Thaddeus McGivern was not in the habit of allowing anyone sufficient time for anything. The plaque on his office wall read, "RESULTS - NOW!"
The police officer called again the next day - not to see if Dudley had escaped his incarceration, which possibility evidently had not even occurred to him, but to see if Eleanor had returned.
"The judge is becoming impatient," he announced. "I apologize for the reflection on your honesty, but he has asked me to determine if you are hiding your wife."
"Certainly not," Dudley said. "Eleanor isn't the kind of wife one would hide when there's a good chance of getting rid of her. I haven't the vaguest notion of where she is. Unless - you might ask an Alien named Hamal Bakr. He probably knows."
"We have asked Alien Bakr. He says he does not know."
"Did you search his apartment?"
"What would be the point of that when he has said she is not there?"
"I have a feeling." Dudley said, "that this is going to be a long incarceration."
The following morning Dudley was awakened by a violent pounding on his door. Sleepily he stumbled to open it, and the enraged apparition that greeted him shocked him into instant, terrified wakefulness. "McGivern!" he gasped.
The apparition remained - as large as life and several degrees angrier. McGivern's purple suit was immaculate, but he'd crushed his hat in his hand. He pointed with it. "Dudley!" he bellowed. "Why aren't you at the office?"
"Where did you - I mean, how -"
"I just arrived. On the Indemnity, of course, and my first stop was the Galactic office to see how my special troubleshooter was proceeding with the revitalization of our business on this planet. I'd like to hear about this new technique that enables you to sell insurance while in bed."
"There's been some trouble," Dudley said lamely.
"Nonsense! Get dressed, man, and come along. There's work to do!"
"I can't come," Dudley said. "I've been - well - arrested."
"Arrested? Have you let this bunch of hicks -" McGivern waddled across the room and sank his weight into the protesting sofa. "I've been patient with you, Dudley, far too patient, but I've reached the end. You won't learn. You have enough ability to fill even my shoes, someday, but you lack gumption, and without gumption your ability isn't worth a damn. What sort of trouble?"
"It's rather complicated."
"I'll bet it is. You're under house arrest, I take it." He scratched fretfully at the polished dome of his bald head. "I'd hate to let you go, Dudley, but you just won't learn. Take that situation on Himil. All you had to do was bribe a few legislators, and you funked it."
"I thought I could find an honest way -"
"Dudley, we are not moralists or philosophers. We're practical businessmen." He pointed his hat again. "Be ruthless, Dudley. Chart your objective and smash anyone that gets in the way. You aren't playing school games, Dudley. You don't give back the marbles you win at the end of the day. Here's an entire planet without insurance. It's an opportunity to make any ambitious resident manager drool. What have you done about it?"
"I've worked out a plan for an entirely new -"
"Bah! What have you done? Galactic can't pay stockholders' dividends with plans." He struggled out of the cavity in the sofa and thrust a fistful of money at Dudley. "Here - fix this arrest thing. I'm going to nose around and get the feel of the situation."
"I don't think -"
"Good. You waste entirely too much time thinking. Stop it and start doing a few things. The hotels in this town stink, so I'll be staying on the Indemnity. As soon as you've fixed the police, report there. I can't give you more than a couple of days, Dudley. If you aren't straightened out by then, you're through."
He left Dudley nervously fingering the bribery money.
Dudley spent the remainder of the day alternately pondering the insurance problem and wondering what the police officer would do if he left the apartment. He had no intention of offering a bribe, either to the police or to the judge. The only thing that would secure his prompt release was finding Eleanor. She'd never consent to being ordered into a marriage, but if she were found, the police would have no further claim on Dudley. Their problem would be with Eleanor, and they were welcome to it.
He wondered, though, if he would be ruthless enough to turn her over to the police even if he did locate her. She was not to blame for Bakr's muddled attempt to create an insurance claim.
He went to bed early that night, and he slept very badly.
The next morning the police officer came with the startling news that Eleanor had surrendered voluntarily. Her marriage to the dead woman's husband had been recorded, and Dudley's incarceration was terminated. The judge would, when he got around to it, bill Dudley for his fee.
"Am I divorced - legally separated - from Eleanor?" Dudley demanded.
"Certainly not! What if her new husband should divorce her? Just because you have deprived that man of his wife is no reason for your wife to be deprived of a husband. In order to be separated from her, you would have to divorce her yourself."
"Thank you for explaining it so clearly," Dudley said.
He drove his groundcar to the spaceport. McGivern's yacht, the Indemnity, was parked in a choice location near the terminal building where a sign said, "No Landing Permitted in This Area." McGivern was having breakfast. His temper had not improved since the previous day. The steward set a place for Dudley, and McGivern said, snarling around a mouthful of toast, "I've been up all night. Did you know that this crummy planet doesn't even have an underworld?"
"No," Dudley said, "but it doesn't surprise me."
"All I need is an arsonist and a few thieves. With organization, they could create an overwhelming need for insurance within a week." He raised a steaming cup of beverage to his lips, drained it, and slammed it down again. "Nothing. I can import them, of course, but I'd much prefer to patronize the local underworld. What do you have?"
"What is needed," Dudley said, "is an entirely different concept of claim settlement. A type of barter arrangement that would replace a lost object without reference to money. For example, where the liability insuring clause reads, 'The Company will pay in behalf of the insured,' we could change it to read, The Company will furnish in behalf of the insured.'"
"I don't like it," McGivern said. "These people are basically no different from people anywhere. Get them accustomed to the idea, and they'll gladly take money. You won't be able to stop them. But I agree that there are two aspects to this problem. The fire rate is unbelievably low. There aren't any thefts at all. There are hardly any groundcar accidents, and that isn't just unbelievable, it's impossible. We'll have to bring about enough losses to make insurance necessary, and we'll have to establish a precedent or two for settling losses with money. You take the second one. I'll look in on you tomorrow and see what you've done with it."
"I still think we should hire a local attorney to draw up new insurance policies to conform with local practices."
"There aren't any attorneys on Maylor," McGivern snapped. "I looked into that the first thing - which is what you should have done. Get a move on and find me that claim precedent."
Late the next morning Dudley sat at his desk in the Galactic office, nervously contemplating a blank sheet of paper. He'd been up all night, and the blank sheet of paper was the same one he'd started with the previous day. He leaped to his feet in panic when the door opened, but it wasn't McGivern - it was Hamal Bakr.
"Come home, old man," Bakr said with a grin. "All is forgiven. Eleanor has lunch waiting."
"What are you talking about?" Dudley demanded. "Eleanor just married -"
"Her new husband divorced her this morning."
"It didn't take him long to get acquainted with her."
"Oh, he didn't want to divorce her," Bakr said. "He couldn't help himself."
"Eleanor frequently affects people that way."