by Karen Moore
“What is it? What does it say?” asked Ceri, straining to see the screen over Hanna’s shoulder.
“There, see for yourself.” Hanna handed the phone over as if it were red hot, her voice shaky. “We’ve got until Thursday to deliver the information.”
Ceri quickly scanned the screen. “Okay, at least we’ve got something to work with now. Go and get the memory stick and let’s have a look at what’s on it. It’s got to be pretty important for them to go to such lengths to get it back. We’ll get a head start before Sergio gets home.”
Hanna moved towards her room as if in a trance, her head a jumble of mixed emotions. To her relief, the memory stick was still there, sitting in a little embroidered bag tucked into the zipped pocket of her handbag. No reason why it shouldn’t have been; she’d checked it a thousand times since leaving the cottage in Wales.
If only I’d looked at it before now, I could have gone to go to the authorities and Eva would still be with me, she thought, her eyes welling with tears as she returned to the kitchen. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have been so damn complacent.
Ceri almost snatched the memory stick in her eagerness to see its contents. She inserted it into her laptop which immediately sprang to life, exposing a myriad of folders on its brightly-lit screen.
“At least there’s no password protection, that’s something,” Ceri said, “but even that’s strange if the content is so sensitive…”
Hanna watched as her friend started to click into the individual files. But every time the result was the same; each time the content appeared as a mixure of indecipherable symbols and numbers.
“But, but…I just don’t understand. What the hell is this?” Hanna stammered in surprise. “I was able to access the files easily enough and copy them. How come they’re suddenly unreadable? Have they been corrupted or encrypted in some way?”
“I don’t know that much about computers, but maybe you could view them as you were logged onto Luciano’s computer. In saving them, maybe they’ve either corrupted or reverted back to the encrypted originals.”
“Does that mean that the information’s lost?” Hanna could feel a wave of panic rippling through her body. She flopped onto a kitchen chair as if the stuffing had been knocked out of her.
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but I’m no expert. Sergio’ll have a better idea of what to do when he gets here.”
The information won’t be any good to the kidnappers encrypted, or will they have the means to decrypt it? Hanna thought. If we can’t give the kidnappers what they want, there’s no hope of getting Eva back in one piece. It was too painful to contemplate.
As if reading her mind, Ceri said, “It’ll be okay, we’ll be able to retrieve the information, you’ll see.”
But Hanna couldn’t see. Her vision was blurred with tears. She tried unsuccessfuly to blink them away. “But how?” she cried, giving vent to her emotions. “We’ve only got until Thursday. That’s no time at all…” Images of Eva bound and bleeding flickered before her eyes. Was she still alive? Had they hurt her in any way? Hanna shuddered as she recalled instances in the past where children had been found dead and mutilated, with no real explanation or the perpetrators ever being brought to justice. She couldn’t let Eva become yet another victim.
Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, Hanna resolved to stay strong and do everything in her power to get her daughter back safely. “We’re never going to get Eva back on our own. We’ll have to go to the police.”
“I’ll call Sergio. He’ll know what to do,” said Ceri, reaching for her phone. A hurried one-sided conversation ensued, at the end of which she declared, “He’ll be back any minute – he’s only about 10 minutes away. Apparently he’s got a colleague at work who does this type of thing all the time and can sort it out. He needs to collect the memory stick and take it back to the office for the guy to work on.”
“But can this guy be trusted? Will he tell someone? I can’t risk—”
“Hanna, we really don’t have any choice or time to do anything else,” Ceri interrupted firmly. “It’s our only course of action in the circumstances.”
Hanna stared at her friend, a flurry of questions gathering in her head. “What about going to the police? I know they said not to but it’s got to be an option, or would it be too risky? I don’t want to put Eva in even more danger than she already is.”
“Let’s see what Sergio says when he gets here. He knows how the police works better than most people with his dad being in the force.”
Ceri went over to the stove and picked up the espresso pot, emptied the grounds into the sink, and refilled it with water. “I think we need another coffee while we wait.”
Hanna nodded in a resigned manner, more to appease Ceri than with any real conviction. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach that things weren’t going to work out in their favour.
“Minchia!” Sergio exhaled loudly as he examined the laptop’s desktop, trying to access the files with growing frustration. Each file displayed a jumble of symbols and numbers just as before, and just as Ceri had described over the phone. “How long have we got?”
“We’re due to deliver it on Thursday morning, the day after tomorrow. Will your colleague be able to decipher it by then?” Hanna asked, her face etched into a deep frown, willing the answer to be in the affirmative.
“I’ll take it over there now and get him to start work on it straight away. He’s a whizz at this sort of thing, but God knows how difficult it will be,” Sergio responded, grim-faced. “But it’s the only option we’ve got.” He closed all the open files and removed the memory stick from the laptop.
Hanna was sick of hearing that they had no choice. She noticed how Sergio had managed to dodge answering her question. The situation seemed hopeless. They’d be forced into handing over the information without ever seeing it for themselves. Or maybe it was better that way, never knowing the truth.
