I love a good story. But in investigations, stories can be dangerous.
Because a liar’s best friend is storytelling.
Instead of telling you what happened, they explain why it happened. They justify, rationalise, dramatise. They pull you into a narrative that feels complete but is built to distract.
CAPS reminds me that storytelling is not recall. It is performance. And the longer the story, the more likely it’s concealing something simple and damaging.
Whenever I hear a story growing larger and more elaborate, I pause and ask: where are the facts?