I was an auditor, and the first rule of my profession, the one they drill into you until it becomes reflex, is this: when you suspect fraud, you do not confront the suspect until you are holding the proof.

I did not invent that rule and I do not take credit for following it; it was beaten into me over years of watching cases won and lost on exactly that point.

The impulse to confront is the amateur’s impulse, and it feels like courage, and it is actually the most reliable way there is to let a guilty person escape.

Courage, in my line of work, looks like patience.