Chapter 2 — Female Lawyer and Torn Will

The next morning, Tue Minh came to the office earlier than usual, carrying a wooden box containing broken pieces of the will. She spread them out on a large glass table in a private conference room, under a specialized lamp she borrowed from a friend who works in the restoration of ancient documents. The work of piecing together these pieces of paper requires great patience — each piece, no matter how small, can carry an important clue.

She begins by sorting the pieces by ink color, letter thickness, and characteristic tear lines, trying to find matching edges. After nearly three hours, she had pieced together about a third of the first page — enough to read the familiar opening of a formal will, along with the first few lines of the main body. But just as she was about to put together the most important sentence, an essential piece of paper completely disappeared from the box.

"It seems like not all the pieces are intact," she muttered to herself, her eyes scanning the glass tabletop, trying to determine what the missing piece of paper contained was so important that the person tearing up the will had to hide it separately, instead of leaving it among the pile of scraps of paper.

At that moment, her phone rang. It was a call from Ha Duy Bach, a criminal inspector whom she had never met but had heard of through several colleagues in the industry.

"Miss Lam Tue Minh, right?" The man's voice on the other end of the line was deep and clear. "I am Inspector Ha Duy Bach, in charge of verifying the cause of death of Mr. Dam Vinh Thanh. I heard that you are handling this family's will dispute, and I think we should exchange information."

Tue Minh frowned slightly. "Verify the cause of death? I was informed that it was a spontaneous myocardial infarction."

"That's the initial conclusion," Duy Bach replied, his voice somewhat cautious. "But the additional toxicology test results that just came back this morning showed some unusual indicators in Mr. Vinh Thanh's blood - not enough to confirm poisoning, but enough for us to open a preliminary investigation before closing the case. I think you should know this, because it may be directly related to the motive for the tearing of the will."

That news made Tue Minh speechless for a moment. If Mr. Vinh Thanh's death is not as completely natural as everyone thinks, then this case is no longer simply a civil property dispute - it has entered a much more serious category.

"Can we meet to discuss in person?" she asked, her voice regaining its usual composure. "I think what I'm finding out about the contents of the will, and what you're finding out about the cause of death, can complement each other a lot."

They arranged to meet at noon at a small cafe near the police headquarters, a place quiet enough to exchange sensitive information without fear of being overheard. Duy Bach appeared on time, carrying a thin file, his appearance exuding the seriousness and meticulousness typical of a veteran investigator.

"I've looked over the preliminary forensic report," he said, placing the file on the table but not opening it immediately. "There were traces of a high dose of a sedative in Mr. Vinh Thanh's blood, much higher than the dose he was still prescribed to treat insomnia. This could have aggravated his already weak cardiovascular condition, leading to a myocardial infarction occurring earlier and more severely than usual."

"Does it mean that someone could have intentionally given him a higher dose of medication, knowing that it would endanger the life of someone with heart disease?" Tue Minh asked, her voice tense.

"It's a possibility we have to consider, even though we don't have solid evidence yet," Duy Bach replied, his eyes serious. "But it could also be an unfortunate coincidence — he overdosed on medication because of anxiety and insomnia in the days before making the new will. We need more time and evidence to conclude."

Tue Minh told him about the torn will, about Mr. Doan's meaningful words about "an unknown heir," and about the strange encounter with Dam Anh Vu, a warehouse manager with the surname Dam but who seemed not to belong to the family's power circle.

"Dam Anh Vu," Duy Bach repeated the name, his eyes slightly thoughtful. "I will have someone check his background. If he is indeed related to this family but has not been made public, that could be a strong motive for both incidents - Mr. Vinh Thanh's death, and the tearing of the will."

"I don't think Anh Vu had anything to do with tearing up the will," Tue Minh said, her voice a bit hesitant. "He didn't seem to know about the existence of the new will, and his reaction when I asked about it didn't seem like someone who was hiding something beneficial to himself."

"You have good intuition," Duy Bach said, the corner of his mouth slightly curling up into a thin smile. "But in my work, intuition is just a starting point, not a conclusion. We need concrete evidence."

That afternoon, Tue Minh returned to the Dam family's villa, this time in an official capacity to review the scene of the office where Mr. Vinh Thanh died, as well as collect more information about who had been in and out of this room in the week before his death. Ms. Sau Cam led her into the office, her eyes still as reserved as before.

"He still often worked here late at night, even after his health became much weaker," Ms. Sau Cam said, her voice sad as she looked around at the room that was still intact as it was when Mr. Vinh Thanh was alive — a large mahogany table, a bookshelf reaching up to the ceiling, and a portrait of his late wife hanging solemnly on the wall.

"How long have you worked for this family?" Tue Minh asked, trying to create a friendly atmosphere so the housekeeper would be more open.

"Since I was eighteen years old, it's been forty-two years now," Ms. Sau Cam replied, her voice distant as if recalling a whole lifetime. "I witnessed the old man get married, have children, and also witnessed the most heartbreaking losses of this family."

"What losses, ma'am?" Tue Minh asked gently, sensing that there was something Mrs. Sau Cam was trying to suppress.

