Chapter 8 — Fire Behind the Line

The office of the Fire and Explosion Investigation Team is located on the third floor of the Fire Prevention Police Department headquarters of Hoa Trach City, a small room filled with documents, scene maps and iron shelves neatly lined with sealed samples. Thien Ly went there late one afternoon, at the invitation of Trong Khiem, who said he had found out something important.

"I have obtained a list of customers who have purchased that industrial solvent in the last six months from the manufacturing company." Trong Khiem spread a file on the table and pointed to a name circled in red. "There was no direct transaction in the name of a suspicious individual, but there was an intermediary distribution agent in the western industrial zone of the city that sold a large amount of this solvent to a construction unit."

"Which unit?" Thien Ly asked, leaning closer to look at the documents.

"Hoa Phat Construction and Leveling Company Limited." Trong Khiem pointed to the text. "I checked, this company is a regular subcontractor of a larger corporation — Prosperity Land Group."

Thien Ly felt her heart beat faster. "So there is evidence of a direct link."

"Not quite yet." Trong Khiem shook his head, his voice cautious as usual. "This is just evidence that Hoa Phat company purchased this type of solvent in large quantities, which is completely reasonable if they used it for legitimate construction purposes — for example, surface treatment, waterproofing, or mixing industrial paint. We have no evidence that the solvent from this batch was used in fires."

"But it's a connection worth following." Thien Ly said, trying to suppress her excitement.

"That's right." Trong Khiem nodded. "And one more thing. I looked up the real estate transaction registration records related to the three burned addresses. All three are within the planning boundaries of a project called 'Thinh Vuong Dong Kieu', invested by Prosperity Land Group itself, which had its investment policy approved more than a year ago."

He opened a planning map on the computer and showed Thien Ly that the project boundary was highlighted in yellow, covering almost the entire Dong Kieu old town, including Thanh Loi wood factory, Mr. Nghiep's carpentry workshop, Ms. Loan's grocery store, and the row of motels that had just burned.

"This cannot be a coincidence." Thien Ly stared at the map, her voice shaking with anger. "All the burned houses are located in this project area."

"Exactly." Trong Khiem nodded, his face tense. "And according to the records I found, this project has had difficulty clearing the site for more than a year, because about thirty households, including owners whose houses just burned down, are determined not to sell the land, even though they have been compensated at a higher price than the market."

Thien Ly sat down in the chair, trying to sort out the thoughts that were racing in her head. "If the investor cannot buy land through normal negotiations, and the houses that are determined not to sell are burned one after another, the purpose is clear - burning to force the remaining households to sell, or to create an excuse for the government to declare the area degraded and unsafe, forcing it to be cleared."

"That's the most reasonable hypothesis right now." Trong Khiem agrees. "But to incriminate a large corporation like Prosperity Land, we need direct evidence, not just relying on logical inference. We need to find out who actually started the fire, and prove the financial or directing connection between that person and the corporation."

Thien Ly nodded, but in her heart, another question was growing — if Thinh Vuong Land was implementing this tactic now, had its predecessor, the company that owned the Vinh Thinh warehouse eight years ago, also done the same thing?

"Mr. Khiem, I need you to help me with something." She said, her voice serious. "I want to look up the history of the formation of Prosperity Land Group — see if it has anything to do with the company that owned the Vinh Thinh warehouse eight years ago."

Trong Khiem looked at her for a moment, then nodded and began typing on the computer, looking up business registration documents. After a few minutes of searching, his face gradually became tense.

"Here it is." He turned the screen around for her to see. "Prosperity Land Group was established six years ago, through the merger of many smaller subsidiaries. One of them is called Vinh Thinh Trading and Logistics Company Limited — the same company that owns the warehouse where her father died."

Thien Ly felt like there was an electric current running down her spine. This was the first evidence, concrete and irrefutable, that directly connected the present and the past — between the ongoing series of fires and her father's death.

"Who is the president of Prosperity Land?" She asked, her voice hoarse with emotion.

