“You’re a bulldog, Charley. That’s why I hired you. So if I’d tried to bullshit you, you’d have poked around until you turned up more inconsistencies. I figured I’d save you the trouble.”
My hand was still shaking a little.
Miles shrugged slightly. “Anyway, as soon as you called, I knew you were on the road to figuring it out. I could have dodged you if I’d wanted to.” He looked out at the water. “Truth is, I guess I just wanted it off my chest. Confessional instinct, or something? Or maybe I wanted to gloat, let somebody know I got away with murder.” He made an ironic grimace that suggested this was not the reason at all. “Tell something like this to a priest or a psychiatrist, who the hell knows what’ll happen. But a lawyer?” He cocked his head slightly. “There’s only one thing you can trust a lawyer to do.”
“What’s that?”
“You sons of bitches’ll take a client’s secrets right to your grave.”
Then he stood and walked off down the boardwalk, past the pretty maples and the amorous couples lying in the grass, growing smaller and smaller in the dying sunlight until finally I couldn’t see him anymore.
I wanted to feel angry, but I didn’t, quite. What I felt—aside from the weak, shaky, feverish sensation that had settled over my body—was a terrible and general sadness that only deepened as the sun sank away and the river went dark.
Miles put 221 Riverside Boulevard on the market a couple of days later, sold it to a sixteen-year-old rap star from Detroit, then moved out to LA. I saw him a couple of times on TV—Entertainment Tonight, that sort of thing—squiring bosomy young actresses around at movie openings.
Then last week, page three of the Free Press: “Controversial Author Dies of Self-Inflicted Gunshot.”
He told me he’d gotten away with murder. But who knows, maybe there’s no such thing—not in Miles Dane’s world anyway. As Daniel Rourke said on the stand: In the end, Miles Dane’s creations always got their just deserts.
ALSO BY
WILLIAM J. COUGHLIN
Shadow of a Doubt
The Judgment
The Heart of Justice
In the Presence of Enemies
Death Penalty
Her Honor
Her Father’s Daughter
The Twelve Apostles
No More Dreams
Day of Wrath
The Stalking Man
The Grinding Mill
The Destruction Committee
The Widow Wondered Why
ALSO BY
WALTER SORRELLS
Power of Attorney
Will to Murder
Cry for Justice
WRITING AS RUTH BIRMINGHAM
Atlanta Graves
Fulton County Blues
Sweet Georgia
Blue Plate Special
PROOF OF INTENT
Copyright © 2002 by Ruth Coughlin and Walter Sorrells.
Cover photo © Tom Hallman.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN: 978-1-429-90323-3
Date of eBook conversion: 07/16/2010
St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / November 2002
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / December 2003
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.