Chapter 3 — Thirty Billion Under a Tin Roof

Ha and Mai returned to Mrs. Nguyet's old house at dawn. The door was not broken, but the drawers were pulled out and clothes were thrown on the floor. A family photo lies face down at the foot of the table.

Mai went straight to the wooden cabinet. The last compartment is empty.

“The will is here,” she said.

Ha observed the lock. There are no pry marks. The person taking the paper has a key or has been let in by Mai before.

Mai looked at her. "You think I took it myself?"

"I think someone wants us to be suspicious of each other."

In the kitchen, Ha discovered a torn bag of rice. Grains of rice form a path leading to the refrigerator. Behind the cabinet is a small slot in the wall, where Ms. Nguyet hid the medicine box.

The medicine box was empty, but on the back was a piece of paper stuck with tape: seven names, seven phone numbers and the date of purchase. The last person is a worker named Hau, who quit his job a long time ago.

Mai said she didn't know where Hau was. Ha called the remaining numbers. Four people confirmed that they had contributed money; one person is in denial; The two numbers are unreachable.

Seven people don't buy tickets every week. They only contribute to the days when Mrs. Nguyet chooses the series of numbers from her children's and grandchildren's birth dates. That evening's ticket was part of the group.

The problem is who has the last ticket.

Mr. Phuc admitted that Ms. Nguyet gave him the ticket when the car stalled. He intended to take it home to send to the group, but she called back and took one. Ha asked him if he still remembered the last number.

"I remember you said number seven. But you could be talking about another one."

Ha showed him a photo of the ticket. He didn't touch it, just looked at the ink stains.

"If the last number is 7, the group wins. If it is 1, Ms. Nguyet buys it separately."

The investigator said the examiner's office only accepts tickets when there is a warrant. Ha signed a commitment to keep the ticket intact, but Vinh filed a complaint saying she had a personal interest because she was the ticket holder.

Duy came home with swollen eyes. Someone looked for him at the market warehouse and asked where the tickets were. He did not say anything, but admitted that he had accepted the invitation to do a livestream for a strange account.

"They said if you tell me who I gave the ticket to, they'll pay twenty million."

Ha did not scold. She gave the phone to the police, then blocked all of Duy's accounts.

"I need money," Duy said.

"I know. But money like that can't save you."

Mai called in the evening and said she remembered where the original will was kept: an old clinic where Ms. Nguyet used to work as a housekeeper. They went there, met the retired boss.

In the file box, the will is not there. There is only one piece of paper that Mrs. Nguyet signed to receive the salary and a line that says: "If I have a problem, ask Ha. Ha knows which ticket belongs to whom."

Mai looked at Ha as if to ask what she was hiding.

Ha remembers the afternoon before the rain. Mrs. Nguyet once placed two sheets on the counter, one folded in half, one flat. She said: "Give the folded leaflet to the group, keep the flat sheet for me." Ha doesn't remember which bill she paid.

At night, Vinh sent a copy from the agent's camera. In the photo, Ms. Nguyet did not buy at Ha's kiosk; She received the ticket from a man in a gray shirt right after leaving the counter.

If the photo is correct, the ticket changed hands before she got on the bus.

Ha asked the appraisal room to see a magnified photo of the corner of the ticket. Under the black ink there was a small scratch, like a fingernail mark. If someone tries to get the last number by scraping the paper, the fiber layer will be different.

Experts use infrared light. The last number appeared as a thin line of the number 7, but underneath there was another layer of blue ink. The two digits were once located on the same spot.

"Someone overprinted the number," he said.

Ha felt cold on the back of her neck. The ticket not only changed hands; it may have been renumbered after leaving the printer.

Investigate Printer tester at the dealership. An extra roll of ink is opened after delivery hours. Vinh said that roll was used for inventory checks, but the serial number was the same as the ink used by the publisher.

Mai stood next to Ha, listening to every sentence. She no longer asked who would receive the money. She asked who could fix a ticket while keeping it intact.

They called a printing expert from the city. He did not come to an immediate conclusion, only requiring that all photo copies must keep the metadata intact.

While waiting, Ha went to the hospital where Ms. Nguyet used to treat Mai's husband. One nurse remembered that she used to write ticket numbers on the back of medical bills. The old file still has an invoice with the handwriting "group - 7 people".

Mai looked at the handwriting and admitted that she had seen her mother write but thought it was a debt repayment list.

Ha asked Mai if she kept the key to her mother's locker. Mai said her husband used to keep a copy.

Mai's husband, Tan, went missing before Ms. Nguyet died. If he takes the key, the fact that the house is ransacked is no longer a matter for outsiders.

At night, Ha heard a knock on the door. No one was standing outside, only an envelope containing a photo of Tan meeting Vinh at the bus station. In the photo, Vinh gave him a small brown bag.

Ha sent photos to Mai. Mai texted back: "Tan didn't know mom had the ticket. He only knew the debt."

Ha looked at the sealed envelope. If Vinh and Tan had met before the accident, the ticket would have been hunted before the buyer could die.

Ha asked the investigator to re-check the list of seven people that Quang sent. The first name is Hau, a bricklayer who disappeared from the village two months ago. The last name is Tan, a person who transports tickets between agents. The remaining six names all have signatures, but Ms. Nguyet's part only has an ink mark.

“What is this dot?” Ha asked.

The investigator placed the list under a magnifying glass. The ink mark was rubbed horizontally as if someone had just signed and had their hand yanked. Half of the ink streaks were still stained with blue paper, similar to the type of paper used in the Vinh agent's ticket book.

Nhi called right when Ha was taking photos. She said she had looked up the group contract: each person contributed fifty thousand in fourteen installments, but there were only thirteen receipts. The fourteenth period lacked a payer.

“Mrs. Nguyet may have bought it for someone,” Nhi said. “Or someone intentionally created a non-existent capital contribution period.”

In the afternoon, Ha and Duy went to Mrs. Nguyet's old house. The front door was not pried open, but the ground next to the kitchen had fresh shoe marks. Duy discovered a can of cow's milk overturned under the cabinet; Inside the can was a piece of half-burnt paper, the words "roof" could still be read.

Ha touched the edge of the paper. The ink inside was drawn into broken lines, like streaks on a ticket. Duy wanted to take it back, but Ha put it in the evidence bag.

On the opposite wall, there is an old nail hole. Mai once said her mother hung the calendar there. Take down the wooden frame and see that the back has seven pencil marks, each marked with a day of the month. The last day coincides with the drawing day.

A noise rang out in the yard. As soon as Duy turned around, the back door slammed shut. Ha chased out and saw a figure climbing over the fence, dropping a gray helmet. Inside the hat is labeled Vinh dealer's warehouse.

Ha does not pick up hats with bare hands. She used a nylon bag to wrap it, took a photo of the location and called the police. But before the patrol car arrived, her phone received a text message from Tan's number: "Don't look for me. The person in the name of the group is not the person who bought the tickets."

Ha read that sentence over and over again. Tan has disappeared, but I can still text. Or someone is holding his phone.