Examination of Prosecution Witness ~Ms. Vera Arenas~


    Examination of witness: Ms. Vera Arenas


    Representing the State: Mr. Dragan Rajic, Esq.


    Representing the accused: Ms. Lucia Moretti, Esq.


    Excerpt:</u>


    A. Well, yes. Considering that he’s…


    Q. Thank you. And just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason the two of you didn’t share a surname?


    A. It was simply a practical consideration. I’m a novelist, and at the time when Toby and I were married, I had already published several books under my own name. My agent and I both agreed that I should keep my surname. Toby never had a problem with it.


    Q. Never had, or never expressed a problem?


    Q. Thank you. And would you say you and Dr. Kane were… happily married? At the time of his death, I mean?


    Q. Could you describe the specifics of your marriage at the time of Dr. Kane’s death? Kids? Living arrangement?


    A. I’m not sure how children relate to the happiness of a marriage, but if you must know, we never had kids. Again, with mutual agreement. As for living arrangement… we were separated at the time.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    A. (pause) I think it would’ve been about a month… maybe two?


    A. No. Can’t say I remember the exact date when I moved out.


    The Court: (pause) Okay, I think I see what you’re referring to, but I’m going to need to speak to both of you about this. We’ll take a brief recess for a sidebar. Counsel, please approach the bench.


    Q. Thank you for your patience, Ms Arenas. To recap, at the time of Dr. Kane’s death on September 20th, you and he had been separated for nearly six weeks. This is based on the knowledge that you’d moved out on September 8th. Now, I’d say separation—no matter the reasons for it—is tricky and stressful for both parties in a marriage. Would you agree?


    Q. Did anything happen to underscore that point? Particularly in Dr. Kane’s case? Perhaps some… unusual behavior that demonstrated he might not have adjusted to the change very well?


    Q. The lecture. Yes. Tell us about that. Starting with the when.


    A. I mean, I don’t have to search my memories for that one. It’s there for all to see. September 12th.


    Q. September 12th—in other words, four days after the two of you separated—was when Dr. Tobias Kane gave what would be his final lecture at University Hall. Now, did you attend this lecture?


    Q. Right. Because there’s really no reason for you to do so, given you’re not a medical student at the university. But you have seen the lecture, yes? At least in parts?


    A. The lecture was livestreamed for E-learning. And… some of the students decided to post snippets of it on social media, where… I suppose you could say it’s gone viral.


    A. (pause) In the most common version of the video, you can see Toby is… not quite himself. Distracted, stumbling over his words, visibly sweating. At some point during the lecture, he looks up and focuses on what I can only presume is someone sitting in the audience. He stops mid-sentence, takes a short pause, then goes on… I guess what you’d call a tirade, presumably directed at this person he saw in the audience.


    A. Well, I don’t know. Toby never referred to them by name.


    Q. And we never see the individual he might’ve been talking to.


    Q. During this tirade, you called it, what did Dr. Kane say exactly? Do you remember any of it?


    A. Like I said, it’s there for all to see. I think the university tried to remove the videos, but you know how these things go. And I’m sure you’d be showing it to us anyway, at some point during the trial.


    Q. Yes. But I’m asking what you remember. What were the words that stuck out to you most?


    A. (pause) I suppose the most memorable words, at least in my mind, were “I’ll fucking kill you.”