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“She works in Manhattan at one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, so she’s basically chained to her desk. Anyway, she said Baronville is smack in the middle of what the insurance industry has started to call Opioid Alley. Fifty or so years ago insurance companies had different insurance ratings for different communities, but that was outlawed. So even thoughthey call places like Baronville part of Opioid Alley, that’s really unofficial because they really can’t charge more for a policy simply because of where you live. But insurersdofile rates based on an entire state and the opioid crisis has grown to such an extent that it’s actually affecting longevity, and thus the premiums charged tend to be higher. Like Norris said, it’s a for-profit business.My friend said that even though Keith Drews was a young person, the fact that he lived here and had suffered a back injury and was consequently taking painkillers would raise a red flag for them. And the fact that most opioid abusers start with prescription painkillers would also be factored in. And a million-dollar policy for an unmarried and childless person with no job would have also raisedquestions. The bottom line, she told me, was that because of Drews’s circumstances, it’s highly doubtful a policy that large would have been approved. But even if an underwriter would okay such a policy, the premiums wouldn’t be a couple hundred bucks a year like Norris quoted me for my sister.”
“What would they be?”
“She could only give me a ballpark, but she said for a ten-yearpolicy it would be about two thousand a year. For a thirty-year policy about four thousand. So how could Keith Drews have afforded that unless someone was making the payments for him, like you suggested?”
“But your friend said that she didn’t think the policy should have been issued in the first place, even though it was.”
“That’s right.”
“Which makes me wonder whyan insurer would’ve taken that risk. And it’s not just Drews. As you know, Kemper told me a lot of life insurance policies have been cashed in here over the last few years.”
“Either the insurance companies involved have been royally screwing up, or maybe people are lying on their applications.”
“They would surely investigate that before paying out,” countered Decker. “In fact,Kemper told me that the companieshadinvestigated a number of them, but still ended up paying out.”
“Well, if they did write the policies and they couldn’t find any wrongdoing, they would have to pay out.”
“Kemper emailed me a list of the insurers that have paid out money. It’s a long list. From all over the place. Some big names, but many I’d never heard of.”
“MeaningNorris and whoever else might be doing this are probably spreading it around. My friend also told me that life insurance companies give agents contracts based on the volume of business the agent will throw their way. If the volume isn’t there over a few years’ time, the contract gets yanked. And with the sort of scam Norris may be running, if you go to very few insurers or even just one, they’regoing to quickly see something weird is going on and they’re going to stop writing policies here and stop doing business with the agent. But maybe Norris doesn’t care about that for some reason.”
“Which brings up another important question.”
“What?”
“I wonder how much of the million bucks Linda Drews got to keep. And who got the rest?”
