Ashutosh Mitra himself had been the subject of an attack the previous day but his pocket watch which he wore close to his chest had saved him from a death. Since he had lost his faith in the police, he approached Byomkesh, and pleaded with him to save his life. Byomkesh interrogated him and discovered that he had no children, but a nephew who was an alcoholic currently imprisoned for rowdiness. He did have a living will but he politely refused to state who his successor would be, apart from stating that it was not his cousin. Byomkesh took the broken watch and examined it and came to the conclusion that it was broken beyond repair, that the assailant must have fired from no more than 7-8 yards and that he was most likely alone since it is quite unlikely that more than one person would have developed such an acute sense of accuracy. Byomkesh inquired if Mr. Mitra had heard anything when he was attacked to which he replied that he had not, apart from the usual humdrum of midday traffic. Byomkesh noted that all those attacked had been attacked while crossing the street. He also noted a strange coincidence; all the attacked had been successful businessmen with no children to succeed them.