Chapter 10 — The City Behind the Mist

The next morning, Khanh Linh decided to learn more about Mr. Dang Huu Loc, who both Mr. Thinh and Ho Xuan Truong confirmed was the person who directly approached and was able to swap archived records fifteen years ago. She inquired from the older people in town, and finally found information about his family still living in Van Son.

Ms. Dang Thi Nga, Mr. Loc's daughter, currently runs a small grocery store near the town center. When Khanh Linh approached and introduced herself and her purpose, she appeared quite reserved and wary.

“My father passed away five years ago,” she said, her voice somewhat cautious. "I don't know what you want to find out about him."

"I'm learning about what really happened in the landslide fifteen years ago," Khanh Linh explained, trying to build trust. "I believe that my father - architect Bach Vinh Son - has been unfairly blamed, and I am trying to find the truth to exonerate him."

Hearing the name Bach Vinh Son, Ms. Nga's eyes flashed with a clear change — from reticence to something more complicated, perhaps long-buried guilt. “Go inside,” she said, her voice suddenly softer. "I think it's time for me to tell you something."

In the small living room behind the store, Mrs. Nga poured tea for Khanh Linh, her hands shaking slightly as she told the story. "Before he died, my father was very tormented about what had happened," she began. "He once told me, on a rare drunken occasion, that he had done something seriously wrong, but couldn't say anything because he had accepted a large sum of money to keep quiet."

"Do you know who gave your father the money?" Khanh Linh asked, her heart beating faster.

"My father never gave his name, he just said he was 'a powerful person in the construction industry at that time,'" Ms. Nga replied, her voice low. "But I remember, not long after the disaster, my family suddenly had enough money to renovate the house and buy more land, even though before that we were just a family of ordinary civil servants and did not have such abundant conditions."

This detail further reinforced Khanh Linh's suspicion that a bribe was exchanged to ensure the file swap went smoothly, although Ms. Nga could not determine exactly who paid the money.

"Do you still keep any of your father's papers and books from that time?" Khanh Linh asked, hoping to find more specific evidence.

Mrs. Nga thought for a moment before standing up, going into the inner room and bringing out an old cardboard box. "After my father passed away, I was cleaning out his things and found some old papers whose meaning I didn't understand, so I kept them in case I needed them," she said, placing the box on the table.

Khanh Linh carefully rummaged through the box, and among the old papers, she found a small work notebook, with a few pages recording unusual expenditures at the right time after the disaster — large sums of money with no clear origin, vaguely noted with unique symbols whose full meaning only Mr. Loc could understand.

"This could be important evidence," Khanh Linh said, her voice filled with both excitement and caution. "Do you agree to let me borrow this notebook, or at least photocopy it, to help with the investigation?"

Ms. Nga hesitated for a moment, her eyes filled with inner conflict. "I don't want to ruin my father's reputation, even though he's dead," she said, her voice choking. "But I also cannot continue to live with the guilt of knowing that my family's silence may have contributed to an innocent person suffering unjustly for the past fifteen years."

Finally, she agreed to let Khanh Linh photocopy the entire contents of the notebook, on the condition that her father's name would be handled as delicately as possible during the investigation, avoiding unnecessary damage to her family's honor.

When leaving Ms. Nga's house, Khanh Linh immediately called Viet Hoang to share her latest discovery. "We now have evidence of the illegal money Mr. Loc received, right after the disaster," she said, her voice filled with excitement. "If we can trace the exact origin of this money, we will have enough evidence to make a direct connection between the bribery and the tampering of records."

"This is an important breakthrough," Viet Hoang replied, his voice also filled with excitement. "I will contact a friend who works in the banking industry to see if I can find a way to trace the origin of these funds through legal channels, although with transactions from fifteen years ago, this may face many difficulties in terms of storage procedures."

Before Khanh Linh left, Mrs. Nga held her hand, her eyes filled with a complex mixture of regret and hope. "Miss Linh, I want to ask you something," she said, her voice hesitant. "If this truth comes to light, will my family face any legal consequences? I worry not only for my father's honor, but also for my children."

Khanh Linh thought carefully before answering, not wanting to make promises that she could not guarantee. "I'm not a lawyer, so I can't say for sure legally," she said honestly. "But I believe, proactively cooperating, providing evidence to clarify the truth, will often be considered much more lenient than continuing to remain silent. And more importantly, I think, when you decided to speak up today, you did the right thing, even if it was late, to partially atone for what your father did."

Mrs. Nga nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Thank you for being honest with me,” she said. "I just hope, in the end, it ends in the fairest way possible for everyone involved."

On the way back, Khanh Linh stopped by the project office to check the situation after the break-in, and at the same time began to make detailed plans for presenting all the evidence to the inspection team that was about to arrive. She spent hours arranging all the documents in a logical chronological order, from the first discovery of discrepancies in the drawings, to the testimony of witnesses, and now the evidence of the illegal payment.

"We need to present everything as systematically and objectively as possible," she told herself, arranging the documents while thinking about how to approach the inspection team in the most convincing way. "Not emotional accusations, but a logical, irrefutable chain of evidence, enough to convince even the most skeptical."

She also took the time to draft a concise, easy-to-understand summary for the non-technical members of the inspection team, ensuring that even those without a background in geology or architecture could fully grasp the severity of the entire problem.

That evening, when Khanh Linh sat alone in her hotel room, reviewing all the evidence she had collected — witness testimonies, original drawings, unusual signs on archival records, independent geological survey results, a partial admission from Ho Xuan Truong, and now the evidence of the illegal money — she felt that the panorama of the truth was gradually being completely pieced together, although there were still some important pieces that needed to be figured out in order to be able to solve the problem. bringing to light the entire conspiracy that has lasted for the past fifteen years.

Her phone vibrated with a text message from Viet Hoang: "I just received the preliminary results of the money transferred to Mr. Loc's account from my bank friend. I need to meet you early tomorrow to discuss in person — there's something very unexpected." That short text message made Khanh Linh nervous, wondering where the next clue would lead her in her ongoing journey to find the truth.

She put down the phone, looked out the window again, where the last lights of the town were slowly fading into the deep night, and wondered, tomorrow, how far the truth would take her before everything was completely exposed, before true justice could be served for her father and for all the victims of the disaster of the past.