Chapter 3 - The Contents of the Flash Drive
The police took Derek in for questioning. My mother and Aunt Beatrice were ordered to remain in the living room. I took Lily to my sister-in-law’s house down the street to keep her safe from the toxic environment of our own home.
Once Lily was asleep, clutching the new doll I had brought her, I borrowed a laptop and plugged in the bloody USB drive I had found under my father's cushion. The drive was encrypted, but the password hint was simply: "Lily's birthday."
I typed in the numbers. The folder opened.
Inside were hundreds of scanned documents, audio recordings, and shipping manifests. As I clicked through the files, a chilling realization washed over me. These were internal documents from Vance Logistics, the company I worked for.
My boss, Richard Vance, wasn't just shipping electronics and farm equipment across state lines. He was running one of the largest fentanyl and illegal arms smuggling rings in the Midwest. And he was using my secure, high-clearance routes to do it. The "three-day high-security assignment" I had just returned from was nothing more than a decoy to keep me out of town while he moved a massive shipment of contraband.
But the horror didn't stop there. Clara was an accountant. In her spare time, she had been helping my mother sort out the family's finances. She had stumbled upon offshore wire transfers.
My family—my mother, my brother Derek, and Aunt Beatrice—were all on Vance’s payroll. Aunt Beatrice’s funeral home was being used to launder the dirty money, washing the drug cash through fake funeral expenses and "generous donations."
There was a video file at the bottom of the folder. I clicked play. It was Clara, looking exhausted and terrified, recording herself on her webcam.
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"Alex, if you're watching this, I'm already gone. I found out what your mother and Derek are doing. They're working with Mr. Vance. I confronted Teresa today. She told me if I went to the police, Vance would have you and Lily killed. I don't know what to do. I’ve hidden the original ledgers in the safety deposit box downtown. The key is attached to this drive. I gave it to your dad... he's the only one in that house I can trust. Please, protect our baby."
I slammed the laptop shut, tears streaming down my face. My family hadn't just betrayed me. They had sold out my wife to a monster, and when she found out, they silenced her.
