I found the problem in about four hours.

That is not a boast; it was obvious and any competent person would have found it.

He had been recognizing revenue on signature rather than delivery, which meant that on paper he was profitable and in reality he could not make payroll in March.

I told him.

He went white and then he laughed and then he asked me to dinner.

Here is what I did over the next eleven years, and I am going to list it plainly, because for a long time I could not say it out loud without softening it, and softening it is how you end up where I ended up.