"Our interrogation will be recorded. Do you have any problem with that Mr. Lee?" Elise questioned as she entered the room while Derek closed the door after him.
"No." Lee shook his head and clutched his hands.
"So," Elise dropped the files on the table loudly and Lee flinched in fright. "Shall we start?"
Lee nodded as he stared at the files for a brief minute before raising his eyes to look at Elise who was watching him with interest. He wasn't a fool. He understood at once that she was leading the conversation and it was her he was answerable to.
"Great. So, Mr. Lee, please tell me your full name." Elise started and dragged the chair, the jarring sound making Lee squint his eyes in dismay.
"I'm Yuen Lee."
"Well, Mr. Yuen Lee, how long have you been staying in Lismore?"
"It's been a week now," Lee replied and gulped nervously.
"Okay. Where are you from?"
"Hong Kong."
"Did you come to Lismore directly from Hong Kong?" Derek questioned and Lee nodded.
"Words, please." Elise tapped her fingers on the desk lightly.
"Yes."
"When did you arrive in the country?"
"A week ago," Lee answered.
"Is this your first time here in the country?"
"Yes."
"Now tell us why did you come to Lismore." Elise leaned back on the chair and folded her hands. Her assertive attitude stunned Lee into silence, and it took him some time to regain his speech.
"I came here in search of work."
"Okay. What were you doing at the site of the explosion?"
Derek leaned forward and examined him. Neither he nor Elise had missed how Lee had slipped up and had spoken in a fluent English accent. There was barely any touch of Cantonese intonation.
"I had come to meet my friend, Mike Wang. He had promised to help me get a job at the warehouse."
Elise noticed that the man had addressed his friend using his full name, another thing to take note of.
"Why at night? Why not in the morning?" Derek probed, quirking his brows at him questioningly.
"I was told I would be working the night shifts and if everything went well, I would be starting work right away."
"I see. We checked the list of the people who died and there was no Mike Wang in it," Elise remarked all of a sudden, and even Derek and Daniel were bewildered by her sudden attack.
'Why didn't I know about it? How did Officer Winslow find out about this?' Derek wondered and tried to recall if he had heard or read anything about Mike Wang.
"How is it possible? He should have died in the explosion." The man became agitated all of a sudden and Derek jumped to his feet.
"Calm down, Mr. Lee." His tone was filled with a warning, his eyes stern and commanding.
Lee took deep breaths a few times to calm himself down while Elise and Derek looked on.
"Lee said Mike should have died in the explosion, a point worthy of attention," Daniel said over the earpiece and Elise smiled faintly. She wasn't the only one who had caught onto it.
"How are you so sure that Mike has died? What if he was fortunate enough to have escaped the hapless tragedy?" Elise fired her next question and Lee was tongue-tied for a second. He didn't respond to her immediately.
"Mike Wang told me that he was waiting for me inside," He explained and once again, Elise and Derek observed that he had called his friend with his full name.
"Are you and Mike close, Mr. Lee?"
"Yes." The man's reply was instant. "We're good friends."
"Interesting." Elise tapped her fingers on the table again.
"The suspect is fidgeting a lot, Officers," Daniel alerted.
While before Elise and Derek, Lee looked calm and composed. However, behind the desk, his state was anything but calm, and Daniel had seen his state without fail.
"Could you please explain what happened at the site of the explosion?" Elise continued, pushing back Daniel's warning for a minute or more.
"I was supposed to meet Mike Wang outside the warehouse. Before I could even reach the warehouse, the entire place exploded. There were five successive explosions and I only managed to record everything after the second explosion." Lee reiterated all that he had already told them.
"Does Mike have a family?" Elise glanced at Derek who nodded at her in return.
"No. His mother died when he was studying. After graduating, he moved here in search of work."
"I see. Do you have a picture of Mike?" Elise asked calmly, still not giving away anything.
"I do."
"Would you mind showing it to us?"
"Yes." Lee unlocked his phone and scrolled through his gallery while he looked for the picture. "Here." He then turned the screen for the two to see.
Elise looked at the Southeast Asian man who seemed to be in his late thirties.
"May I?" She stretched her hand and Lee hesitated before he handed her the phone.
Elise observed the photo while Derek continued the interrogation.
"How long have you known Mike?"
Lee's attention moved to Derek and that fraction of time was enough for Elise to close the photo and scroll through his other photos.
Elise didn't react. But that didn't mean she hadn't discovered anything weird in his gallery. The photo she had seen was at the top-most, right after the video of the explosion. How coincidental!
Moreover, the details of the photo held a lot more information than Lee had given them since the interrogation had started.
Opening 'Mike's' photo again, she handed the phone back to Lee. "Do you have a photo of you two together?"
"That..." Lee hesitated and licked his lips.
Another indication that he was hiding something from them or lying to them.
"I'm not sure. I'll have to search in the gallery. You see, I changed to this phone before I came here and didn't back up the pictures saved on my previous phone."
"Understandable." Elise nodded, still not giving away anything while Lee started to look for the photo.
"Here," Lee handed the phone and Elise looked at the photo. It seemed to have been taken a few years ago.
Elise took his phone and closed the gallery. Instead, she opened the call records and her lips arched up when she saw the names in the call record.
Ignoring everyone else's number she dialed the number saved in Mike's name and voila, the phone was answered on the first ring.