Never Judge

Cedric sat across his friends and leaned back against his seat as he finished recounting to them what Mae had told him. He took a deep breath as he watched the frustrated expression on the Chan sibling\'s faces.

"So that\'s it? We wait?" Miguel asked, clearly he was slowly losing his temper.

"So we are all implicated in this now?" Eric asked, ignoring his brother\'s question. "I need to call Ram to think of an excuse."

"Yes, Miguel, we wait." Cedric said with a sigh. "This isn\'t the capitol where we can pull strings and pay our way through every little problem. We have to follow everything to the dot here and the only way we will know the cause of death is if we cooperate with the authorities."

"Fine." Miguel said, raising his hands in the air. "I was just wondering if maybe you or Alexi have some contacts here." 

"Sadly our influence is very much limited here, we need to do everything properly." Cedric said with a sigh. 

"Alright." Miguel said with a nod as held on to his wife. Cedric knew that his friend was doing this to keep himself calm, Veronica had that effect on him, even if the woman herself was rarely calm. 

"As for you," Cedric said as he pointed at Eric. "I\'ll speak to Ram, what we will tell the police is that both you and Miguel tagged along for a vacation. You wanting a break from being recognized on every corner, and Miguel from the hospital." 

"What about Ian, Nicole, and Katerina?" Eric asked as he pointed out the three other people that didn\'t have an excuse. Clearly Adrianna and Veronica were there to accompany their husbands.

"Ian is here for work reasons with the Reyes Group, Katerina as our chief legal counsel is here for the same reason." Cedric said with a shrug, implying that it was a very simple reason that anyone could have thought of.

"And the work reason?" Eric asked.

"Mae\'s stalker." Cedric said with a grin.

"Stalker?" Miguel asked with a confused look on his face as he leaned forward to hear Cedric\'s explanation.

"Yes, the nurse." Cedric said. "That\'s why we were at the cafe. We wanted to see if this man was really a stalker with ill intentions."

"Why is it related to the Reyes Group then?" Veronica asked.

"Because we suspect that he was trying to get information from Mae with regards to the Reyes Group here." This time it was Ian\'s turn to explain. 

"Are you growing that fast here? Fast enough to be a threat to some companies?" Miguel asked his friend.

"Yes." Cedric said with a definitive tone. "Many old companies in Singapore would see us as a threat. They are, of course, better established with more resources compared to us, but we are an oddity. So they all are keeping an eye out for us."

"This isn\'t the only country you are expanding into, has something like that happened in the past?" It was Nicole that asked this time.

"Yes, it has." Katerina said, answering for Cedric. "The Reyes Group has filed multiple cases against individuals trying to spy on Reyes Group employees."

"Good, then it is believable." Miguel said with a nod.

"Boss, sirs, ma\'ams." Mae said with a nod as she arrived in the office. 

"Take a seat and rest." Cedric instructed as he gestured to an empty couch. "Ian, do you mind calling for room service for Mae?" 

Ian nodded and got up to ask the young woman what she needed. 

Mae raised a hand and refused Ian\'s help.

"I can handle it, you guys need to rest and get ready as well." Mae warned them. "They didn\'t know that you were in the country, normally immigration would have informed them. Oddly enough, this time they were not informed."

"Alright, take your time to rest and mourn." Cedric told Mae as he walked over to Adrianna and held her, trying to calm himself down as well.

Cedric and the other\'s took Mae\'s advice, some of them taking a nap, while others ate or drank coffee.

Ian and Cedric took the time to get some work done, reading through reports and replying to emails. Cedric allowed Mae to rest in one of the rooms on her own, he knew that she had somewhat gotten close to the nurse, so she was quite hurt by his death.

After around thirty minutes someone at the lobby called the presidential suite, asking if the police could come up to the room.

Cedric agreed and sent a bodyguard down to fetch the police who had come to take Mae\'s statement.

As Cedric took the call, Ian informed everyone about the police\'s arrival and they gathered in the living room.

When the police finally arrived Mae was still missing.

"Mr. Reyes, I\'m Capt. Lim, my team is in charge of the investigation into the death of Fernando Benitez." A policeman said as he offered his hand to Cedric to shake.

Cedric took the policeman\'s hand and shook it firmly. 

"It\'s an honor to meet you Capt. Lim." Cedric said with a nod. "I understand you are here to take the statement of one of my assistants." 

"Yes, Mr. Reyes. Which of these lovely ladies is Ms. Mae?" The policeman asked.