“If he does manage to decipher the files, can we be sure he’ll keep the information to himself?” she asked, trying not to panic and give in to her heightened sense of alarm.
“Pietro and I go back a long way. We’ve been friends since we were kids. We grew up together, went to school together. He’s like a brother to me; he wouldn’t risk doing anything that would jeopardise either our personal frienship or our professional relationship. Believe me, he can be trusted.” Sergio gave a faint smile. Hanna realised that he’d quickly copied all the encrypted files onto the laptop as he was talking. “But you can never be too careful; at least this way we’ll have our own copy just in case,” he added with a shrug by way of explanation.
In case of what? Hanna was tempted to ask but decided against it. The thought that Sergio might be involved in some way still lingered in her head.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sicily, Tuesday 28th November, 2017
Back in the kitchen later that evening, Ceri served up a simple dinner of chicken breasts in lemon and white wine with pan fried greens. The food looked and smelt delicious. Hanna tried to eat, but after the first few mouthfuls she felt nauseous and took a gulp of chilled Grillo wine to compensate.
“Sorry, I’m just not feeling hungry,” she said, noticing that Ceri was also pushing her food around the plate with little enthusiasm.
“Neither am I, but we have to eat something to help get us through this.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Hanna forced herself to eat a little more.
Sergio continued to tuck in, apparently unaffected. There’d been no word from Pietro. She glanced at Sergio. As if sensing the unspoken question, he met her gaze and shrugged. “Well, he did say it might prove difficult and could take some time…”
“But we don’t have time. He’s not going to manage it, is he?” Hanna said, her voice starting to crack. “We’re never going to find out the truth about what’s been going on. And if Luciano’s not behind this and the kidnappers can’t access the information, then Eva…” She began to sob and Ceri
jumped up and went over to give her a hug.
“If this isn’t going to work, maybe we should just go to the police and let them deal with it?” Ceri suggested.
“Ma, dai!” Sergio said, quickly swallowing his last mouthful. “ You’ve both been in Sicily long enough to know that the police can’t always be trusted either. I think we’ll get a better idea of what we should do if we can just get to see what’s on the stick.”
“And if that doesn’t happen, then what?” Hanna asked in an anguished voice, the sobs relenting a little.
Sergio sighed. “Then we’ll have to decide whether we go along with the instructions or involve the police or some other authority. If it is people trafficking, we could always approach one of the charity organisations involved. I could do an exposé for the newspaper but that would take time and need hard evidence to back it up. That wouldn’t help get Eva back any time soon.”
“It’s hopeless, we’re never going to get her back,” Hanna groaned, shaking her head despondently.
“C’mon, Hanna, stay positive. We’re doing all we can,” said Sergio. “I’ll call Pietro now and check if he’s made any progress.” He reached for his phone and started to dial, leaving the kitchen to make the call. Hanna looked at Ceri quizzically.
“The reception in here is pretty awful; it’s much better in the living room, and even better on the balcony,” her friend explained, sitting down again beside her.
That would explain the call the night before. Maybe Sergio wasn’t being so secretive, after all. But it had still been the middle of the night.
Fragments drifted through to the kitchen, odd words and phrases animated and tense, but not enough for her to get the gist of the conversation. Sergio returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, a faint smile on his face.
“Allora, Pietro’s been able to access some of the files, not all. At least that should be enough to give us an idea of what Luciano’s been up to. He’s on his way over here now to show us what he’s managed to uncover – it’ll take him half an hour or so.”
Hanna glanced anxiously at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was already just after nine.
“That’s great news,” said Ceri, smiling broadly, getting up and starting to clear the table.
“Let’s just hope it’ll be enough for the kidnappers,” said Hanna, feeling the tension in her shoulders relax a little. “Here, let me give you a hand.” She was grateful to have something to do to distract her and work off some of her nervous energy.
Sergio took three delicate shot glasses out of the cupboard and lined them up on the table, filling each with a dark viscous liquid from an unmarked bottle. Handing them out, he said, “Drink this, Hanna. It’s a local amaro that’ll do wonders to settle your nerves. Cin, cin. Here’s to getting Eva back sana e salva, safe and sound.” He raised his glass in a toast.
Hanna murmured in agreement although she knew it would take much more than a local brew to make her feel better. She took a tentative sip. It tasted herby, almost medicinal, but left a welcome afterglow. Conscious that she needed to keep a clear head, she took another mouthful and left the rest. She looked at the clock again.
“As I said on the phone to Sergio, I’ve not been able to access all the files,” Pietro explained, as he waited in the kitchen for the laptop to boot up. “And even those I’ve been able to get into won’t always let me back in. There’s no guarantee that what we see now will still be accessible an hour from now. Unless you’re the original owner of the material, of course.”
Huddled over the screen, the three friends watched over his shoulder as the desktop sprang into life and he clicked to access the memory stick.
“The easiest files to get into were the videos, and there are quite a few of those. I’ve not been able to view them all in the time. The audio files were the hardest, and the documents fell somewhere in the middle. I’ve kept the original memory stick in its encrypted form and then transferred the files that decrypted successfully onto this one,” Pietro nodded towards the laptop, indicating that they were looking at the latter, and retrieved what must have been the original memory stick from his wallet.
