The Last Straw

Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction September 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Some hypotheses are rational— if not logical—but, by their nature, aren't exactly open to controlled experiment!
There's absolutely nothing we can pin it down to with any real certainty, Kessler said. No mechanical defects that we're sure of, no sabotage we can put our finger on, no murder or suicide schemes, nothing! We've put that plane back together so perfectly that it could almost fly again! We've got dossiers an inch thick on practically everybody who was aboard, crew and passengers. We've done six months' work and we don't have one single positive answer. The newspapers were yelling about the number of insurance policies issued for the flight but none of them looks really phony.
He stood at the huge window of Senator Brogan's office, looking out at the shimmering sunlight on one of Washington's green malls. Over the treetops he could catch a glimpse of the Capitol dome.
Brogan sat comfortably in the big chair behind his desk. But weren't there an unusually large number of policies issued? he asked. His big hands toyed with a little silver airplane propeller, a souvenir of his long-standing interest in the problems of commercial aviation. You know, he went on, leaning forward on his elbows and replacing the propeller neatly on the base of his fountain pen stand, this is a matter of interest to me in more than an official sense. Eileen Bennett was one of my wife's best friends. She was on her way to Washington to visit us after a stopover in New York.
Kessler nodded. I know that's one of the reasons you wanted to compare notes. He stood with his back to the window now, a stocky man with a jaw to match and short-cropped graying hair. The newspapers were quite right, of course. There were an unusually large number of insurance policies issued for the flight but nearly all were for the minimum amount.