Tang Ze ignored his obviously forced look of surprise and turned to Azusa Enomoto, asking with utmost seriousness.
"Miss Enomoto, was he very close to your brother, Mr. Sugihito?"
Even without the advantage of a script, this guy was the most suspicious sort of person in Tang Ze's eyes.
Generally speaking, it was perfectly normal for a suspect's family to refuse to believe they could have committed a crime. But that reaction rarely came from a mere colleague.
Leaving workplace culture aside, this guy did not look like the sort of friend who had genuinely been that close to the suspect.
"Eh?" Azusa Enomoto froze at the question, turning to study Tohji Kawase's expression. "I-I suppose so..."
It was a little inappropriate to say something like that in front of the person himself...
"Had you known each other for a long time?" Tang Ze changed his approach.
"Not really." This time, Azusa Enomoto nodded much more decisively. "He only became my brother's colleague in the same department last month..."
"Only a month, huh." Tang Ze gave him a meaningful look.
A month was enough to build a passable working relationship, but it was unrealistic to say they had become truly close. Especially in a Japanese workplace, where one of them stood out as somewhat out of place because of his personality and way of doing things.
"...What do you mean? Are you implying that because Mr. Sugihito and I were not that close, my concern for him is suspicious?" Tohji Kawase furrowed his brow and looked Tang Ze over with a mixture of anger and disdain. "Come to think of it, who are you...?"
"He is..." Seeing the atmosphere turn hostile, Azusa Enomoto hurriedly tried to put in a word for Tang Ze.
"Who I am is not important. This