But greed does not produce patient thieves; it produces people who cannot leave the jewelry in the safe for three more weeks, who cannot let the house sit unsold for one more month, who cannot resist moving the money they have already been warned not to touch.

My family had gotten away with the original theft precisely because my grandfather had been trusting and slow to suspect.

The moment they sensed that slowness ending — the moment they felt the ground shift — they should have gone still, lawyered up, and waited.

Instead they grabbed.

They grabbed at everything at once, in a panic dressed up as confidence, and every grab left a print.

I did not have to be clever.