Chapter 16 - Arthur’s mistake
Arthur Vale had been my consigliere for twenty-seven years.
Fifty-five.
Controlled.
Precise.
He made a serious mistake too.
After the banquet, he authorized internal security to pull seven months of footage before outside counsel issued a preservation protocol.
Why a problem?
Because the Sinclair security archive automatically overwrote certain low-priority feeds after nine months.
Arthur feared delay.
So he copied everything.
Good instinct.
Bad process.
Some exports lacked standardized forensic hashes initially.
No footage was altered.
But authentication became more complicated.
Defense counsel attacked chain of custody.
Outside digital-forensics experts had to verify server metadata and source consistency.
The footage was ultimately usable.
But Arthur learned the same lesson I was learning.
Urgency does not excuse process.
He told me:
“I thought preservation mattered more than procedure.”
“Sometimes.”
“Not here.”
“No.”
He looked annoyed.
Good.
May you like
Even consiglieres need humility.
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