They date from a seventeen-month period. The aggregate face value is approximately four point six million dollars.”

“Those are forgeries,” I said. “Every one of them. There’s a federal conviction. There’s a judgment. There’s an order voiding all of it — I can send you the case number in ninety seconds.”

“I have the case number,” said Priscilla Ochoa. “I have the judgment. I’ve read the whole file, Ms. Miller. I read it twice, on my own time, which I want you to know.”

“Then—”

“Then I have to write a memo.” She said it gently. “And the memo has to explain to a committee of eleven people, most of whom will not read the underlying documents, why we are giving privileged access to our patient financial systems to a firm whose principal appears across four point six million dollars of adjudicated federal fraud.

“I can write that memo. I’ve drafted it. And I have to tell you honestly that in my experience, the committee does not approve it, because there is no upside for any individual on that committee in approving it.