Days pass as Inspector Meier waits for an international warrant while Stéphane Breitwieser sits in near‑solitary confinement with no legal help. Cut off and despondent, Stéphane writes to Anne‑Catherine but receives no replies, deepening his fear that silence from her and his mother signals abandonment.

Under pressure, Stéphane agrees to confess but offers a cover story: he claims he acted alone on impulse, stole only the Wagner Museum bugle to gift his mother, carried no weapon, and has committed no other thefts. He says the bugle is hidden at his mother’s house in a cardboard box near tires, and that he returned to the museum only to erase prints and arrange an anonymous return.

Hoping this narrative shields Anne‑Catherine and Mireille and limits his punishment, Stéphane mails letters urging them to return the bugle, expecting Swiss leniency. Meier finds the tale implausible and ends the interview, choosing to rely on the forthcoming search rather than Stéphane’s statements.

After twenty‑three days in custody, the warrant arrives. Meier and colleagues visit Mireille Stengel’s home in Mulhouse. She denies any objects but allows the search. In the attic—once the secret store of hundreds of works—the officers find no bugle, no art, nothing at all, only an empty room with a bed.