadn’t been for Mark and Tony’s persistence and their willingness to sit along Lackey Gap Road outside Roger’s gate, significant evidence would have been lost.  At midnight Saturday night, Jake Stone and Carlton Ennis had showed up in a rollback, along with two of Ennis’ buddies in his old beat-up Chevrolet.  Mark and Tony’s presence and Jake’s awareness of at least a temporary checkmate kept the premises safe until late yesterday.

As I had hoped, Mark and Tony and a host of Marshall County Sheriff’s deputies, assisted by Etowah County deputies, discovered the aging 1985 Nissan Quest van buried under tons of Coastal Bermuda hay.  The van was transported to the Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery.  I had given Mark a copy of the title I had obtained from Sam at Sand Mountain Transmission.  It was Camilla’s old van, and most likely the one used in transporting the dead body of Adam Parker.

If all this wasn’t enough excitement for one weekend, it was something else that kept me up so late last night.  Joe had returned from Dayton, Tennessee.  I had sent him there over ten days ago.  Up until yesterday, all he had been able to do was confirm a few things from Marissa’s email.  Finally, last night, about the time Mark was pulling back the rawhide tarp laying across Jake Stone’s Nissan van, Joe had finally convinced Deborah Wray to confide in him and reveal a long-buried secret.

Her love affair with Pastor David Patterson had been kept as quiet as the Scopes Monkey Trial had been made public.  Sometimes, but not often, two people meet, two people virtually opposite in beliefs and backgrounds, and there is a romantic spark that blinds the mind and heart to tradition and expectation.  David and Deborah were two such people.

“How on earth did you get her to open up like this?”  I had asked Joe.  It was almost 2:00 a.m. when he called and asked to meet.  I had agreed since my adrenal wouldn’t let me close my eyes after hearing the news from Mark.

“I’m a little ashamed to say, but I used the death of her only child, Josh, and the fact his case had never been solved.  I went out on a limb when I told her that we believed there was some connection between Kurt Prescott and Josh’s death.”  Joe’s statement was about as clear as my head had been right after Jake Stone had landed his hard right across the left side of my head.

Joe’s statement to Deborah had, luckily for us, been the trigger she needed.  She shared how her, and Kurt had made a deal.  She had something on him, and he had something on her.  They two of them had become acquainted because of Kurt’s involvement with Rhea County High School and particularly his and Josh’s budding friendship.

Someway, through Josh, Deborah had learned that Kurt had a secret life of his own.  He was working as a set of hidden eyes and ears for his cousin, the then U.S. Congressman Lamar Kilpatrick.  Apparently, he was being groomed as an agent for the CIA, and not surprisingly, this was being kept under wraps.  All Deborah had learned for sure from Josh was that Kurt spent most every Sunday afternoon in Knoxville with his cousin.  Josh had gone along for the ride on several occasions.  Once, he had seen the cover of a report Lamar had given Kurt.  It had read something like, “Evolutionary Psychology: Diffusing the Bomb.”   Josh had confronted Kurt about it and he had dismissed it as “Lamar loves writing science fiction.  He just finished a new story.”

Deborah had not been sure how Kurt had found out about her and Pastor Patterson.  She said that she didn’t believe it would have come from Josh, that as far as she knew, he didn’t know anything about the three-year affair.  One thing that caught Joe’s attention was what she had learned after Josh’s death and Kurt had moved away.  David had shared with her that Kurt was a member of his church and had become friends.  Kurt had shared some intimate things, things related to what had likely happened to Josh and why he, Kurt, was moving to Boaz, Alabama.  The smoking gun was, according to Deborah’s knowledge, acquired through her lover, Pastor David Patterson, that Kurt’s Sand Mountain Bank venture was all a ruse.  Someway, he had been persuaded by his cousin, Lamar, to follow Adam Parker to Boaz.

After Joe and I finished our conversation around 2:30 a.m., I sat in my study and recalled what Marissa had said in her email over ten days ago.  “Is Kurt Prescott who he says he is?”  There was something else she had said but I couldn’t quite frame it.  I booted up my computer and located Marissa’s email.  Right at the end, she had written, “Dad said in his journal that he had mixed feelings about him [referring to Kurt].  That he was very supportive of his and Kramer Dickson’s work, but that he also was chummy with Pastor David Patterson.”

Joe’s investigation spawned a ton of questions, but they really had provided only one full answer.  For the first time, I realized more than one person or group of persons had a motivation to get rid of Adam Parker.

A few minutes before noon Blair stuck her head inside the door to my office.  “Don’t forget your lunch with Garrett.”  I was glad she had reminded me.  I had been sitting here nearly all morning reviewing the events of a long and eventful weekend and had lost all track of time.

