Chapter 3 - What Was Hidden Inside Bunny
I didn't open the USB immediately.
That surprised everyone.
Especially Vittorio.
He probably expected me to plug it into the nearest computer and start shouting questions.
I had survived too long to make that mistake.
If Elena had hidden evidence, she had done it because someone was watching.
So I removed the USB and placed it inside a small evidence pouch.
Then I looked at Vittorio.
“Sit.”
He didn't move.
“Boss—”
“Sit.”
He sat.
Mia remained beside me.
I called Gabriel, the only security technician I trusted completely.
He entered through the private corridor ten minutes later.
I handed him the USB.
“Don't connect it to the estate network.”
He understood immediately.
“Air-gapped machine?”
“Yes.”
Vittorio watched every movement.
That was mistake number two.
A man who had nothing to hide would have looked confused.
Vittorio looked terrified.
Gabriel connected the drive to an isolated laptop.
A single encrypted folder appeared.
No name.
No date.
Just one word:
WINTER.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Password?”
I glanced at Mia.
She was sitting on the sofa, holding Bunny.
Then I remembered something Elena had once said.
“When Mia is scared, she counts snowflakes.”
I typed:
MIA3.
The folder opened.
There were only four files.
A photograph.
A financial document.
A video.
And a text file.
The text file opened first.
It contained six words.
DON'T TRUST THE PERSON WHO COMES FIRST.
I looked at Vittorio.
He stared at the floor.
Gabriel opened the photograph.
It showed Elena standing beside a black car outside the docks.
She wasn't alone.
A man stood beside her.
Vittorio.
My jaw tightened.
“That's impossible,” he whispered.
I looked at him.
“You're in the photograph.”
“I wasn't there.”
Gabriel zoomed in.
The timestamp was from two days before Elena disappeared.
Vittorio had lied.
Not once.
Several times.
Then we opened the financial document.
It contained payments from one of my companies to an unknown account.
Every payment had been authorized using my digital signature.
But I had never approved them.
Someone had been moving money.
Someone with access to my private authorization system.
Someone inside my organization.
The video was last.
I pressed play.
Elena appeared on screen.
She was sitting in a dark room.
Her face was bruised.
But her voice was steady.
“If you're watching this, Alessandro, I'm still alive.”
Mia suddenly stopped breathing.
I stared at the screen.
Then Elena said the sentence that changed everything.
May you like
“Do not rescue me until you find out who inside your house is helping them.”
---
