“There's nothing here, Detective. Nothing new,” she complained as she went through dusty files that were over thirty years old. I told her to please stay with it. She would sigh loudly, adjust her odd, black-rimmed glasses, and sullenly dig into another file. This pouty ritual went on for hours. I found her incredibly unpleasant.

At around nine o'clock, she looked up in surprise. “There's something here,” she said. “Maybe this is what you're looking for.”

Tell me. Don't edit, please. Tell me exactly what you're reading."

“That's what I've been doing, Detective. According to these records, there were unauthorized attacks on small villages in the An Lao Valley. Civilians seem to have been killed. This happened half a dozen times. Somebody must have known about it. Maybe even your Military Advisory Council.”

Tell me everything that's in there,“ I repeated. ”Please don't leave anything out. Read from the texts."

The boredom and exasperation she had shown before were gone. Suddenly the translator was attentive, and also seemed a little frightened. What she was reading now was disturbing her.

“There are always unfortunate incidents during a war,” she lectured me. “But this is a new pattern in the An Lao Valley. The killings seem to have been organized and methodical. Almost like your serial killers here in America.”

“There are serial killers in Asia, too,” I said.

Ms Nguyen bristled at my comment. “Let me see. There were formal complaints made to your government and the US Army by officers in the ARVN. Did you know that? There are also repeated complaints from what was then called Saigon. This was a murder case, according to the ARVN. Murder, not war. The murder of innocent civilians, including children.” She frowned and shook her head. “There's more about the precise pattern of the murders. Men, women and children, innocent villagers were killed. Often the bodies were painted.”

“Red, white, blue,” I said. “The painting was a calling card left by the killers.”

Ms Nguyen looked up in alarm. “How did you know? Did you already know about these horrible murders? What is your role in all this?”

“I'll tell you when we're finished. Don't stop now. Please. This could be what I've been looking for.”

About twenty minutes later, Ms Nguyen came upon something that I asked her to read a second time. “A team of Army Rangers was sent into the An Lao Valley. It's unclear, but it seems they were dispatched to the area to investigate the murders. I'm sorry, Detective. It's also unclear here whether they succeeded or not.”

“Do you have any names?” I asked. “Who was on this team?” I could feel the adrenalin ripping through my body now.

Ms Nguyen sighed and shook her head. Finally, she rose from her desk. “There are more boxes on the fifth floor. Come with me, Detective. You say that people are still being killed?”

I nodded, then I followed Thi Nguyen upstairs. There was an entire wall of boxes and I helped her carry several of them down to her office.