"Spies?" Asked Mei as she looked over the documents, "Is that common in the corporate world?"
Nathan nodded, "Definitely! Every year, Krylo Tech has an estimate of thirty industry spies within our company and only sixteen percent of them are actually caught."
"What does that have to do with the Ectasuline case?"
"A month after Mr. Palmer won the case, Human Resources sent out a memo to everyone stating that three scientists who worked on Ectasuline were revealed to be sabotaging the product. A few weeks after they were fired, Dr. Thompson and I found out that those three began working for Epzido."
"Wait a minute …" Mei looked up at him, feeling a bit leery about the situation, "These three lab workers, who were exposed for sabotage which almost got a man killed, were able to immediately find jobs again?"
The man nodded, "Yep! From what we've heard those three have been working there for almost a month now. Which means that they were hired about a week after being discharged from Krylo Tech."
"That sounds very suspicious. Did the hiring manager at Epzido not do a background check on either of them?"
Nathan shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure about that but this is too suspicious to be just a coincidence. Shortly after Mr. Palmer won the case, Epzido announced their own erectile dysfunction pill while the news media was putting my company on blast for our failure."
Mei looked down at the documents and rubbed her chin with the side of her index finger, "Hmm … All this sounds like Epzido might definitely be guilty but …" She looked up at him, "I'm not supposed to be making those kinds of bold assumptions."
"Are you claiming that Epzido is innocent?" Asked Nathan with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
The detective shook her head, "Of course not! I'm just saying that, in my line of work, making these kinds of assumptions is unacceptable."
"But assuming that Don Muller is a cold blooded murderer because the Mr. and Mrs. Reid said so is perfectly fine?"
"What?!" Mei was taken aback as she shook her head, "No, no! I never assumed that-"
"*You* never believed that, detective …" Began Nathan, his voice still sounding fairly hostile, "But your coworker sure does."
"Who?" Mei seemed very shocked, "Henry? But he would never make a bold assumption like that. He's the one who trained me."
Nathan shook his head, "No, not him. That Tracy woman. Apparently, she thinks that Mr. Muller is some heartless criminal, despite the Reid's claims not lining up with any logic, and she went on a tirad about the blacks and Latinos in our country."
"Oh …" Mei seemed to get less tense, "Well that's just Tracy. She's always been like that, from what I've heard. She's the type who refuses to get with the times."
"Let me guess, you swear that not all cops are like her and that she's just a vocal minority?" Asked Nathan, gradually sounding more bitter.
"I never said that!" Mei's hands curled up into fists, "You're acting like I'm some upper class, white girl who thinks that racism is just some meaningless buzzword and that our justice system is flawless!"
There was a moment of silence between the two as her words began to echo through the empty diner, causing two of the employees to peer over at them. The two staff members then returned to minding their own business as they continued reading their magazines and smoking their cigarettes. Nathan looked down at the table and took a deep breath, realizing what he had just done. The man faced the detective.
"Listen …" He began slowly, "I'm really sorry about snapping at you like that and making those kinds of assumptions about you." He apologized sincerely.
Mei slowly unclenched her fists and sighed softly, "It's alright, Nathan. I understand that not everyone likes cops."
The man shook his head, "No, that *wasn't* alright for me to do! I shouldn't have assumed that you and that Tracy woman both think alike. I mean, Henry was nothing like her."
"To be honest, we don't really have a vocal minority at our precinct. The vocal ones are the majority, people who think similarly to Tracy and Jack."
"Jack?" Question Nathan, "Who's that?"
"He's this older cop at my precinct who's always making unsavory remarks about people, usually towards the women."
"Oh? That's terrible! Is he the reason why there are hardly any female police officers at your office?"
Mei shook her head, "Actually, we don't have any female officers at my precinct. Most of them are victim advocates while a few are SROs. Meanwhile, I'm the only female detective."
"Oh really?" His eyes widened in surprise, "That's really fascinating! I never realized that you were the only female investigator at your workplace. I suppose your parents must be proud."
"Well … Not really." Mei looked down at the table, "My mom doesn't really like cops since she and my father had a few unjust runs-ins with them."
"I can understand that." Nathan sighed, "They don't seem to like minorities very much."