“Sergio didn’t explain much about what this is all about, just that you needed the information urgently. I can leave it with you or I can hang around a while in case you get any problems,” he added.
“Pietro, you’re a star!” said Sergio, clapping him on the back. “If you could stay while we have a quick look through, that would be great.” He slipped into the chair that Pietro had just vacated.
“You’re welcome to wait in the lounge,” said Ceri. “Can I get you a coffee or a glass of wine?”
“A glass of wine wouldn’t go amiss, thanks.” Pietro smiled gratefully as Ceri filled a glass with the last of the Grillo and ushered him into the room next door.
“I’ll keep you company and leave Sergio and Hanna to it,” she told him. “Three of us around a laptop is a bit much.”
Hanna drew up a chair next to Sergio and focused on the screen as the numerous decrypted files started to appear. There was a lot of material – a mixture of documents, audio files, and videos. Most seemed to be opening without any major problem. Sergio clicked into a number of documents which all seemed to be about shipping cases of wine. Was this really wine or was it a euphemism for something else?
“Nothing of much use here,” he said grumpily. “Makes you wonder why they bothered encrypting them if the content was so innocuous.”
Hanna continued to look intently at the screen. “But if you look, there’s a lot about importing shipments. If it was really about wine production, surely it would be mainly about exporting.”
“You’re absolutely right but there’s nothing specific about the nature of the shipments, which is unusual in itself. There may be something somewhere but we’d need to check all the files to be sure, and that would take time. Let’s try the audio files instead for now.”
He started clicking into them but the sound quality was poor. “These seem like the recordings of meetings but it’s difficult to make out what’s being said. Maybe the encryption or the decryption has managed to corrupt the original recording.”
“Let’s try the videos,” said Hanna with growing impatience, feeling disheartened.
Sergio clicked into the first video file. It started to play but quickly froze. He restarted it but the same thing happened. The second file did the same. The third was going the same way but Sergio eventually managed to get it to play.
The footage was grainy and dark, and the audio came in waves. It showed a group of about seven or eight men discussing payment for a “shipmen”, with ludicrously high sums being mentioned. It couldn’t possibly be to do with wine. The camera panned each man in turn but none were familiar to Hanna. As the camera focused on the last man, the colour drained from Sergio’s face.
“What’s the matter? Do you recognise someone?” she asked.
“Porca miseria! He’s in disguise but I’d know that face anywhere. It’s my father.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sicily, Tuesday 28th – Wednesday 29th November, 2017
Sergio continued to stare at the computer screen. “I just can’t believe my father’s involved in some way,” he said, running both hands through his thick, dark hair, his voice distraught. “There must be an explanation, maybe some sort of undercover operation.”
“Your father’s only come up once so far. Let’s see if he appears anywhere else,” said Hanna. “Strange there’s been no sign of Luciano as yet.”
Sergio glanced at her briefly with an odd expression before he turned back to continue working through the files. “Maybe this is all about him monitoring other people and keeping a record of his business transactions, rather than his own involvement.”
It was shortly after one in the morning. Pietro had left a couple of hours earlier, having been thanked for his efforts. Hanna and Sergio had carried on going through the files to see what they could find, but some wouldn’t even
open while others were full of gobbledygook, signs, and symbols that made no sense. The quality of the audio and video files was often poor, the sound muffled, and the images grainy and pixellated as if they’d been taken hurriedly and in secret.
Hanna’s eyes ached with tiredness and she stifled a yawn as she tried to focus on the screen again. She had to stay awake.
Ceri brought over two steaming mugs of caffè latte and set them down beside the laptop. “Here, this should help keep the two of you going.”
“Thanks, Ceri, just what we need,” Hanna smiled gratefully.
Images continued to flick across the screen as she took a sip without thinking; the coffee was still much too hot and scalded her tongue. She hurriedly put the mug down and turned back to the screen.
“Hold on, what’s that?” she said, pointing at the image on display. “It looks like Luciano…”
Ceri came over again and stood behind them, watching as Sergio rewound and enlarged the picture so they could get a better look. The picture quality here was better. Luciano and Michele could clearly be seen talking to two men – one in his sixties who looked like an elder statesman; the other, a handsome man in his fifties with greying hair and dressed in an expensive suit. A number of younger men hung around in the background.
“It’s him alright and that’s his father Michele next to him. Who are the others?” Hanna asked.
“Minchia, that looks suspiciously like the Mayor of Postigliano,” Sergio said, indicating the younger of the two men. “But hold on a minute. One of the men in the background bears a striking resemblance to my brother Pino. It could well be him. My family’s not seen or heard from him in years, but he was always involved with the wrong sort of people, even from an early age. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was involved in this.”
Hanna looked at him in horror. Two members of Sergio’s own family implicated in some way? Could Sergio be trusted, or was he too caught up in this dirty business? If so, what were the chances of getting Eva back safely?
