Never Judge

Cedric observed the policeman as he asked Mae questions, Cedric was sure that normally it wasn't he that questioned potential suspects and witnesses. This man was too high ranking to do such a trivial job.

Was there reason for the local police to question if there was foul play in the nurse's death? Or was it because the person himself was also quite suspicious. 

"Mr. Reyes?" Capt. Lim called out as he waved a hand at Cedric. "Are you still with us, sir?" The captain asked.

"Yes, sorry, my mind wandered elsewhere." Cerdic explained as he blinked his eyes. "What was your question?"

"Sir, why did you go in Miss Mae's place to meet Mr. Benitez?" The captain asked. Cedric was not at all surprised by his question. This was naturally the first thing the man would ask.

"I went because I wanted to know what Mr. Benitez's intentions were towards my staff." Cedric said plainly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Is it normal for the CEO of the Reyes Group to personally check on an employee's friends?" The police captain asked as he eyed Cedric with suspicion. 

"Of course not." Cedric said with a laugh as he took a sip from his coffee. "I hope you don't mind, I have very little sleep and I need my daily dose of caffeine." Cedric said as he lifted the mug. 

"It's fine, sir." Capt. Lim said. "So why did you check on Mr. Benitez for Miss Mae. Is she someone special?" The police captain asked slowly, carefully picking out his words as not to offend Adrianna.

Cedric laughed at what Capt. Lim was trying to imply and simply shook his head.

"Relax captain. I'm a loyal man, I've loved one woman my whole life." Cedric said as he looked at his wife with adoring eyes. 

He looked back at the police captain and nodded.

"But yes, Mae is important." Cedric said, his answer taking Capt. Lim by surprise. "She is important to the company and to me and my wife, she is more than an employee, she and my other assistants are my friends."

"So you came here out of concern for your. . .friend?" Capt. Lim asked, hesitating as he mentioned the word friend. 

Cedric smiled and shook his head.

He knew that it was quite a foreign idea to the policeman to hear that Cedric treated his employees as friends, most rich men wouldn't do that. Unless, of course they were sleeping with the employee or the employee had come from an equally capable family. 

"Capt. Lim, I came to check on the person who had mysteriously approached my assistant, someone with extensive knowledge of confidential information, out of the blue." Cedric explained as he watched a look of realization cross the police captain's face.

"So you did this for your company?" The police captain asked.

"Yes, in part, yes." Cedric said with a nod. 

"Is this the first time an incident like this has happened?" Capt. Lim questioned Cedric as he once again jotted notes down.

"No." Cedric said, shaking his head. "It has been happening all over the world. All of our foreign offices have had attempted infiltrations through our employees." Cedric explained.

"Is there an ongoing investigation into to this?" The police captain asked.

"Individually in some countries. It depends on how much proof my people have gathered." Cedric said with a shrug.

"And you think Mr. Benitez could have been one such spy?" Capt. Lim asked Cedric.

"We suspected something, but that's it." Cedric admitted. "We don't have any proof Capt. Lim. We were just there to observe the man."

"And did you see him?" The policeman asked Cedric.

Cedric simply shook his head in reply.

"He didn't arrive." Cedric said with a shrug, "As a matter of fact we thought he was simply observing from afar. Waiting for Mae to show up, so I had my men scour the area, but he was not there." Cedric explained.

"And at what time did all of this happen?" Capt. Lim asked as he wrote in his notebook.

"Well, we arrived at around 8am, dropped the girls off, so we were at the coffee shop by 9:30am." Cedric told the police. "We waited there till around 11am." Cedric knew that they were going to ask how long they waited.

"And why didn't you leave when he didn't show up at 10am?" Capt. Lim asked.

"We thought he could be running late." Cedric said with a shrug. "But the staff at the restaurant knew that he was always there on time, he was never late." Cedric said.

"How did you know about this?" The police captain asked.

"I overheard it." Cedric said. The police captain didn't find anything else to question with Cedric so he looked over to Cedric's companions.

"I hope you don't mind my asking, but Mr. Eric Chan, you are quite a popular artist, what are you doing here?" The police captain asked.

"Honestly, I'm just tagging along. I don't have any films or appearances scheduled and Cedric mentioned that he was going out of the country I decided to tag along." Eric said with a shrug as if it was nothing.

"Alright." Capt. Lim said wordlessly as he wrote down Eric's statement. "Were you with Mr. Reyes at the coffee shop?" Capt. Lim asked.

"Yes. All the boys were going, I didn't want to get left behind." Eric explained. 

The police captain simply nodded, accepting his excuse. Cedric assumed that since Eric was an actor they didn't really think he would be involved in any schemes or plans.

"Before we move on, Mr. Eric, one of my staff has a question." Capt. Lim said as he nodded towards some of the uniformed personnel with him.

They shook their heads, refusing to speak up.

"He doesn't bite." Katerina said with a laugh. "Go on." She said with a nod, it seemed she already knew what they wanted to ask.

"Mr. Eric, can we take selfies with you and have your autograph?" One brave female police woman asked as she blushed. 

Cedric couldn't help but laugh when he saw Eric's amused expression.