“With sole guardianship, the bank auditors can’t question his earlier ledger transfers.

Without it, federal examiners flag the missing four hundred thousand as grand larceny.”

“Where did the stolen money end up?”

“Margin calls on commercial real estate,” Arthur said.

“Your father took out a second mortgage on the Pine Street house to prop up two empty shopping plazas in Akron, and he put up Ethan’s trust as collateral when that loan defaulted.”

“He used Ethan’s money to cover his own bad investments,” I said.