Mei peered up at him, "When I first told her about how I planned on attending the police academy, she thought of me as some sort of traitor because I wanted to work for the people who hurt our community. But the thing is, I wanna change that. I wanna make sure that everyone, even minorities, feel safe around cops and aren't afraid to call us when they need help. I know that we've done terrible, unjust things to people and gotten away with it, but I want to put a stop to that. One of the biggest reasons why white police officers keep attacking innocent minorities is because they look at the color of our skin and automatically assume that we're criminals because of that. That's why Henry and I try not to make those kinds of bold assumptions about people because we understand just how dangerous those kinds of things can be."
Nathan, seeming to be a bit impressed, gave her a slight nod, "That's … Really interesting. I didn't realize you were so passionate about your job that you wanted to change an entire system that's been around for ages."
"Listen, I know that we can't change things overnight but being mindful of these kinds of issues is a step in the right direction."
"You have a point. However, it's not enough." He narrowed his eyes as his voice grew very stern and low, "In order to really create change, you need to start with the people at the top and weed out everyone who's pushing their toxic 'shoot first, ask questions later' ideologies."
"Weed out?" Asked Mei, seeming slightly uncomfortable by his choice of words.
"Huh?" Nathan's expression began more relaxed as he had just realized what he said, "Oh, I meant fire. Fire anyone who's going by those ideologies since doing so will show other cops that their actions have consequences."
"Oh, I see."
*That was odd.* Thought Mei, *I've never heard someone refer to firing people as weeding them out.*
"Anyways, sorry for going off topic." Nathan smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's fine." Responded the detective, calmly.
"So when do you plan on visiting the lab? Maybe you can find out if we have any more spies, which I'm pretty sure we do."
"Hmm …" Mei rubbed her chin with the back of her index finger, "How about tomorrow?"
"That soon?" The man seemed fairly surprised.
"Of course! I mean, this is the only case I'm working on, currently. I don't get to work on things this interesting usually."
"Oh? What kind of cases do you usually get assigned?"
"Just the minor ones regarding traffic violations and teenage vandals."
"So is this your first real criminal case?" Asked the man.
Mei shrugged, "I guess you could say that." She peered down at her watch. "I need to get going." She grabbed the documents and placed them back into the folder before she put it into her bag. She looked up at him, "Thank you for meeting with me."
Nathan gave her a soft smile, "No problem! Would you like me to walk you back to your car?" He packed up his things as Mei carefully got up from her seat.
The detective gave him a little smile, "No thanks!"
"Oh …" His smile faded into a slight frown, "Are you sure? Are you still mad at me?"
Mei shook her head, "No, no! Don't worry, I'm not upset with you anymore. I appreciate your offer, but the LAPD parking lot is just around the corner."
"I'm aware of how close it is …" Nathan got up and pointed to the window, "But it's pretty dark outside. I figured that you wouldn't feel comfortable walking out in the dark by yourself."
"Nathan," she pointed to her badge around her neck, "I work for the police. I know how to defend myself and I have a firearm in case things get hostile."
He gave her a quick nod, "Fair enough! By the way, would you like my number so I can update you on any new information I find?"
Mei nodded, "Of course! That would be great!"
The man took out a pen and notepad from his bag before he wrote his phone number onto it. He tore that page out and handed it to the detective.
"Thank you!" Mei smiled as she accepted the paper.
"No problem! Don't hesitate to call me if you also find something new."
After they exited the diner, the two of them said their goodbyes and went in separate directions. A minute later, Mei entered the LAPD parking lot and walked over to her car. As she walked through the empty parking lot, which contained a couple, dimly lit street lights, she could hear faint footsteps that were not hers. Mei stopped in the middle of the lot, causing the sound of the other set of footsteps to stop a second after she did. The detective turned around and scanned her dark, vacant surroundings. She couldn't spot another person.
Mei turned around and continued to walk towards her car while keeping her guard up. Once she started walking again, she heard the second set of footsteps moving again. The detective turned around again, still walking, and quickly examined the parking lot again. She couldn't spot another person but could still hear the other set of steps, now sounding much louder than before. She stopped right in front of her car, causing the steps to halt again.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" She asked, sounding slightly nervous, "If this is a prank, then this is highly unacceptable. I'm a police officer and you can be charged for stalking if you keep this up!" She tried her best to sound confident. She waited for a second, hoping for someone to respond or jump out of the bushes. She refrained from grabbing her gun and reached into her purse for her pepper spray instead. Nothing happened and nobody came out to get her. Mei quickly got into her car and began to drive away.