In the conference room, Shiraishi was watching the earlier interrogation footage...
"That bastard said they were a new variety of green, natural, pollution-free apples, and that as long as I subscribed to the fruit trees, I'd make a guaranteed profit. I subscribed to a hundred and fifty trees, and in the end, all they sent me were two boxes of ordinary apples! I didn't see a single coin in returns!
"Because of this, my bastard son actually said I'd gone senile and forbade me from handling my own money... Do you understand what that means?
"Humans are human because they can use money independently. Anyone who can't control their own money cannot be considered a complete human being!"
Shiraishi: ...
Shiraishi finally understood why the old man had been so furious over three million.
Was he really short on three million?
Because of those three million, his spending had been restricted, and... as a former Ministry of Finance official, he had a different view of "human rights."
In his view, this had stripped him even of the right to be a person.
As for how he had been scammed, there was nothing particularly remarkable about it. They had fabricated a business project, falsified data, and then solicited investments. It could be said that it had been designed specifically for the elderly—the so-called "Lifestyle Consultant" was really someone who taught old people how to invest and manage their finances!
Shiraishi then saw Ootani Shinjiro's account of the crime...
"That's right. I couldn't suppress my anger! So I arranged to meet him and told him to return my money. But that bastard only knelt and apologized, refusing to give the money back... So I used my cane to jab him hard in the chest and pushed him down!"
Ootani Shinjiro did not