Chapter 16 — A Promise At The Cable Car Station

In the morning, the district police arranged a small meeting room next to the lower station to open the box. The glass door is covered with curtains, but not closed; Ms. Nam wants people to be able to see if necessary. Ms. Thao participated via video call, and a bank official was invited as a witness, not a record keeper.

Linh placed the box on the stainless steel table. The dent in the left corner is deeper, the crack in the lid is marked. She read the minutes from beginning to end, asking each person to confirm their name, position and reason for being present.

“Do we need to include people who don't want to be present?” Tu asked.

“If you stand in the room, yes.”

Tu nodded.

Duy placed the two halves of the ticket next to the box. Mai turned on the backup camera. Mr. Khang was brought in a wheelchair, sitting near the window for light. Hung was not allowed to enter but stood in the hallway with two bank employees.

“Open it,” Mr. Khang said.

Linh turned the last lever. This time the mechanism stuck halfway. Only use a specialized tool to gently straighten the edge of the lid, do not pry. A dry click sounded, the lid lifted about three centimeters.

The smell of old paper and airplane oil comes out. Inside were three tar paper bags, a small roll of film, two flat keys and a three-fold letter.

No money, no gold, nothing of value other than papers.

Linh took the first bag. The outside reads: “Brake equipment — delivered on August 19, 2009.” She opens under the camera, puts on new gloves. The first receipt matches the copy from the rest hut, but the quantity only says one set instead of two.

Duy looked at the maintenance book. “The system requires two sets.”

“This receipt states that the delivery party only handed over one,” the bank official said.

“So why does the loan application say it has been received in full?” Linh asked.

No one answered.

Tu looked at the money line. "One set is worth 43 million. Two sets are 86 million, the exact advance amount."

Mai took a copy of the contract. "The contract does not state the quantity. It only states 'equipment according to the appendix'."

“The appendix was changed,” Linh said.

The second pocket contains two original appendix pages. The first page states the quantity of two sets, the next page states the recipient "Vo Minh Vinh". Below is Vinh's signature and Nguyen Khai's confirmation signature. Father Linh's signature is similar to the samples he used to sign, but the last stroke is unusually long.

Linh looked for a long time. “My father signed.”

Duy did not speak.

“But you signed when the appendix still said equipment, not a loan,” Linh continued.

The third page in the bag is not an appendix but a copy with a bank stamp. The recipient part was changed to "Nguyen Minh Quang", then a confirmation stamp was added.

“This is the changed version,” Ms. Thao said through the screen. “Need to examine ink and stamps.”

Linh placed the two copies next to each other. The cartouche mark on the revision has a one-millimeter offset. The stamper used an old stamp, not the stamp of the current loan management department.

“Was the seal stamped before or after writing the name?” the officer asked.

“Need to be assessed,” Linh replied. “But the ink was partially overwritten, meaning the name was written first and then stamped.”

Duy held the piece of paper, his eyes red from lack of sleep. “So the last signer is not the recipient.”

“Yes,” Mr. Khang said. "The recipient is Vinh. The person who became the borrower is your father."

Tu sat quietly. Linh opened the third bag. Her father's letter was dated August 22, 2009, one day after the addendum was changed.

"I checked the warehouse again. Two sets of brakes were not delivered in full. Vo Minh Vinh left the route with the original documents. Nguyen Minh Quang asked me to sign a confirmation for disbursement. I refused. until there is a comparison. If I can't come back, give half of the ticket to Man, so she can keep it until someone has two parts."

The last paragraph is blurred. Maybe water, maybe ink was wiped off.

“Min is my mother,” Duy said.

“My father sent her a letter,” Linh replied.

“So why didn't mom tell me?”

“Maybe she's afraid you'll do something dangerous.”

“Or she is also afraid of records.”

The small roll of film was under the letter. The police officer's request was not spontaneous, but Ms. Thao proposed to seal it and send it to the appraisal unit. On the film reel is labeled “Weighing Room — 08:40”.

Two flat keys open a thin piece of metal, engraved with a bank account number and four words: “Reconciliation at warehouse.”

Mai looked at the number. “This is a dissolved company account.”

“The money was transferred there and then to another account,” she said. “I can trace it if the bank gives me the original data.”

Bank officials did not respond immediately. He looked at the appendix, then said: "The original file has been transferred to the archives."

“Which warehouse?” Linh asked.

“Central operations warehouse.”

“Profile code?”

He flipped through the book and was silent for too long.

Hung stood outside the door and said: "There's no need to make things difficult for the staff. Records will be provided according to the process.”

Linh returned. “The process took twelve years.”