"She isn\'t here just yet." Cedric said as he took a glance around. "My other assistant, Ian Lim, has gone over to fetch her. Why don\'t you and your men take a seat? Would you like some coffee?"

"No thank you Mr, Reyes, we won\'t be long." Capt. Lim said as he refused Cedric\'s offer for a beverage. "This Ian Lim must be a good looking man, especially since we share the same last name." The police captain said, making Cedric force a laugh.

"To his fiance, he is." Cedric said as he pointed at Nicole, who simply smiled back.

"Ah, Ian, Mae!" Cedric said in a loud voice as he spotted Ian and Mae arriving to join them. "The good Capt. Lim is here to speak to you Mae." Cedric gestured.

Mae forced a smile and nodded.

"Will you need some privacy in questioning her, Capt. Lim?" Cedric asked the policeman.

"No, right here will be fine." Capt. Lim told Cedric.

"Very well." Cedric said with a nod as he gestured for the policeman to continue.

"Miss Mae, we just have a few questions for you, please answer them as truthfully as possible. Don\'t worry, you aren\'t a suspect and we don\'t even know if this is really a crime. So relax." Capt. Lim told Mae, who visibly relaxed with his words.

"Miss Mae, where were you at 9-10am today?" Capt. Lim asked.

"I was here, I was keeping my boss\' wife and her friends company on Mr. Reyes\' orders." Mae answered.

"Where did Mr. Reyes go that you needed to keep Mrs. Reyes company?" The policeman asked.

Mae hesitated as she glanced at Cedric, he knew that this was an act she was putting up, if she didn\'t hesitate the police would suspect that they had discussed this beforehand.

"It\'s fine Mae, go on. Tell the police." Cedric said with a nod, seemingly permitting Mae to speak to the police about his personal affairs.

"Mr. Reyes and his friends went in my place to meet with Nurse Fernando at the coffee shop he often, no, always, he always had breakfast at." Mae explained as the policeman jotted down her statement.

"You and Mr. Fernando Benitez were close friends?" The policeman asked Mae.

"To be honest, we just met this week." Mae said with a frown.

"How did you become his emergency contact then if you\'ve only known each other for a week?" Capt. Lim asked as he gave Mae an intense look.

"I don\'t know." Mae said with a frown. "My bodyguard and I met Nurse Fernando when we had just arrived in Singapore. I\'m here on a two week visit for the Reyes Group, you see."

"How exactly did you meet him?" Capt. Lim asked. 

"He was about to get beaten up when we showed up." Mae explained. "Since then he had often invited me and my bodyguard over for breakfast and dinner, or just to hangout in general. I don\'t know a lot of people here, and the people at the office all treat me differently because I\'m the CEO\'s assistant." 

"Do all of Mr. Reyes\' assistants have bodyguards?" Capt. Lim asked Mae as he glanced at Ian.

"Yes." Mae said with a nod. "Our lives are often at risk because of the work that we do for the company, so Mr. Reyes assigned all of us at least one bodyguard."

"Some have more?" Capt. Lim asked, this time it seemed to be completely out of curiosity.

"Yes." Cedric said, answering for Mae. "My first set of assistants, Camilla, who is now the Vice President of one of my subsidiaries, and Ian both have more bodyguards, both for different reasons."

"Oh." Capt. Lim said with a nod. 

"Would you know of anyone that would want to hurt Mr. Benitez?" Capt. Lim asked as he returned his attention back to Mae.

"No, not really." Mae said, shaking her head. "Was there foul play involved in his death?" She asked.

"We are not sure yet." Capt. Lim told her.

"I didn\'t know much about Nurse Fernando\'s personal life." Mae admitted. "He didn\'t talk much, he asked more questions than answered them. I know he didn\'t have many friends here, he told me he had just moved."

"We were actually hoping to find more people to question through you Miss Mae." The policeman admitted. "The only contact he had on his phone was you, and on all his documents you were registered as the emergency contact." 

"That\'s quite sad." Mae said with a frown. "When will we be able to find out if his death was natural or not?" She asked. 

"In a day or two." Capt. Lim told Mae. 

"I wish I knew who his family was, all he told me was that they were back in our country." Mae told the policeman.

"We will work closely with your government to find his family." The policeman promised.

"I will tell my friend to get in touch with you, he works in the government." Cedric told the police captain, who simply thanked him.

"Mr. Reyes, I will need to question you and your companions as well." Capt. Lim informed Cedric.

"Very well." Cedric told the policeman as he leaned back and relaxed.