Chapter 123

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Come in!"

Opening the door, Kazimir makes his way over to Nia's desk.

"Kazimir this is the 4th time you've been in here in the span of 2 hours."

"I finished my reports early and was wondering if I could help you." the young man says, sitting in a chair across from Nia.

"Actually, yes."

Picking up her coffee mug, she gives him a smile.

"Could I have you to refill this please?"

"I meant actual work, Nia." Kazimir says, shaking his head in disappointment. "Anyway, I've been looking at recipes for Satsujin and I want to make him something new."

"How about sweet potatoes? Homemade sweet potatoes."

"That sounds good. I think he likes sweets more than salty."

"Yes, I actually have a recipe passed down from my great-grandmother. After work, I'll go shopping for the ingredients." Nia says, typing away on her computer.

"Why not go shopping for them now? I told you I can handle your work for you."

"Kazimir, this is my work that I was assigned to do."

"And I'm telling you that I'll take over for you."

Pulling out Nia's chair, Kazimir spins it around until she gets up.

"Okay, okay. I'll go pick up the ingredients and then come back to finish up."

"Nope, you're going to go straight home. And not your house, my house."

Laughing, the young woman shakes her head as she grabs her purse before leaving the room.

"You're so worrisome!"

"I mean it, Nia."

Hopping into the chair, Kazimir looks over the papers on Nia's desk and places them down. Taking one from the stack, he reads over it and lets out a slight.

"Uzini wants her to follow up on the investigation of Satsujin's parents? She wasn't even there when I found him. Why didn't he just hand these to me?"

Carefully reading more of the files, the young detective looks at a driver's license picture of the baby's mother and father.

"So the father is on the run for suspected murder and the mother has been often spotted wherever the father is. Let's see; the dad is accused of murder—meaning he can't stay in one place for a certain period of time. Either he's jumping from hotel to hotel or staying in his car some place far from the city."

Switching papers, Kazimir scans the picture of the suspected car before getting out of the seat and walking out of the door.

"He's obviously still around here if the mother is known to disappear for small periods of time."

Closing the file folder, Kazimir shoves it underneath his arm as he quickly walks downstairs.

"HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU, SON!"

With a huge groan, the young man turns around to see Pierre walking towards him.

"He quit! That bastard finally quit!"

"Who?" Kazimir asks, taking Pierre's hands from off of his shoulders.

"Blondie! His brother's body was found in the forest and that's what finally got him to leave! He believes whoever killed his brother is after him, according to the note he left."

"Thought he was a military man." Kazimir says, pushing the exit door open.

"At some point, militants want some sort of peace in their lives." Pierre replies, following him to a squad car. "On top of that, the guy probably just couldn't handle the pressure of everyone in the department turning up missing or murdered."

"Ahhh! Playing near the vehicles when we should be working?"

Looking up, Kazimir and Pierre watch as one of the department's captains makes his way over to them. Leaning against the side of a car, he gives them both a nod.

Taking the file folder from underneath his arm, Kazimir slightly waves it.

"Actually, this is part of my work. I recently started a case of a small family and I want to see if I can find them."

"That's very sad to hear, son but we have other cases that need tending to as well."

"So then maybe you should walk your ass upstairs and start on them."

"Oh boy." Pierre whispers with a smirk.

The captain's mouth slightly drops and his brows furrow.

"No tolerance for that kind of language will be permitted on these premises and especially not towards a high ranking official! Do you know how long it took me to get here?! Respect your elders, boy!"

"Get the hell out of the way, bro. I told you I have work to continue. You want that other shit done badly, then walk your ass inside and start working on the extra cases."

Before he could fully open the car door, Kazimir watches as the captain shuts it.

"Let's go. We're going back inside to have a little chat about your behavior. This has been a reoccurring issue with you ever since you started here."

Before the man could grab his arm, Kazimir manages to quickly grip his neck, forcefully banging his head against the vehicle.

Letting him drop, the young detective squats down and opens one of the captain's eyelids.

"He's unconscious."

Opening the SUV's back door, he throws the man in before closing it.

"That should shut him up for a few. If anyone asks about me, tell them I went to do some research about the baby."

Saluting Kazimir, Pierre nods,

"You got it, man."

——————-

"Okay, here's the next hotel. Kinda far from the main city yet still a little close for the mother to run to here and there."

Pulling into the hotel's parking lot, Kazimir circles it a few times in hopes to find the suspected car.

"Damn. Nothing. Onto the next."

As he pulls out of the parking lot, the young man makes a quick left turn and continues to drive on.

Sitting back in the chair, he watches as the buildings slowly begin to turn into trees. And with one good eye, he spots a familiar color hidden amongst the leaves. Had he not recognized the shiny light from amongst the woods, he would've completely been oblivious.

"Good. A small dirt path."

Making a turn onto the path, Kazimir slowly makes his way down the trail, keeping a mental note of how far it went.

Eventually, the GPS loses signal and the young detective laughs as he comes across what looked like an abandoned nature trail.

Parking the car a little from eye's view, he gets out and carefully makes his way deeper into the wooded area.

"There they are."

Looking forward, Kazimir watches as movement comes from inside the car.

Squatting down, he stealthily walks over, hiding behind a bush to hear the conversation.

"The baby's probably fucking dead by now. I told you to stay with him."

"He's not. The neighbors have heard his cries and have most likely tended to him." the young woman replies, grabbing her boyfriend's arm. "Just please don't leave my here by myself. I can't raise that child alone."

Rolling his eyes, the young woman's boyfriend gently pushes her away.

"You'll have help. I'll visit every now and then, but for now I need to take precautions."

CLICK! CLACK!

Hearing the noise of a gun cocking back, the couple immediately turns around and ducks for cover.

Firing at the car, Kazimir quickly ducks as the man fires back at him.

"I knew he wasn't entirely stupid."

Using his elbows to stay low, Kazimir quickly crawls behind a bush, reloading the M-16.

"WHERE'D YOU GO, YOU LITTLE BITCH?!"

BRRRTTTT!!!

Firing back, Kazimir manages to keep the other side's gunfire under control as he shoots out the windows and recklessly into the car.

Hearing a high pitched scream followed by a lower one, the young man laughs and claps his hands.

"Well done to myself!"

Getting up, he walks over to the bullet riddled car and looks inside, staring down at the two bodies.

"Now Romeo and Juliet can finally be with each other for good."

Putting an extra bullet into their heads for reassurance, the young detective makes his way back over to his patrol car and opens the door to the backseat.

Dragging the unconscious captain out, he checks for a pulse, finding an extremely faint one.

"Looks like you're trying to stay alive. That's alright, I became a detective to help others."

BANG!

Kazimir chuckles as the man's body jumps to the bullet from the machine gun and he drags it over to a lake, which had been covered in black water.

"Sweet dreams."

Throwing the man face down in the pond, Kazimir watches as the body floats around and yawns.

Walking back to the car, he gets in and pulls out of the dirt road, back onto the main road.

"Damn, this area really is abandoned. That's to be expected, though. Doesn't really look like anything special is happening around here."

After 30 minutes, Kazimir pulls into the department's parking lot and parks the car, wiping the data for his time gone.

Turning off the ignition, he gets out and makes his way back inside to finish Nia's work.

Looking down at the file folder of Satsujin's parents, he smirks and shakes his head.

"Case closed."