Hung took a step forward, but the police stopped him. He looked at the box, then looked at Mr. Khang. “Khang, you kept it too long.”

“I kept it because you asked.”

“I didn't.”

“Quang requested. But you are the last to receive orders.”

Hung's face turned pale. “I'm just a young employee.”

“Young employees can still keep a key.”

Linh looked at the two people. “Mr. Hung, have you ever logged into your Van Lo 08 account?”

"Are not."

Mai opens the record. The login device used Hung's employee code, but the time was when he was still a deputy team leader. Data records the address of the cable weighing room.

“It can be faked,” Hung said.

“Maybe,” Ms. Thao replied through the screen. “But you must hand over the device and old password for inspection.”

Hung did not answer.

Duy looked at the box. “Do we have enough to ask the bank to stop giving out forever?”

Ms. Thao said: "It's enough to make an urgent request, not enough to conclude who's fake. Need original copy, signature verification, account data and testimony of witness Hanh."

Mai mentioned the name. “Hanh is my sister.”

Linh nodded. “She saw what happened in the weight room.”

Mr. Khang closed his eyes. “Hanh still keeps a film camera. She took a photo of the person changing the appendix.”

“Hanh didn't tell me,” Mai said.

“Because she thought he was gone.”

“Do you know where he is?”

Mr. Khang looked at Linh. “No one in the room wants to continue opening it.”

Linh understood immediately: the weighing room. But they went in there without seeing the camera.

Tu stood up. “I know the place.”

“You took us there,” Duy said.

Tu looked at the box. “After everyone backs everything up.”

Linh closed the paper bag, keeping the order intact. She read the new seal number, signed it, and asked each person to sign. The box is placed in a police safe, no one is allowed to keep the key alone.

When leaving the meeting room, Hung called Linh back. “Your father has accepted his share of responsibility. You don't need to pull down the whole cable line.”

Linh looked at him. “I only bring to light what has been hidden.”

“You will put a lot of people out of work.”

“One person losing a job is not like three families losing someone.”

Hung looked down, not speaking.

Outside the station, cabin number 17 stands still. On the glass door, the red paint had been wiped off, but it remained there is a triangular streak left.

Duy stood next to Linh. “Do you regret it?”

“I regret not asking dad sooner.”

“I regret not believing my mother.”

“We can't fix what happened before.”

“But it may not happen again.”

Mai's phone vibrates. A text message from Ms. Hanh: "I found the camera. Let's meet in the old room before dark."

Linh looked at the sealed box. The first evidence was not enough to end the debt, but it was enough to make the story impossible to return to silence.

Ms. Thao asked everyone not to leave the station until the authorities finished making a report. Linh checked each paper bag again, placing copies on two different memory cards. One copy was sent to Thao, the other was sent to her work email in the archive. Duy records the box's serial number and the condition of the lid edge. Mai creates a time table for bank calls.

Tu stood outside the yard and did not participate. Linh walked over and asked: "What do you plan to do with your testimony?"

"I don't know yet."

"I know who helped Vinh leave the line. I know my father is blamed. I know the captain used an old account."

“I know more than I want to.”

“But if you don't speak, someone else will speak for you.”

Tu looked at the mountainside. “I'm afraid my father is still called a thief.”

“Fear does not make the truth disappear.”

"I know."

“You can tell it once, in front of people who need to hear it.”

Tu nodded slowly. “I'll tell you after I find the camera.”

At the station below, Hung was detained for testimony. A new team leader was appointed to temporarily request that all old accounts be turned off. The cable line will not reopen until the inspection of pillar number 4 is completed. People are informed not to arbitrarily enter the technical area.

Linh looked at the stationary cabin. The two ticket halves have completed their first job: getting their holders to the same room. The rest is not to open the box again, but to find someone who can confirm that what is inside has been changed.

Mai texted Hanh that they would arrive before sunset. Duy checked the seat belt and gave Linh a new raincoat.

“Don't use the old one from now on,” he said.

“Because of the red wire?”

“Because the old one was slashed.”

Linh received the shirt. “You are worrying by buying things.”

"Correct."

“Then I accept.”

They headed towards the old path, where the weighing room was located behind the cliff. On the way, Linh opened her father's letter again. The line “don't ask who they have to pay the debt for” suddenly has a different meaning: the debt cannot be resolved by finding someone to blame. They must identify each signature, each choice, each silence.

Ahead, Tu stood waiting. He held an old key and said: "Hanh said the camera was not in the room. It was hidden in a place where the photographer didn't want anyone to know."

"Where?" Duy asked.

Tu looked up at the maintenance cabin. “On the roof of cabin number 17.”