Chap 6
Chapter 6: Shards in the Picture Frame
Victim: Phạm Văn N. – Domestic abuser
Crime: Skull fracture with photo frame, staged as accidental fall
Modus Operandi: Blunt force trauma delivered from behind
Forensics: Angle of impact too linear, no signs of defensive struggle
Some men hit their wives in the dark, so their bruises fade with the morning light.
Phạm Văn N. didn’t bother with that.
He hit her in front of the children. In front of the neighbors. In front of life itself. And no one did a damn thing.
His wife, Lệ, was a friend of a friend. She worked in a garment factory twelve hours a day and came home to a fist. Her eyes always looked like they had just stopped crying. Her right cheekbone healed unevenly — a fracture gone untreated.
She never filed a report. The police said there was “no concrete evidence.” The neighbors said it “wasn’t their business.” Even the priest told her to “be patient.”
She wasn’t the one who ran out of time.
THE CHANCE ENCOUNTER
I met her in a clinic lobby — her wrist was in a bandage.
She laughed bitterly. “I fell. Stupid, right?”
“Slippery floors,” I replied.
She looked at me. “You believe that?”
“No.”
She looked down. “Didn’t think so.”
That was all I needed.
THE OPPORTUNITY
He liked to drink on Friday nights. He came home late, glassy-eyed, angry at things that didn’t exist. He always threw his keys on the same counter. His wife usually left before dawn to work overtime.
That gave me a window.
THE HOUSE
Old building. Fourth floor. No camera on the landing. The hallway light flickered every six seconds — a rhythm easy to blend into.
I entered through the kitchen balcony. It wasn’t locked. Never was.
He was already drunk. Sitting on the couch in a stained tank top, watching a muted football game, a half-empty bottle of rice wine on the table. He didn’t hear me.
On the shelf above him was a picture of him and his wife on their wedding day.
He was smiling. She was not.
The frame was heavy — metal with thick glass.
I picked it up.
I didn’t speak.
Didn’t warn him.
Didn’t let him turn around.
I swung it into the back of his head.
It cracked like old wood.
He slumped forward, one hand twitching, eyes open but not seeing.
THE STAGING
I overturned the chair. Pulled his legs sideways so that he lay half-twisted on the tile floor. I placed the broken frame near the table, angled it so it looked like it had fallen and cut him on the way down.
I wiped the handle. Left a few smudges — just enough to make it look human.
I didn’t over-stage. Too much fiction looks suspicious.
No forced entry. No signs of struggle. Just a drunk man who slipped. It happens every day.
FORENSIC REPORT (Case ID: 2023-3189-N)
Victim: Phạm Văn N., Male, 41
Location: Residential apartment – Bình Tân District
Cause of Death: Blunt force trauma to the occipital skull
Scene Details:
Victim found prone, head wound consistent with sharp edge of picture frame
Frame shattered; glass embedded in surrounding area
Bottle of alcohol present; blood alcohol concentration: 0.21%
No defensive wounds, no signs of struggle
Autopsy Notes:
Skull fracture: Clean linear break, occipital lobe depressed
Angle of impact perpendicular; suggestive of downward strike
Preliminary Conclusion: Probable accidental fall under intoxication
Case Status: No further investigation recommended
His wife didn’t cry at the funeral.
She wore sunglasses, but I saw her mouth. It was relaxed for the first time in years. She brought both kids. Neither of them asked where their father had gone.
Later, she moved to Đồng Nai. Started over. I heard she learned to laugh again.
That was enough.
That night, I wrote the sixth name.
6. Phạm Văn N. – Age 41 – DOD: December 1st, 2023
Next to it, I drew a tiny crack — like a fracture line across a skull.
Because sometimes, breaking something is the only way to fix what’s left behind.
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