Page 76 of Burning Caine
“Yeah.” He touched my arm lightly. “If you need me to look at anything else, from a work standpoint or a friend standpoint, you know where to find me.”
I thanked him as he left and returned to the Pit.
Lucy was sliding the declarations into an envelope. “To the IT department?” With advanced warning on wearing something professional, Lucy had cleaned up well. Black slacks and a loose white top. Doc Martens still, but surprisingly, no gum.
“You got it.”
The Information Technology department, full of programmers, testers, and business analysts, was on the second floor of the building. They were responsible for the Foster Mutual software programs including the policy and claims management systems. The rest of the Foster building was partitioned with cubicle walls, but the IT department was a large open space with desks on wheels. Power poles dotted the room so team members could move around and park their desks wherever they felt and plug into a pole. They were an odd bunch, solitary, and liked their large office darker than the rest of the company, so half the lights were always off.
“Who are we looking for?” asked Lucy.
I walked purposefully through the room until I spied Cass’ husband, Kevin, who worked as a senior software developer. If the information was anywhere in the system, he’d be able to find it for me.
He was at a standing desk, an over-sized pair of headphones tuning out the world. I knocked on his desk and he startled and pulled the headphones down around his neck.
“Sammy! You scared the shit outta me! What are you doing here?”
“This is Lucy,” I said, to be polite. “She’s the intern I told you about.”
“Yeah, I remember.” He nodded at her. “Oh, hey, I got a text from Cassie. Something about you in the newspaper?”
“No comment.” I glowered at Lucy, who looked excited to share. “We’re looking for old policy information. Lucy, tell him what we need.” If nothing else, getting her talking about work would stave off the newspaper discussion.
“We’re researching a claim and we need some policy docs. Here’s the policy number.” She wrote it in his notebook. “We can only get seven years from the main system, but we need ten. Matt Foster said there’s an archive somewhere. Can you pull anything out to help us? Ideally, we’re looking for their original policy declarations.”
I added, “And, if possible, an original copy of their application questionnaire.”
“Yeah, we populate an archive on a seven-year cycle. Gimme two minutes to check in this code I’m working on, and I’ll get to it.”
His desk was a mess, which surprised me because he was so neat and tidy at home. There were stacks of notebooks, dirty glass and plate, a bowl of candy, two Detroit Tigers bobbleheads, and six pens in a ‘World’s Best Dad’ mug.
“Alrighty then.” His fingers flew over the keyboard as screen after screen of colorful text flashed past him. He typed almost as fast as Lucy did and none of it made sense to me. Before I knew it, he flipped to another window with a copy of the reports and he flicked one of the bobbleheads. “I’ve got the original application for you and all the decs. Want me to print them?”
“You’re kidding! That seemed way too easy.”
“It’s rare to need anything this old, but sometimes, especially with personal injury claims, they can go back a long time. You’re hardly the first person to make a request like this.”
We retrieved the documents once they finished printing. When someone applied for insurance, there was a standard set of questions the company asked, which was the first thing Kevin printed for us. I flipped through it to the end, and skimmed until—
Lucy beat me to it. “Prior insurance with AmLife.”
“Hmm.”
“Good or bad hmm?” asked Kevin.
I nodded absently as I looked through the first three years of policy documents. They all looked the same as the first one we’d gone over with Matt, so I threw them in the shredder box. I stared at the application. Prior insurance with AmLife. Their life insurance was still there.
“Thanks, Kevin.” I pointed Lucy toward the exit of the IT department. “Let’s talk to Mike, get him to check with his contact to find out if they carry insurance at AmLife other than their life insurance.”
“Sure, but why?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “There’s something fishy with this claim, so we’re looking for any clues. Harry and Quinn said to focus on intent to defraud, but I’m wondering if the painting was stolen and they didn’t know. Olivia doesn’t strike me as the type of woman to intentionally defraud a company run by a friend. The Brenton PD hasn’t answered my questions about theft…”
I sighed. “I’ve got to be honest, Lucy. I’m kind of grasping at straws here.”
“Harry and Quinn are the experts, right?” she asked, and I nodded. “Why do you think they wouldn’t take it over?”
“I have a sneaking suspicion this is a test.”