“If this is what I think it is,” I said, “then Aaron is not moving money for the company.

He’s moving it out of the company.

And he’s using a woman he hired in the spring to sign the papers so his own hand isn’t the last one on them.”

“That’s also my read.”

“Then why did I have to hear it from a tablet at breakfast?”

He had no answer, and the jay flew off, and the porch boards creaked under his shoe as he took a step and stopped.

By three thirty I had Marcus on the telephone in the study, the door closed, the blue folders of my father’s estate business spread across the blotter.