If he were actually dead, then it could only have happened but minutes before.

Some were down, but I doubted if more than one was actually dead.

It took her months just to accept the idea that he was actually dead.

They'd all been blown off their feet by the blast, but no one was actually dead.

For the first time, they began to believe that their chief was actually dead.

Yet not for a moment did I suppose myself actually dead.

Looking at her so full of life, Web had a hard time believing that the woman was actually dead.

No one suspected, indeed, or had reason to suspect, that she was not actually dead.

Why she didn't at least stick around long enough to see if I was actually dead or not!

He asks multiple times if his wife and "pretty ones" are actually dead.