Chapter 4 — Thirty Billion Under a Tin Roof

The person in the gray shirt appears on the camera but his face is covered by the brim of his hat. Ha recognized him as standing at the kiosk on a rainy night. Vinh said it was a person from the agent who came to check the goods.

Ha doesn't believe it. The person checking the goods does not need to look at the customer's wallet.

Mai wants to post photos to find him. The investigator stopped him because he might lose evidence. They sent photos to the provincial police, waiting for identification.

While waiting, Vinh blocked the ticket source of the Ha kiosk, citing her violation of procedure. A day without ticket sales means no money to pay rent.

Duy asked Ha to receive money from the livestream account. Ha refused, but used her savings to buy food for the two of them. The house was distrained by the bank because of the debt left by her husband.

Ha called the lawyer. The lawyer said she could request a postponement if she could prove that the property was in dispute, but the advance fee was too high.

At night, Vinh came home, carrying an envelope of money. He said it was “goodwill support.”

"What do I sign?" Ha asked.

"Just confirm the ticket has been delivered to the agent for safekeeping."

"The ticket is with the authorities."

"You can sign first."

Ha pushed the envelope back. Vinh looked at Duy and said that if he wanted his house not to be foreclosed, he should advise her.

Duy stood up and stood in front of his mother. "I'm outta here."

Vinh smiled and reminded him that phone cameras could be cracked. When he left, Ha asked Duy if he knew the man in gray.

Duy shook his head, but in his pocket he had a business card. He received it from the livestream person.

Name on business card: Minh Vinh Award Consulting Company. The address matches Vinh's office.

Ha gave the investigator his business card. They asked for a search warrant, but before the warrant was signed, the gray shirted man called the dead Ms. Nguyet's phone number.

"I don't take tickets to win prizes," he said. "I took it because she owed me."

"Who are you?"

"The only person who knows the last number isn't 7."

Call off. Ha looked at Mai. Mai changes color.

"My mother used to borrow money from him," she said. "To pay my husband's hospital bills."

If the ticket is used as collateral, ownership becomes more complicated. But no one has the right to arbitrarily take it from Ms. Nguyet's hands.

The investigator reported a preliminary assessment: the last number was most likely 1, but the ink and paper layer needed to be checked. If it is 1, the contributing group may not be related; if it is 7, all seven must appear.

Return to the kiosk and open the old ticket book. In the line that day, under Ms. Nguyet's name, there were two symbols: a dot and a dash.

This symbol is the way she always uses to distinguish group tickets from individual tickets.

Ha remembers the folded sheet had dots. The wallet only contained the wet ticket, without any dots.

Someone took the individual sheet out of the wallet and left the group sheet behind.

Ha went to the dealership with the investigator and asked to see the ticket delivery book that day. Vinh gave a set of stamped papers, but the number of tickets sold was less than the amount paid.

"Where is the difference?" the investigator asked.

Vinh said the staff lost it. Ha looked at the signature and saw a slash similar to Man's loan contract.

Man was invited. He didn't know Vinh, but when Ha mentioned his name, he laughed dryly.

"Everyone knows each other when they have money."

Man admitted that he went to the kiosk on a rainy night to ask Ms. Nguyet to repay her debt. He didn't take his wallet; he only held the ticket when she asked if he could use it as a message.

"Which paper did she say?" Ha asked.

"You said the separate sheet. I didn't look at the last number."

If Man holds his own paper, the gray shirt man has it It could be him, not Vinh's person. But Man has a hook ring that looks like a camera.

Man said it was his father's ring and never took it off. Ha asked if he had met Vinh after the accident. Man was silent for too long.

Investigators searched Man's phone and found a call to Vinh at 8:48 p.m., from a camera with no video.

Man said the call was just to ask about debt. Ha didn't believe it, but she didn't have the right to turn doubt into a verdict.

Mai went to see Man and asked him to accept the valid debt instead of keeping the ticket. Man asked if Mrs. Nguyet left the money to the group, he would lose the opportunity to get enough.

Mai replied: "You have taken enough of my mother's fears."

Man turned away. As he left the room, the ring caught on the doorknob, leaving behind a streak of bright metal.

That streak is used as a sample to compare with the ink on the ticket. The outcome is unknown, but every time the adults say they just want to protect, another trace appears.

The next morning, Ha went to Vinh's dealership under the pretense of checking the delivery book. Vinh was not present; The new employee placed a thick notebook in front of Ha, saying he had told no one to see the last page.

The last page records the ticket stubs transferred on the drawing day. The line for Ms. Nguyet is crossed out, next to it is the code "M-7", which is not available in the retail system. Ha remembers a piece of burned paper in the old house: roof fund, group of seven people. That code looks more like an account than a ticket symbol.

Ha took a photo of the notebook page. The employee looked out the door and lowered her voice: "Mr. Vinh forced us to delete our camera access history every night. I thought it was just to avoid revealing sales."

“Do you know who entered the camera kiosk that night?”

“An account named Ha.”

Ha was stunned. The account was created using her identification number, but the email address belonged to an unfamiliar server. Someone logged in three minutes before her, just as the camera started losing signal.

In the afternoon, Man went to the kiosk. He didn't ask for the ticket; He placed on the table a promissory note from Mai, signed by her husband and for an amount three times larger than the actual loan.

“You told Mai, the ticket belongs to the family,” Man said. “If not, I will sue them for fraud.”

Lower the paper. “Where did you get the original?”

“The person who owes money must be responsible.”

“You didn't answer.”

Man smiled faintly, but his left hand tightened on the edge of the table. Ha saw that his fingernails had black ink streaks similar to the streaks on the ticket. She pretended to drop the glass of water, then used a tissue to take a sample.

Mai arrived ten minutes later. As soon as she saw Man, she asked: "Are you the person who met my mother in the old house?"

Man did not deny it. He said Ms. Nguyet owed him money for medical treatment, and that she promised to use the reward to pay. Mai replied that her mother had never borrowed a loan large enough to sign the papers.

The argument was interrupted by the sound of sudden braking on the street. A motorcyclist threw a stone into the kiosk window, then sped away. On the stone was wrapped a piece of paper: "The last number is 1. Don't let group 7 switch it up."

Ha gave the piece of paper to the investigator. That night, preliminary examination results showed that the ink on Man's fingernails did not match the ink on the ticket, but the metal thread in the scratch on the envelope matched the metal used in the ring he was wearing.

Not enough to incriminate, but enough for Ha to understand that Man had touched the envelope or something placed close to it. When she returned home, Mai was already standing by the gate, holding an old recording tape in her hand.

“My mother recorded her last conversation with Man,” Mai said. “But I'm afraid to listen alone."