“When people like this realize the money’s gone,” he said, “they turn on each other.

Give them a reason, and they’ll do half your work for you.”

That sentence became my strategy, and it is worth explaining why it works, because it is the oldest truth about people who conspire.

A conspiracy is only ever as strong as the trust between the conspirators, and there is very little real trust among thieves — only a temporary alignment of greed, held together by the belief that cooperation pays better than betrayal.

The moment that belief breaks, the whole structure inverts, and every person who was an ally becomes a witness racing to be the first one talking, because the first to cooperate gets the deal and the last one left holding the bag gets the maximum.