After reading through the news a few times, Hashimoto Maya's expression changed slightly. He looked up at Haga Kyosuke.
Even amid his busy schedule, Haga Kyosuke noticed his gaze. He turned and asked, "What is it?"
Hashimoto Maya sighed. "There was an explosion involving a piece of equipment at the hospital where your uncle is being treated. It affected a man named Shitara Bungo, killing him on the spot. According to a worker who happened to pass by, the machine showed signs of tampering. The target was a doctor at the hospital, and Mr. Shitara Bungo was an innocent bystander caught up in it."
Haga Kyosuke froze. "Shitara... Bungo?"
Shitara was already a rare surname, and Bungo was a name beginning with B. A premonition suddenly rose within him. "Could this be..."
After a brief silence, Hashimoto Maya took out an anti-eavesdropping device and checked it. Once he confirmed there was nothing wrong, he helpfully offered some insider information. "He was your uncle's illegitimate son. His original surname was Shibata, but after your cousin died last year, he changed it to Shitara."
"An illegitimate son?"
Haga Kyosuke had never expected something like this.
But thinking back carefully, after Shitara Furuhito fell to his death last year, the old madam had been so grief-stricken that her mental state deteriorated. Every day, she wandered around searching for someone.
Yet although the old family head had also lost a son in his old age, he had remained remarkably calm. He grieved for a while, then let it go... So he had more than one escape route?
"What a fitting name." Hashimoto Maya had clearly studied this case closely as well. "Your uncle probably has a bit of the same obsessive-compulsive streak as you. He must have noticed long ago that the names in