"And..." Hoda Hideo gave a bitter smile and sighed. "It's embarrassing to say, but I don't even have spare money to buy flowers anymore."
"Huh?" Inspector Megure looked at the room full of precious videotapes, along with all kinds of machines that were probably eighty percent useless, then thought about the size of this apartment and looked a little lost. "You don't look that poor."
Hoda Hideo shook his head. "It was all that woman's fault—don't you find it strange? Anyone who could afford to buy a place in this apartment building shouldn't be poor, yet so many people had no choice but to borrow money from her just to get by."
Only then did Inspector Megure realize later. "Right. Why?"
Hoda Hideo knelt on the floor and slammed his fist down in pain. "Because stocks ruin lives!"
"...?" Officer Megure was a little speechless at that answer. "If stocks ruin lives, why did you kill Mrs. Izuki? Don't tell me she transferred the stocks to you?"
Hoda Hideo sighed. "That woman hid it from me and tricked my wife into financing a huge purchase of stocks. My wife thought she could make a fortune and give me a surprise, but who would have thought that what awaited her was a massive debt?"
Jiang Xia said, "So your wife didn't actually die in a traffic accident?"
Hoda Hideo nodded painfully. "My wife was far too naive. She believed whatever Mrs. Izuki said. Under that damn woman's guidance, her debts snowballed, growing larger and larger, until she finally couldn't take it anymore."
"She wrote me a long letter, confessing everything about the stocks and the debt. Then she left behind that wristwatch we'd exchanged as a token of love, found a car on the road, and threw herself into it."
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