"Damn! We thought we had her big motive, that blows it away," Ray said. "She wouldn't kill the goose that lays the golden egg."
"Not necessarily, life insurance might indeed be the motive." Kagan explained. "The certainty of her alimony stopping upon his death provides her with a legal insurable interest.
She could then insure him even though not married. A large life insurance policy on Towson could have been part of the divorce deal. The money could still be her motive. She still could be our suspect."
Sandy said, "I get it. Lump-sum alimony payable upon death. Life insurance set up by the divorce agreement pays her a large lump sum to make up for the monthly alimony that would normally stop when the ex dies. If she kills him, and gets away with it, she's instantly an extremely rich woman."
Kagan continued, "Is she so greedy she'd risk losing guaranteed monthly alimony payments for a possible lump sum, and take the chance of being caught and ending up with zero and in prison?"
"But what if the policy is for millions, Jerry, millions!" Ray suggested.
"For some people everything is never enough," Sandy observed. "How do we find out?"
"Her attorney doesn't have to tell us without a court order," Kagan said. "If she makes a claim for millions, however, some insurance investigator will be all over us."
Sandy said, "We know Loraine definitely directed you to Towson's apartment on the day of the shooting using that text message. That sounds like a plan. Only the killer would know to put you at the scene the very day Towson would be shot."
Kagan said, "So, she did it and framed Ray for the murder."
"Let's not lock that down just yet, Jerry," she suggested. "Could there be any motive besides insurance?"
"Divorces come with built-in motives, take your pick," Kagan replied.
"Okay, here's some other stuff I found out." Sandy referred to her notebook. "About a year ago, Towson had something special going with some married woman who lives in Palm Beach. Supposed to be very hush-hush, yet everyone I asked seemed to know about it, and everyone remembered her name: Elizabeth Montgomery. Same name as some old TV star everyone in the world has heard of except me."
Kagan said, "That actress was a real dish. Loved her work. I have her on some old videos."
"Last night I went online with my tablet and checked property records for every county in Florida. Do you know there are sixty-seven freaking counties in this state? I tried Palm Beach County first, of course, and got an immediate hit. I sat there until after midnight searching through the other sixty-six. Anyway, Towson does own a condo in Palm Beach County. I Googled Elizabeth Montgomery, and after seven billion hits on the old actress, I found the name in Palm Beach County. Sure enough that's her address."