The Risk Profession

This book is by one of my favorite authors, Donald Westlake. The main guy works for an insurance company. Somebody filed a claim. It was more like a retirement claim. The insured has signed his claim over to his partner, then allegedly died. The main guy needed to investigate for fraud.

He had to travel to an asteroid where the partner was guarding a claim on a treasure the pair had discovered. Our guy asked for more details. The story was the partner and him were drunk. One guy went out to mark the claim. He tore his suit and floated off the asteroid.

The main guy figured he would need to find the body, as he thought this was a homicide. The body could not be buried easily on the hard asteroid surface. It would not be buried along the treasure, and somebody would dig that up. It would not be in orbit, as it might be seen. The main guy figured the body was still in the space suit.

When the main guy returned to the office, it was a long time later. He claimed he took a vacation. What he really did was realize the perp assumed the identity of the partner he killed. His claim on the treasure was void. Our insurance investigator staked a valid claim on the treasure. And had to wait for somebody to come buy the rights to mine it. He quit his job.