The audit firm resigned in January, which they are entitled to do and which is a catastrophe, and it took eleven weeks to engage another one, because firms do not queue up to take on a client with an active fraud and a resigning predecessor.

The bank. Vance Global had a revolving credit facility with covenants in it, and one of those covenants required prompt notice of any material irregularity or officer misconduct.

Arthur reported it in the first week, correctly, immediately, on advice.

The bank did not call the loan.

The bank did something worse and more ordinary: it declined to renew on existing terms, reduced the line by a third, added reporting requirements, and increased the rate.

Arthur spent the whole of that spring refinancing, and he put a personal guarantee on the replacement facility, which at fifty-six with a house he had spent twenty years paying for is a thing he did at a kitchen table at about one in the morning, alone.