Empty Promises

friendship.
    Larry’s father thought that his son had a $10,000 insurance policy that was connected to his job at the library, but the detectives couldn’t find it. The only insurance policy they found was a $10,000 policy on Gareth Leifbach’s life. He explained that he had taken that out because of the dangers inherent in activist work. After all, he reminded them, he was the figurehead of gay rights and he was taking on the U.S. Army.
    There had to be other insurance policies, if only they could locate them. “Larry told me Gareth suggested that he take out a large policy too,” one of his close friends said, “with each of them—Larry and Gareth—being the beneficiary of the other’s policy.”
    A reporter from the Seattle Gay News interviewed the investigators, telling them that he had already interviewed Gareth. “Leifbach told me about the threats Larry Duerksen got,” the reporter said. “Leifbach thinks the killer is someone from the library.”
    “Why?” Duane Homan asked, amazed.
    “Because Duerksen’s phone number was unlisted,” the reporter explained. “No one had his number beyond Leifbach and the people at the library.”
    The new controversy involving Leifbach was, of course, front-page news for the gay paper. The man was a magnet for trouble and intrigue and he made wonderful copy.
    On December 19, Lieutenant Dougherty and Detective Darryl Stuver reported that their department had come upon some startling new information: An insurance policy had been taken out on Larry Duerksen’s life. It was written by the Prudential Life Insurance Company, and their records revealed that the payoff on the policy was $500,000.
    The beneficiary? Gareth Leifbach. The policy was brand new—in force for only one week at the time of Larry Duerksen’s murder. He and Gareth had approached a company representative on December 7 and arranged to insure each other’s lives. But Gareth’s policy had been written for a fifth of Larry’s—only $100,000. He told the Prudential salesman that he would seek an additional $400,000 from another company.
    Policies that paid out over $100,000 required that each man take a physical examination, and they had readily agreed to do so. Although Gareth and Larry had physicals on December 12, the paperwork had not yet been completed at the time of Larry’s murder two days later. Because of that, the death of his lover would allow Gareth to collect only 50 percent of the face value of the policy. He would get only a quarter of a million dollars.
    And there, finally, was a very good motive for him to kill Larry. The investigators had seen people killed for a lot less than $250,000, but they suspected Leifbach might not have realized he’d jumped the gun, both literally and figuratively, on the night Larry died.
    Insurance companies have their own investigators and compile intricate profiles of who buys insurance and why. A representative from Prudential explained to the detectives that it is quite unusual to have someone call to inquire about life insurance. Most calls that came from potential clients were about homeowners’ policies or car insurance, she said. Usually, an agent had to approach someone and sell life insurance. People want to be protected in an automobile accident or if a tree fell on their house, but they were reluctant to contemplate their own death.
    The whole transaction with Duerksen and Leifbach had been unusual. Red flags went up immediately when they requested such large policies. It is far out of the norm to insure a man with a modest income for half a million dollars. That was the reason the company required an immediate physical and the first year’s premiums paid in advance.
    “Who called your company first?” Homan asked.
    “Mr. Leifbach,” replied the insurance representative.
    Leifbach had done most of the talking when he and Duerksen came to the office. He explained he was living off savings and contributions from supporters of his campaign. No mention was made of alleged threats against Duerksen, but Leifbach had admitted that their activist work might be dangerous, and that was why he and Larry wanted insurance. True to form, Leifbach had insisted on showing the agent all his newspaper clippings. “He struck me as being very egotistical.”
    There was some concern that Larry Duerksen might have been suffering from a fatal but hard-to-detect illness, so his physical exam was very thorough. And he turned out to be in great