Ms. Sau Cam was silent for a long time, her hand tightly grasping the duster she was holding in her hand. “You should ask the family directly about that,” she said finally, her tone somewhat evasive. "It's not my job to recount the past."

Realizing that the housekeeper was not ready to share more, Tue Minh did not force her, instead turning her attention to the safe in the corner of the room, where the will was once kept. She closely observed the locking mechanism, noting down subtle traces of tampering that were difficult to detect with the naked eye, but a professional lock picker would certainly leave more or less.

While reviewing, the office door suddenly opened, and a middle-aged man in a delicately tailored suit walked in, followed by Dam Quoc Hung with a confident expression.

"This is lawyer Cao Nguyen Bang, my legal representative in this entire case," Quoc Hung introduced, his voice full of challenge. "He will closely monitor every move of your investigation, Ms. Minh, to ensure everything is done according to the law."

Cao Nguyen Bang nodded to Tue Minh with a polite but cold smile, just like a lawyer with extensive experience in legal battles over large assets. "I hope we can cooperate professionally, Ms. Minh," he said, his voice full of calculation. "But I must also be frank, my client believes that the will from five years ago — a will that has never been torn up, still intact at the notary's office — is the only valid legal basis that needs to be enforced. Any attempt to restore the content of a destroyed document lacks a solid legal basis."

"The fact that a document is illegally destroyed does not mean that its content loses its legal effect, Mr. Bang," Tue Minh replied, her voice calm but sharp. "If I can prove the content of the new will through the remaining pieces of paper, combined with the testimony of witnesses who witnessed the signing, the court can fully recognize its validity, especially when there are signs that the destruction was an intentional act for personal gain."

Cao Nguyen Bang slightly frowned at that sharp rebuttal, but quickly regained his professional composure. "We'll let the courts decide that, if the case really gets to the point of litigation," he said. "But I advise you to consider carefully, Ms. Minh. The Dam family has enough resources to pursue this lawsuit for a long time, and I believe that you also do not want to waste time and effort on something that may not bring the expected results."

After Quoc Hung and his lawyer left the room, Tue Minh stood still for a moment, clearly feeling the pressure gradually tightening around him. But instead of being discouraged, that veiled threat only made her more determined to find the truth — because, one thing she had learned over many years of practice, was that the people who tried the hardest to prevent the truth from being exposed were often the ones with the most to hide.

Late that afternoon, when Tue Minh was about to leave the villa, she happened to meet Dam Anh Vu pushing a shopping cart across the backyard. His appearance was still as quiet and diligent as the first time she met him. This time, she decided to proactively start a conversation, even though she knew that Ms. Sau Cam might appear again to stop her.

"Have you worked here long?" she asked, trying to keep her tone natural and friendly.

"It's been five years," Anh Vu replied, stopping the cart, his eyes were a bit wary but not cold. "Before that, I worked at a small textile factory. Mr. Vinh Thanh personally came to recruit me here to be a warehouse manager, even though I never thought I was qualified for that position."

"You personally came to recruit me?" Tue Minh asked again, her eyes shining with special attention. "Is that unusual, for a warehouse manager position?"

Mr. Vu slightly shrugged his shoulders, seemingly never thinking deeply about that anomaly. "I don't know anymore. He just said that he saw me working hard, carefully, and wanted to give me a better opportunity. He treated me quite special compared to other employees, often asking about life, about my mother who passed away when I was young..."

He paused mid-sentence, as if suddenly realizing he was sharing private things with a new stranger. "Sorry, I shouldn't tell you this. You're here on business, right?"

"It's okay," Tue Minh said, her voice gently reassuring. "I'm just curious, because I think Mr. Vinh Thanh must really like you to treat you so special."

Before Anh Vu could answer, Mrs. Sau Cam appeared again from the kitchen door, this time her eyes could no longer hide her worry. "Mr. Vu, the inventory needs to be checked urgently before dark," she said, her voice somewhat unusually urgent.

Mr. Vu nodded, said goodbye to Tue Minh and continued to push the cart away, leaving Tue Minh standing there with a series of new questions arising in his mind. Why did Mr. Vinh Thanh personally come to recruit an ordinary warehouse manager? Why do you care about Anh Vu's deceased mother? And most importantly, why did Ms. Sau Cam always try to interrupt every conversation between her and this young man, as if she was trying to protect a secret that she had kept for many years?

On the way home, Tue Minh called Duy Bach to update the situation. "I think we need to learn more about Dam Anh Vu's background," she said. "There is something wrong in the relationship between Mr. Vinh Thanh and him, something the housekeeper seems to be trying to hide."

"I will have someone check his personnel file tonight," Duy Bach replied. "And Ms. Minh, be careful. If Mr. Vinh Thanh's death really has criminal elements, and someone is willing to tear up a will to hide the truth, then that person may not hesitate to do more dangerous things to protect his secret."

That warning made Tue Minh shiver slightly, but at the same time also strengthened her determination. She looked out the car window, the city lights sparkling in the falling night, and told herself that, no matter how dangerous the road ahead was, she would not back down until she found out the whole truth behind the torn will, and behind the questionable death of a man who once held too many secrets in his hands.