Chapter 6 — The Night of Power Failure on the 17th Floor

An An's eyelashes trembled. "I heard the phone's alarm bell." "It was three o'clock in the morning." "That's the time I set the alarm every day to remind me to learn new words." "I thought I was about to die." "But the next second, I woke up in bed." "The alarm hadn't gone off." "The room was very dark." "Mom's hand was right next to me." "I didn't have time to think, I could only wake mom first." No one in the car spoke. This story is so wild. But everything that happened last night was so real. Captain Dien was silent for a long time, then asked a practical question. "How do you know there is a key at the security desk on the first floor?" An An opened her eyes. "Last time, I heard them talking after entering the house." "They said the door on the first floor was locked, the spare key was taken." "Then the person wearing the gray hat even said something, saying someone left the key at the security desk." "So this time I bet." Policeman Ha softly said. said. "So she didn't guess randomly." Captain Dien did not answer. The car drove into the backyard of the department. Khuong Hoa and An An were taken into a testimony room without windows. A policewoman brought hot water and bread. An An held the paper cup but didn't take a sip. Team leader Dien went out to receive a few phone calls. When he returned, his face was even heavier than before. "The fire point in the electrical room has been identified." "Someone touched the main line before." "The tape on the fire door was not arbitrarily wrapped, but was glued from the outside to block the escape route." "Before the power went out, the camera in the corridor on the seventeenth floor recorded a person wearing a black coat knocking on your door." Khuong Hoa asked. "Have you found that person yet?" Captain Dien shook his head. "But we were able to investigate." The former boss of the training center three years ago, Luong Thua Vien, appeared near their residential area after eleven o'clock last night." Khuong Hoa's heart tightened. "Didn't he move away a long time ago?" "That's how it looks." Team leader Dien placed a camera photo on the table. In the photo, a middle-aged man stands in front of a convenience store outside a residential area. His face is much thinner than it was three years ago. But Khuong Hoa still recognized it. Luong Thua Vien. The person that year once told her: "Don't push things to the end." At this moment, Officer Ha pushed the door open and walked in. His voice was very low. "Captain Dien, the scene on the seventeenth floor has been searched." "The bottom part of Ms. Khuong's wardrobe has been pried open." "The iron box has disappeared."07 When the words "the iron box disappeared" rang out, the atmosphere in the testimony room seemed to be half drained. Khuong Hoa immediately looked at An An. An An did not cry out, nor did she inquire. She just slowly placed the paper cup on the table, her fingertips pressing on the rim of the cup, causing the water inside to vibrate in small circles. Captain Dien asked police officer Ha. "Who has been to the scene?" Police officer Ha flipped through the notebook. "Firefighters went in first, then criminal technicians, the police station blocked it, management only coordinated registration downstairs." "The door lock of Ms. Khuong's house was broken, the inside was ransacked." "The bottom of the wardrobe had traces of being pried open, it seemed to have been touched before the fire broke out." Khuong Hoa's heart sank. "That means they were pried open." Take the box first, then set it on fire?” Captain Dien did not immediately answer. He stared at the photo of the scene, his eyebrows furrowed tightly. In the photo, the wooden panel below the wardrobe is cracked. On the floor were scattered old towels left by Khuong Hoa's mother and a water-soaked album. Khuong Hoa recognized that position. The iron box was placed deepest inside, covered by two cotton blankets. An outsider couldn't find it just by looking. Unless that person already knows what the box is

Where to put it? An An suddenly spoke up. "Don't take the box first." Everyone looked at her. Her voice was very light. "Last time, after entering the house, they searched for a long time." "They knew the box was under the closet, but didn't know the key wasn't at home." "This time they definitely looked for the key first." Captain Dien asked. "So why did the box disappear?" An An raised her head, the bottom of her eyes covered with a layer of gray-white fatigue. "Because someone took advantage of the chaos to come in." "It wasn't the three people chasing us." Tim Khuong. Hoa tightened her mind. "How do you know?" An An looked at the photo. "The closet door was opened so neatly." "Last time they searched through the things they used smashing methods." "This time it seems like someone knew very little about the time, just took the right target." Captain Dien's pen stopped. Police Officer Ha also bowed his head and looked back at the scene photos. Khuong Hoa suddenly remembered the strange phone call. The other person said she took the box away. But if the box was already in his hands, why did he still ask that? Just as she was about to speak, her phone lit up again. This time it wasn't a call. It's a photo. In the photo, an old iron box is placed on a dark wooden table. On the lid of the box is a red sticker that Khuong Hoa used to put on when he was a child, now half of it has come off.