“Look at this date.” She pointed the numbers out to Jack. “The date of the cancellation.”

Jack narrowed his eyes, peering at the line Val had her finger on. She could tell that he still didn’t see the point.

“It’s before the lawsuit started,” she said. “Why would she have done this?”

“She must have known it was coming. That it was inevitable. Val, she cancelled this policy because she wanted to have nothing to give Colin. It all fits with her plan.”

“There’s a problem with that plan,” she said, and received a quizzical look from Jack.

He leaned forward. “And what would that be?”

“The day she died, she told me that she was meeting with her lawyer.” Val shook her head in astonishment. How did she pay this person? The malpractice policy would have covered all of her legal fees. If she cancelled the policy the lawyer wouldn’t have been paid through the insurance carrier. This would have been out of her own pocket.”

“And this would have been expensive?” Jack said enthusiastically.

“Hell, yes.”

Jack’s face lit up, and as he put his hand to his forehead, Val prodded his arm and said, “Care to tell me what’s going on?”

“Of course, but let me ask this question first. Are you interested in working undercover again? Because what you did with Lauren Fitzgibbons the other day was utterly brilliant.”

33

Jack’s compliment about her undercover work hit home, and Val rode with it. She wanted to do this. She hungered for it. She had once felt passion for her profession as a dentist, but this surpassed it. The night before she was to meet Julia’s lawyer, she barely slept. Adrenaline was fueling a high that was hard to come down from.

“Mr. Underwood, how did your professional relationship with Julia DeHaviland begin? You were the defense attorney for her lawsuit, correct?” Jack asked.

Tracking down the name of Julia’s lawyer hadn’t been easy. She didn’t have it listed in any of her records. Jack had finally managed to get it from Lauren Fitzgibbon’s attorney, who had met with Bradley Underwood just before Julia’s death.

Val sat next to Jack, trying to relax as she waited her turn. She was introduced as his partner. She was supposed to ask her own questions, and was keen to do so. Val was very familiar with malpractice insurance. She had to have a policy when she was in practice, so she knew the dos and don’ts. Cancelling a policy with the threat of a patient bringing a lawsuit would be a stupid thing to do. Sure, it would ruin the plaintiff’s chances of getting a large sum of money from the deep pocket of an insurance company, but the person being sued would ultimately be responsible for any payout, not to mention all the legal fees. Those legal fees alone could easily run into six figures.