“When we look into a new hire at a senior level, we treat them the same way we do a subject under investigation,” an executive said.

By the time I heard this, I had been at the company for two months and I was halfway through my 30-day P.I.P. (Personal Improvement Performance review). I didn’t need to be Inspector Poirot to detect that the jig was up.

My late father was a deal maker. I was raised to believe “real” men didn’t earn money. They made it: one big idea. Get to yes. But, after a yearlong stint of freelancing in search of that big idea, my son arrived. I needed a steady paycheck. My years of reporting had taught me how to ask enough questions to look the part and get hired.

The company’s clients came from the worlds of professional sports, Hollywood, Wall Street, aviation, oil trading, fine jewelry, cryptocurrency, mining and other big-money endeavors.

Every case was unique, but the questions were similar. Will online threats turn into real-world violence? Police were investigating a matter, but the client wanted their own report. Is this entrepreneur the next Elon Musk or a grifter in a tuxedo? A start-up needed to know if an investor was really in a position to put in billions with a “b," what the source of that money was, and what else the investor was involved in.