"
"You are already holding it up?" queried Craig.
"Yes. You see, we investigate thoroughly every suspicious death.
In most cases, no body is found. This case is different in that
respect. There is a body, and it is the body of the insured,
apparently. But a death like this, involving the least mystery,
receives careful examination, especially if, as in this case, it
has recently been covered by heavy policies. My work has often
served to reverse the decision of doctors and coroners' juries.
"An insurance detective, as you can readily appreciate, Kennedy,
soon comes to recognise the characteristics in the crimes with
which he deals. For example, writing of the insurance plotted for
rarely precedes the conspiracy to defraud. That is, I know of few
cases in which a policy originally taken out in good faith has
subsequently become the means of a swindle.
"In outright-murder cases, the assassin induces the victim to take
out insurance in his favour. In suicide cases, the insured does so
himself. Just after his return home, young Phelps, who carried
fifty thousand dollars already, applied for and was granted one of
the largest policies we have ever written--half a million.
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