"How much higher?" Darius asked.
"It varies by category. Enough that we need a full statistical analysis before publishing a conclusion. I don't want anybody quoting a number without the underlying assumptions. More importantly, the manual overrides cluster around a small group of employee credentials, including the branch manager's."
She shared a screen showing rows of transaction identifiers. On their own, the entries were dull. They had dates, account categories, workflow steps, and brief internal notes.
Darius had spent most of his career staring at documents like these, and he knew how easily wrongdoing could hide inside administrative routine. A single delay might be an error. A dozen unexplained delays could be poor training. Hundreds of delays falling disproportionately on the same customers, with similar phrases inserted into the record, demanded another explanation.
"What are the notes saying?" Martin asked.
"Terms like 'behavioral concern,' 'customer resistance,' and 'enhanced handling required.' The descriptors are frequently entered before a substantive review of the underlying instrument. In some cases the timestamp on the label is earlier than the timestamp on the document scan."
Darius leaned forward. "So the conclusion was recorded before the evidence was examined."
"That's the concern. We need to verify which entries were generated by the system and which were entered manually."
Martin raised his hand. "And before we go further, I want your mother's account reviewed by someone outside your reporting chain. Darius, you may be a fact witness, but you will not instruct an employee to release money to your family without the ordinary checks."
"Agreed."
"I'm serious. Even if the underlying claim is indisputably valid."
"So am I."
The lawyer nodded. "Then let's put that in writing."
They discussed the preservation of security footage. Some branch recordings were stored locally before being transmitted to a central archive. A standard retention cycle would eventually overwrite certain material if no formal hold were issued. Sarah's team had already sent preservation instructions through the proper channels, but someone at the regional level had questioned the request. Martin's notice would remove any ambiguity about the institution's obligations. The next question was whether the regional office would comply promptly or try to frame delay as caution.
"Who objected?" Darius asked.
"Pamela Ror's office," Sarah said. "The language was that a broad preservation action could interfere with branch operations and create unnecessary concern."
Martin looked up from his notes. "Preserving records does not require accusing anyone. The fact that somebody is resisting preservation is itself relevant."
Darius thought of Nina standing behind the hedge, trying to decide whether the truth was worth the loss of her paycheck. "Make sure the employee reporting channel is outside Pamela's control," he said. "And document every contact with witnesses. No informal questioning by branch management."
They ended the call shortly after nine. Darius ordered dinner and forgot to eat most of it. Through the window, lights came on across the parking structure in square patterns, one after another. His mother lived less than five miles away. He could have driven over and sat at her kitchen table, where there was always peppermint tea and a plate of something he had insisted he was too full to eat. Instead, he stared at a list of transaction codes and wondered how many times an employee had marked another person's life as inconvenient.