Extras

When Ayako said that, Shiraishi naturally knew she was only comforting herself, but he still said it aloud. "Actually, I'd been wondering about it ever since the fire back then. They robbed the place and then set it on fire—we initially thought another Violent Organizations group had done it, but later ruled that out. It really seemed to have been just an ordinary robbery."

Generally speaking, if someone set a fire after committing a crime, it had to be to destroy evidence.

But the problem was, the fire had served no purpose at all. After all, nobody had been silenced!

If the robbery victims hadn't stubbornly refused to cooperate with the police investigation, the case would have been solved long ago—

Those bastards hadn't found the culprit themselves afterward either. If there hadn't been any large insurance payout from that fire, Shiraishi would have suspected it had all been staged.

"Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt—and, well, it led to today's happy occasion." Ayako sighed.

"A happy occasion..." Shiraishi muttered, still seeming uneasy.

"Yes, and it was probably after that that Mr. Takamura's investment company began getting on track," Ayako said.

"Huh? You even know about the groom's investment company?" Shiraishi was rather surprised. Given the Suzuki family's status, it wasn't strange for an old local Nagano politician to have connections with them. But why would Ayako know a small investment company?

"I'd heard about it indirectly. When I first graduated, some of the business I took over involved investors who had invested in the groom's company. I only just realized it now..."

Elsewhere, Gen and Yamada had already been kicked out by the groom. He had temporarily avoided further questioning, saying he wanted some time alone to calm down.

Seeing the two thrown out of the lounge, Yamagishi called