In my line of work, my job is to find the money that clever, powerful people have hidden — and clever, powerful people who are hiding money are, without exception, on their guard against the things they consider threatening.

They watch for the aggressive investigator, the loud accuser, the person who arrives with suspicion written on their face.

What they never watch for, what they cannot bring themselves to take seriously, is the quiet, composed woman who does not raise her voice and does not make accusations and patiently asks to see the documents.

Their contempt is a blind spot, and the blind spot is precisely the size of me.

Every fraudster I have ever caught made the same mistake in the same sequence: first they dismissed me, then they relaxed around me, then they were careless in front of me, and then they were finished.

It is not that I am so brilliant.