He needed fifty million dollars in financing by Friday to close a gap in the acquisition funding.

That was the number he had repeated while pacing our apartment, the number that made dinners late and other people suddenly incompetent.

I remembered words, dates, names of documents.

I did not pretend memory gave me access to private client accounts.

I passed what I knew to the professionals, and they examined the available materials under the proper authority.

The immediate business picture was not complicated in the way Patrick had wanted me to believe all business was complicated.

He had promised an acquisition he could not complete without more money.