I was not smarter than those other auditors.

I was merely more stubborn about the small things.

I had learned, over a career, that the small inconsistency you most want to explain away is almost always the loose thread of the whole garment, and that if you refuse, absolutely refuse, to look away from it, it will eventually unravel everything.

My son had left me a great many small inconsistencies.

And I was not going to look away from a single one of them.