Charmaine walked up to the witness stand where Mr. Lau had just been sworn in under oath. She took in his disheveled appearance, red rimmed eyes and worn out features. "Mr. Lau, how are you?"

Avoiding eye contact, Mr. Lau cleared his throat and answered meekly. "I'm fine."

In the same soft voice, Charmaine continued, "How is your wife and your mother? I heard that your mother is very ill."

Confused, Mr. Lau looked up at Charmaine, then turned to look at Raymond nervously.

"I object to those line of questions." Raymond stood up and looked arrogantly at Charmaine. "It is irrelevant to the case."

The Judge nodded his head in agreement. "I concur with Barrister Lam." Looking at Charmaine the Judge said, "Please be direct and ask only questions related to the case."

"Your Honor, these questions are pertinent to the case. I would like to demonstrate what a family-oriented man Mr. Lau is."

The Judge looked sharply at Charmaine. "Barrister Seh, you may continue with the questions but please make it short."

Nodding her head Charmaine said, "Thank you Your Honor." She turned to look at the witness again. "Mr. Lau how is your family doing?"

"T-They're doing g-good," he mumbled.

"I understand that your mother is very sick. Her illness requires lot of medical attention. Is that correct?"

Raymond sat back watching the interrogation with a slight smile. He knew where her questions will lead to and found it amusing. She actually thinks that this sympathy act will get the witness to make an honest confession. She was in for a surprise. Luckily, Raymond was prepared.

All of a sudden, Mr. Lau started to gasp for air and swung his arms wildly in the air. Charmaine stepped back in fright while Raymond rushed over to Mr. Lau's side. He called out to the security officers who stood guard at the door, "Call an ambulance!" Raymond then turned to address the Judge. "Your Honor, Mr. Lau has severe asthma that is life threatening."

The Judge banged his hammer on the stand and announced, "Due to the witness' health, I now move the hearing to two weeks from today."

With disbelief Charmaine turned to look at Raymond suspiciously. Raymond felt her eyes on him and turned to give her a tigerish grin.

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Joe returned to his office with the autopsy report in hand. His team were already gathered around the conference table going over their notes. With his arrival, they looked up at once. "I got the autopsy report from forensics," he told them.

Ron picked up a piece of paper from the table and showed it to Joe. "We checked her employment status at the law firm where she worked. She is listed as currently employed and yet no one in the firm noticed that she hasn't been at work for over a week. Kinda suspicious to me."

"That is very odd," Joe said out loud. "Ron, can you go to the law firm again and ask some more questions?"

"Yes Sir!"

Joe referred to his files again. "How about the orphanage where she grew up?"

Selena came forward and spoke, "Nothing out of the ordinary. She was placed there at the age of 5 and left on her own when she reached eighteen. She got along with all the sisters there and visits them yearly. Growing up she also got along with the other kids."

Joe walked to the drawing board and stared at the diagram with its intertwining lines and boxes that he had drawn out last night. "How about friends from the orphanage? Did she maintain contact with any of them after she left?"

"Oh yeah," Embarassed with her poor memory, Selena quickly opened her file and scanned through it quickly. "She was extremely close with another orphan there. According to the sisters, as of last year the two were still good friends because they visited together."

Excited that they have a lead, and hopeful that it will lead them to more clues, Joe pressed on. "Any information on that friend?"

"Yes. Her name is Charmaine Seh. She is a lawyer with the firm K&S. We have all the contact details."

"Good." Joe looked at his team members. Including him there were only the four of them. Not enough to thoroughly investigate every aspect of the case. He had sent a request to his superior requesting help and hopefully will get an answer soon.

"Ma Sir!" someone called out from the entryway. The group turned together to look at the newcomer.

Ron immediately recognized him as the uniform officer who found the body on the roof. "Didn't we get your statement already?"

"Yes. But I'm not here about that." He turned to look at Joe and brought his right hand up in a salute. "I'm Bosco Wong, PC1213 reporting to duty."