Daniel got a Halston cybersecurity analyst on speakerphone. A calm woman in Chicago named Priya. She walked me through it.
“Go ahead and open the lid, Mr. Bennett. Don’t click anything.”
I opened it. My desktop came up. The same blue wallpaper. The Whitcombe folder. My calendar.
And right in the middle of the screen, a folder I had never seen in my life.
HALSTON_DUE_DILIGENCE_FINAL
My stomach dropped through the floor.
“I’ve never seen that,” I said. “I swear to God. I have never seen that folder.”
“Don’t open it,” Daniel said quietly.
Priya started pulling logs remotely. Nobody in the room said a word for what felt like an hour. It was probably six minutes.
“Okay,” Priya said finally. “The files were copied onto this machine last night. 11:42 p.m.”
I frowned. “I was here last night.”
Gavin turned to me. “You stayed until midnight.”
“Yes. Finishing the Whitcombe deck. For you.”
“Were you alone?” Daniel asked.
I tried to remember. The cleaning crew left around ten. Nina left at six. The creative team was gone by eight.
But somebody else had been there.
I looked at Gavin.
“You were.”
His face changed. “I left at eleven.”
“No.” The memory was getting sharper. “You came into my office after eleven-thirty. You asked if I was almost done.”
“You’re mistaken, Chris.”
“You were wearing your gray overcoat. You said your wife was furious because you missed dinner again.”
Gavin’s jaw clenched.
“Priya,” Daniel said. “Whose credentials initiated the transfer?”
A pause.
“Christopher Bennett’s user profile. He was logged in.”
Gavin let out a sharp breath. “There. That answers it.”
I spun around. “You think I did this?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Two minutes ago you said I had nothing to do with it.”
“That was before…”
“Before you found out someone used my login?”
“Enough,” said Eleanor.
The room went silent.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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