I walked across the street to Pirates Cove and met Garrett coming out the front door.

“Connor, I’m sorry but I can’t stay.  Gina just called and said that Kramer Dickson has been killed in a car accident.  She’s very upset and I’m driving to Birmingham to be with her.”

I told him I understood and returned to the office with my gut telling me that it was unlikely that Dickson’s death was an accident.

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 40

The sun was beaming through the open curtains when I was awakened to a vibrating phone.  I noticed it was nearly 8:00 a.m.  Camilla wasn’t in bed although she didn’t have to work today.  It was Blair.

“Good morning Blair.”  My voice was naturally deep.  Especially, from having not said a word since right before midnight.

“Are you still in bed?”

“Just getting up.  Long week.  What’s up?  It’s still early.”  I said, now sitting on the side of the bed.  Still naked.

“Brilliant me brought Adam’s little baby home with me for the weekend.  Unlike you, it couldn’t sleep past seven.  Roger and Jake are both on the move.”  Blair went on to tell me that Jake started things off in his Tahoe going to Grumpy’s Diner for breakfast.  On the way he had called Roger who was apparently in Guntersville at his lake house.  They agreed to meet at 10:00 at a place called Meadowlark. 

“That’s Roger’s horse farm.”  I said.

“Connor, is it too much to ask for you to babysit the iPad for a few hours?  Mom and I had planned on going to the Gadsden Mall.”

“I was about to say I would come get the iPad.  I need to listen in.  This could be significant.  Can you leave the iPad on my desk?  Say, in twenty minutes?”  I asked.

“Consider it done.  Let me know if you want me to keep it the rest of the weekend.”

“I will and thanks for calling.”

By 8:45, I was at the office sitting at my desk listening to Jake’s earlier call to Roger.  I was glad the Open Curtains App stored the phone conversations for later review.  Apparently, Jake had made a phone call last night too.  Blair missed this notification or had ignored it.  I didn’t blame her, given the frequency of one of the six vehicles involved.  This time, Stone was in his police cruiser.  It was a quick call and all he said after a male voice answered was, “He’s at the lake house and I’m going to do my best to meet him in the morning.”

The male voice responded, “do whatever you need to do to get him on board.  My noose is tightening.”

I had replayed this conversation twice when Adam’s iPad chirped.  This time it was Roger.  I was thankful he was in his Cadillac.  This reminded me that I had been negligent in not someway attaching an Open Curtains device to his F250 Ford pickup.  I had seen him driving it at least two times in the past week.

“Stone, it’ll be 10:30 before I’ll be there.  Got to run by the office first.”   This was Roger calling Stone who could have been anywhere.

“Okay but be there.  This is important.”  Speaker phones must have been invented by a detective.

It was now 9:15 and I had sat long enough.  I decided to drive past Jake Stone’s house on Tami Street to see if he was home. 

Ten minutes later I learned he wasn’t, but his police cruiser and another car I figured was Sandra’s was parked in the driveway.  There was no sign of Jake and his black Tahoe.

I drove to McDonald’s and bought a cup of coffee and two sausage and egg burritos from the drive-through and parked facing Highway 168.

As I ate and waited I recalled how helpful Marissa had been, and generous.  She was the one who had discovered the invoice for the Verizon service contract for Adam’s iPad.  If she hadn’t continued paying the $69.00 every month I wouldn’t be able to listen live unless I was connected to a Wi-Fi.

A few minutes before 10:00 I walked inside McDonald’s and relived myself of some coffee.  When I returned to my truck I learned Roger was on the move.  For ten minutes no conversation.  I switched to GPS mode and saw he was halfway between Guntersville and Albertville on Highway 205.  I watched his blue dot all the way to the Boaz Industrial Park.  Roger parked and spent maybe five or six minutes inside his office building before he started rolling again.  When he turned left off Highway 168 onto Highway 179 the App chirped.  This was it’s signal there was an active audio recording in progress.  I switched the App and picked up the conversation.  I could re-listen to the first part later.

“… damn better help him.”  Not Roger.

“Why in the hell haven’t you told me this earlier.”  Roger.

“I didn’t know until Russell confessed to me last night.”  Now, I knew the voice coming through Roger’s speaker.  It was Alex.

By now I was approaching the turn to 179. 

“I’m headed right now to meet Stone.”  Roger.

“Watch him.  He’ll try to bleed you.”  Alex.

“I will.  Talk later.”  Roger.

It took another six or seven minutes for Roger to reach Meadowlark farms.  According to his blue dot I was about a half-mile behind him.  When he was at the driveway I hung back right over the hill less than two hundred yards from the entrance.  This wouldn’t have worked if Jake had taken the same route.  When I left McDonald’s, I noticed he was approaching from Aurora Road. 

From Roger’s device: “I’m here.”