Trong Khiem pulled another profile, displaying registration information. "Tang Huu Phat, fifty-five years old. According to records, he started his business career from a small transportation and warehousing company, gradually expanding into a large real estate corporation today. And..." He stopped, looking more closely at a line of information. "According to old registration records, he was the founder of Vinh Thinh Company, before it merged into the group."

Thien Ly sat silently, her hands clasped tightly on the edge of the table. For eight years, she has been searching for a name, a face to associate with her pain and doubt, and now that name has appeared — Tang Huu Phat, the man behind both the warehouse where her father died and the project that is threatening to swallow up the entire Dong Kieu old town.

"We need to be careful, Thien Ly." Trong Khiem said, his voice serious, realizing the excitement rising inside her. "This is just a connection in terms of business ownership, not evidence of a crime. Tang Huu Phat can argue that he knew nothing about what happened at the enforcement level, that it was a spontaneous action of an employee or contractor."

"I know." Thien Ly nodded, trying to calm down. "But this is the first time in eight years that I have a specific name to pursue, instead of just having vague doubts. That means a lot to me, Mr. Khiem."

Trong Khiem looked at her, his eyes softened. "I understand. And I promise, we will get to the bottom of this, no matter how long it takes."

Before leaving the office, Thien Ly lingered to ask one more thing that had been simmering in her heart all afternoon. "Mr. Khiem, if Mr. Tang Huu Phat was behind the entire Vinh Thinh warehouse eight years ago, then who signed the investigation conclusion at that time? I want to know if the same person is in charge of supervising both cases eight years apart."

Trong Khiem turned over the old file that he asked to be backed up from the central archive and followed the signature on the last page. "The person who signed the conclusion was the Head of the City Fire Department at that time. The title matches Mr. Vo Ba Tho's current position, but I need to further verify whether he was the right person in office at that time, because the personnel file does not clearly state the date of appointment."

That name made Thien Ly shiver. She had suspected Mr. Tho for a long time, but this was the first time she heard an outsider, a completely objective investigator, mention that possibility as a direction that needed serious verification, not an emotional hypothesis.

"If it's true that he is," she said slowly, "then he is currently the direct superior of both you and me, Mr. Khiem."

"I know." Trong Khiem nodded, his face heavy. "That's why we must be absolutely cautious from now on. I will not report anything related to this name to regular channels, until there is solid evidence. Any communication between us regarding this direction of investigation, I ask to keep confidential, only speak directly, not via phone or internal email."

Thien Ly nodded, clearly feeling the weight of what they had just discovered. The line between who can be trusted and who needs to be wary, which has been fragile for the past eight years, is now more blurred than ever, when their very highest superiors may also be part of the network that is hiding the truth.

That evening, when leaving Trong Khiem's office, Thien Ly walked alone through the streets of Hoa Trach, her mind reeling with the information she had just gathered. She passed by the area near the harbor, where the lights from the anchored ships shimmered on the dark water, and she suddenly realized she was standing not far from the old Vinh Thinh warehouse location - now just a desolate vacant lot, overgrown with weeds, with no trace that a tragedy that changed her whole life had occurred here.

She stood there for a long time, looking into the dark clearing under the moonlight, feeling a complex mixture of old pain and a new glimmer of hope. Tang Huu Phat. That name was now engraved in her mind, like a promise to herself that she would not stop until she found out the whole truth, and made that man pay for what he had done — not just to her father, but to an entire neighborhood that was threatened with obliteration.

Her phone vibrated, a text message from Trong Khiem: "Did you get home safely? From now on, I think we need to be more careful in every step. If Tang Huu Phat is really behind all of this, he certainly has enough connections to know when someone is investigating him."

Thien Ly looked at the message and felt a cold feeling when she realized the truth in that warning. She typed back: "I'm back safely. Thank you for worrying. We'll be careful."

But even as she typed those words, she still couldn't shake the feeling that, from tonight on, she and Trong Khiem were no longer simply two people investigating a case — they had become potential targets of those in power and were willing to do anything to protect their secrets.