Proof of Intent by William J. Coughlin Page A

also the crime itself. Why would a burglar beat somebody to death? There was a missing weapon on the wall of Mr. Dane’s office. A martial arts type object called a bokken. A wooden training sword used by Japanese swordsmen. Mr. Dane suggested a scenario in which a burglar might have snuck it off the wall while Mr. Dane was using the bathroom that was attached to his office, crept upstairs, then at some point surprised Mrs. Dane . . . or she surprised him. Whichever case it was, the intruder got scared—this is still Mr. Dane’s hypothesis—and in order to silence Diana Dane, he beat her to death.
    â€œAgain, this just seemed implausible on several levels. Why? Let me run through the reasons.
    â€œFirst, there are all these expensive weapons on the wall. Fancy shotguns, nice old cowboy pistols, samurai swords, bowie knives. If, indeed, a burglar were going to steal something—well, the bokken seemed to me to be an unlikely weapon to grab. This is a weapon which Mr. Dane himself described as ‘basically a black stick’—again, I’m quoting him. It was neither the most valuable nor the most dangerous weapon on the wall. It wasn’t even especially eye-catching.
    â€œSecond, the victim, Diana Dane, was beaten horribly. Both experience and common sense tell me that a felon who’s committing violence in order to escape detection isn’t going to stay around and beat somebody beyond the point of death. What’s the point? You want to escape? Give them a good smack and then scoot.
    â€œThird, the lack of defensive wounds made the ‘surprised burglar’ scenario seem unlikely. He could only be surprised by somebody who was conscious. A conscious person, attacked by a stranger with a stick, will invariably hold their hands up to ward off the blows. That’s an extremely predictable feature of human nature.” Detective Denkerberg shook her head. “Nope. Mr. Dane’s whole story seemed nonsensical to me. It didn’t match the facts.”
    â€œOkay,” the prosecuting attorney said, “you mentioned the Jack Webb side of the case. What about the human side? Did something bother you there?”
    â€œIt sure did. Look, this is a probable cause hearing, not a trial, so this is probably something I can say here that I might not be able to say in front of a jury. When an innocent person finds their spouse beaten to death, they call 911.” She looked at Miles with naked disgust. “That man right there? He called his
lawyer
.”
    â€œYou’re saying,” Stash said, “that based on your many years of experience as an investigator, that’s not the normal behavior of an innocent person.”
    â€œAny fool knows it’s not.” Her eyes flashed. “And once I got there, all I got from Mr. Dane and from his lawyer, Mr. Sloan, was a bunch of evasiveness and ducking and weaving. Again, this is something that’s only suitable for a probable cause hearing, I guess, but Mr. Sloan kept interrupting the interview on one silly pretext or other. Pretending he was choking, things that wouldn’t fool a four-year-old child.” I flushed. “It was obvious he used the opportunity to coach Mr. Dane.”
    I stood up. “Objection. Coaching has a narrow legal definition. If I did interrupt the interview—and I’m not saying I did—but if I did, it would have been to apprise Mr. Dane of his rights, as per my duty as an attorney. Not to
coach
him.”
    â€œSustained,” Judge Evola said after a pregnant pause. “Choose another word, Detective.”
    â€œCall it what you want. It was obvious Mr. Sloan was not happy with how the interview was going. He could see as well as I could what a pathetic story his client was telling. I wasn’t in the room with him, so I can’t testify as to exactly what he told his client. All I’m saying was that the conduct of Mr. Sloan and Mr. Dane, taken