Swan Dive

began to go sour at home, he came in one morning and told me to cancel the policy on him for, uh, his wife and child.”
    Great. ”And?”
    ”And I tried to talk him out of it, of course. I, uh, told him I thought it irresponsible and that he certainly should sleep on it.”
    ”What did he say?”
    ”He told me to go... uh, he told me it was none of my concern, and that the policy had best be canceled by that day, with a, uh, return to him of any unexpended premium, or else.”
    ”Or else what?”
    Stansfield made a noise that actually sounded like ”ahem.”
    ”Mr. Stansfield, or else what?”
    ” Roy didn’t, uh, elaborate. He didn’t have to. He could be quite... uh, imposing at times. Of course, I’m certain he wouldn’t have...”
    ”Swung on you?”
    Stansfield just slanted his head.
    I said, ”Any chance that the insurance could still be in effect?”
    ”For the beneficiaries to, uh, collect, you mean?”
    ”Yes.”
    ”No. No, I’m afraid that is, uh, out of the question. I could give you the technical reasons if you need them for your, uh, report, but any grace period would have expired some time ago.”
    ”Did you ever let Hanna know about the cancellation?”
    ”Hanna, his wife?”
    ”Right.”
    ”No, I’m... uh, I didn’t really know her that well, you see. We weren’t, that is, Roy ’s and mine was really only a, uh, business relationship. We really didn’t see each other socially.”
    No doubt. Unfortunately, though, that meant Hanna would have had no reason to believe that Roy ’s death wouldn’t leave her and Vickie with $250,000. ”Let’s get back to Roy ’s customers if we can.”
    ”Certainly.”
    ”Was there ever anything out of line about his claims ratios?”
    ”Uh, no, not at all. In fact, Roy ’s clients had very low claims rates.”
    ”Any exceptions?”
    ”Exceptions?”
    ”Yes, any type of policy—casualty, theft, whatever —that seemed to have more than its share of losses?”
    ”Well, uh, certainly not that I noticed.”
    ”How about any individual insureds?”
    ”No, not really. In fact, I often had so few calls that... uh, well, off the record?”
    ”Sure.”
    ”Well, Roy chose his, uh, customers so carefully that some months, we had almost no claims to speak of. I mean, you’d, uh, almost have to wonder why a lot of these people were even buying insurance in the first place.”
    I thought I could guess.

I had a quick lunch at a waterside clam shack and called my answering service from a pay phone. I had a message from somebody named Hector Rodríguez, who declined to leave his number but said he would call back. No message from Murphy, which I didn’t find surprising. No message from Nancy either, which I did find disappointing. I hung up, got back in the car, and drove to Marblehead .
    Felicia Arnold’s receptionist smiled up at me. ”Yes?”
    ”My name’s John Cuddy. I was here last Friday.”
    ”Yes?”
    ”I believe Ms. Arnold wants to see me.”
    ”She didn’t—”
    ”It’s about Mr. Marsh. Roy Marsh.”
    ”Oh.” She seemed more confused than upset. ”I’m sorry Ms. Arnold isn’t available.”
    ”Look, I’m not trying to make your job any harder than it has to be, but Mr. Marsh was murdered and I really think Ms. Arnold will want to talk to me. Can you call her somewhere?”
    The receptionist started to say, ”She said...,” then motioned me to a chair. ”Please have a seat while I try to reach her.”
    She dialed too many numbers for an inside line, which relieved me. I had no desire to dance Paulie the Pugilist around the Kurdistan rug.
    The receptionist hung up. She stood and beckoned me to her, then turned and led me ten steps toward the conference room. ”Ms. Arnold wants to see you at home.”
    She pointed through the picture window to an understated but perfectly positioned villa across the harbor on Marblehead Neck. ”It’s that one.”
    I thought about the view Arnold ’s own office would have as well. ”She can watch her house from here or her desk.”
    ”She says it gives her something to work for.” The woman suddenly blushed and asked me to excuse her.

    There was a Mercedes sports coupe, top down, in the driveway. A fieldstone path led around to the back of the house and a large in-ground swimming pool. Felicia Arnold lay stretched out on one of two chaise lounges that had never sported a Zayre’s price tag. She wore a European-style string bikini and Porsche sunglasses, which she tilted down