From Jake’s device: “I’m two minutes away.”

Soon, I saw Stone’s Tahoe top the hill from the opposite direction and turn right and pass through Meadowlark’s gate.  I didn’t think he would have noticed me sitting this far away.

I didn’t know exactly why I was here.  The two men would park beside each other at the horse barn and exit their vehicles.  It would be doubtful I would hear anything.  After ten minutes I knew I was right.  Nothing, not a word.  I stayed put for another few minutes.  Then, I saw both vehicles, Roger’s Cadillac and Stone’s Tahoe pull out.  They turned towards Aurora Road.  I hadn’t planned what I would have done if they had come towards me.  Still no conversations but they topped the far hill and were out of sight.  I sat a few more minutes and drove to the gate.

Looking back, it was a stupid thing to do.  I turned into the driveway and pulled up to the barn.  A long half-mile plus from the gate.  It looked like I could drive all around the barn but instead I got out of my truck and walked inside the center hallway seeing and hearing gorgeous horses leaning out of their stalls.  I walked three or four hundred feet, past an area marked, ‘showers’ and started to turn back.  Across from the showers was an open door leading outside.  When I exited the building on the east side I saw a large hay barn. 

I walked the fifty or so yards.  The barn was filled with hundreds of square bales of Coastal Bermuda hay.  I knew the sight and smell from my growing up years at Hickory Hollow.  Just as I was about to return to the horse barn and on to my truck I noticed the edge of a rawhide tarp laying over the edge of a bale of hay towards the back and center of the hay barn.  Curiosity got me, and I walked to it.  The way the hay was stacked, all I could see after lifting the tarp was a chrome bumper.  I had moved five or six bales when I heard someone yelling from behind.

I turned and saw Jake Stone coming towards me from the horse barn.  “What the hell are you doing?”

“Just hanging out hoping to sign up for some riding lessons.”  I thought why not.  Why not be a comedian.  I might as well have a little fun.  I was caught trespassing dead to rights.

“You thought I didn’t see you sitting there in your blue ford truck and the pretty little Auburn Tiger tag on your front bumper.”

“Saban had some trouble with my Tigers, didn’t he?”  I said as Stone entered the front of the hay barn.

“Ford, you ain’t as smart as you think you are.  You thought my Tahoe carried me out of here.  Well, you didn’t figure I’d let Carlton Ennis go for a little ride with Roger tailing him close behind.”

I had to ask.  “What you got buried under this mountain of hay?  I bet I could guess.  You want me to try?”   Stone kept coming at me.  With clinched fists.  I felt a little rumble brewing.

“You’re trespassing, and I could arrest you.”

“I doubt you will.  Might bring some unwanted attention on your extra-curricular activities, including the murder of Adam Parker.”

“Ford, you don’t have a clue what you’re saying.”  Stone was now in my space.  Standing nearly nose to nose.  “You need a good ass-whooping and I’m just the one to deal it out.”

“You won’t have to go looking far.  I’m right here.  I could smell alcohol on his breath.  He was sweating profusely.  I didn’t get a chance to finish my statement.  He was quicker than I expected.  Two hands came up under my chest and I fell back and hit my head on the now exposed car bumper.

“Get up you piece of shit.”  Stone used clear and concise language.

I was dazed but got up.  I was thankful he didn’t kick me in the teeth as I clawed my way up.  But, he did land a hard right across the left side of my face and I fell back again.  This time not going all the way down again.  A car horn blared.  It probably saved me a little embarrassment.  It was Stone’s black Tahoe.

Carlton Ennis got out of the driver’s side and looked our way, turned and walked inside the horse barn.  He yelled over his shoulder.  “Your beer’s in the front seat.”  Apparently, Stone had sent him on a little errand while he waited in the shadows for me to do a little snooping around. 

“I ought to put a bullet in your head and feed you to the wolves.”  Stone turned back to me and said.

“I think I’d prefer cyanide poisoning.  Like you used with Adam Parker.”  I said hoping to either piss Stone off some more or, if super lucky, get him to make an admission of sorts.  Either way, I hoped we could get back to our little rumble.

“Get the hell out of here before I change my mind.” Stone said.

“What’d you and Roger talk about?  He going to be Russell’s savior once again?”  I realized when the words left my lips I shouldn’t have said a thing.  Here I was confessing, albeit indirectly, to something I knew.  Stone didn’t need even a hint that I knew anything about Russell’s involvement in the falsification of Parker’s autopsy.

“We met to talk horses.  Now, get.”

This time I didn’t argue.  I pushed my way past Stone, walked to my truck, and drove to Hickory Hollow, thinking of nothing but how I was going to determine if the rawhide tarp was hiding a 1985 tan-colored Nissan Quest van.