Chapter 2 - A Seed of Doubt in the Ashes
The roaring flames of the incinerator cast a demonic, flickering orange glow across Inspector Vance’s weary face.
He watched the black smoke rise through the industrial chimneys, unable to shake the chilling sensation of Mai’s bloody grip on his arm.
In his twenty years on the police force, he had seen hardened criminals lie to their very last breath, but Mai’s final terror felt entirely different.
She had already been dead, resurrected by a freak medical anomaly, only to use her second chance to name Kim Van Nguyen.
Vance stepped out into the damp morning air, pulling his trench coat tight against the biting chill of the Heilongjiang province winds.
Across the parking lot, surrounded by a phalanx of expensive lawyers and bodyguards, stood Kim Van Nguyen himself.
Nguyen was impeccably dressed in a tailored Italian suit, looking entirely unbothered by the brutal drama that had just concluded inside the walls.
He was smoking a premium cigar, occasionally checking his diamond-encrusted watch as if this execution were nothing more than a tedious business meeting.
Vance narrowed his eyes, feeling a deep, instinctual rage boiling beneath his calm, collected exterior.
He remembered the case files perfectly: Nguyen had provided Mai with two hundred thousand yuan to flee to Shenzhen after the murder.
During the original trial, Nguyen’s high-priced legal team had successfully argued that he was merely a naive victim of a manipulative woman's extortion.
The court had believed that Mai acted entirely alone, driven to murder by her own greed and irritation with her poor, persistent ex-boyfriend, Nghia.
But why would a ruthless, calculating billionaire simply hand over a massive fortune to a fleeing murderer unless he was buying her silence?
Vance crushed his cigarette beneath his boot, making a silent vow to the ghost of the young typist who had been thrown off a mountain.
He marched straight toward his unmarked cruiser, ignoring the shouting reporters who were swarming the crematorium gates.
He was not going to let this case turn to ashes along with the tragic, foolish girl who had pulled the trigger.
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The investigation was no longer closed; it was merely entering its most dangerous, high-stakes chapter yet.
Vance slammed the car door shut, picked up his radio, and demanded the immediate reopening of the financial records of Kim Van Nguyen.
