Chapter 6

"Well, I met the two bastards."

Looking up from his phone, Kazimir watches as his partner Pierre walks over to a vending machine, putting a few coins in before grabbing a canned coffee.

"You were right for once. They're creepy as hell."

He slams a folder on the table and sits down in front of the young university student.

"What's this?" Kazimir asks, picking up the folder.

"Details from this current case. Mainly the ones that'll get me somewhere."

"Have you found any leads yet?"

"I have a whole damn list. It's just narrowing them down that's gonna be the hard part."

Pierre takes a sip from the coffee can and pulls out a paper from the folder.

"However, I strongly feel as if this man right here has something to do with the murders."

Pierre hands the paper to Kazimir, who scans it.

"Brent Domonkos? Isn't he the owner of an electronic company?"

"No, that's his older brother. Brent here was actually part of the same team Elliot La'rine was on. While interviewing the rest of the company's higher ups who worked with both, most of them gave me the same response; Brent would show great admiration for Elliot but always talked about having his spot as co-CEO."

"I see how that would make him a suspect." Kazimir says, handing the paper back.

"And here's where it gets weirder; the company that Brent's brother owns actually produced the security cameras the La'rines had around their house. Can't tell me something's not off."

The older male groans, pushing the information to the side.

"Well, did you hear the news?"

"What is it?" Kazimir asks, looking through the folder once more.

"Another of the department's police officers died last night. Cause of death is suspected to be rat poison."

"That was quick." Kazimir replies, looking at someone's photo on a paper.

"What was quick?"

"The fact that an autopsy was released so suddenly when the officer died last night. It's never that quick for normal civilians."

Pierre shrugs, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Well, if you works for law enforcement in this city, you can expect to get special treatment in most cases."

Kazimir rolls his eyes, standing up.

"Anyway, go and get Khristina. I need to question her about the days leading up to the murder." Pierre says, scrolling through his phone.

"Oh, she's out with her brothers today. Alexei's on winter break, so the family decided to hangout while they have time."

"Oh good. Now I can interview them all at one time."

Opening his contact application, Pierre dials his best friend, Dréy, the eldest brother of the La'rine siblings.

"Hey man, what you up to?"

Kazimir listens in as the conversation continues on for a couple of minutes, nothing being said that correlated to the current murder case.

"Did he trip?" Pierre asks, followed by a laugh.

"Ahem!"

Looking up, the older male gives Kazimir an angry look who returns it.

"Anyway, when you and the others get some free time, I need y'all to come down to the department. I'd like to ask y'all some questions regarding your parents."

The professional detective rolls an ink pen back and forth out of sheer boredom, before smiling.

"Right now? I don't want y'all to rush your day out."

He pauses before answering again.

"Oh really? Fine with me, I'll talk to you later then."

Pierre hangs up, putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Dréy said they'll be here in fifteen."

"I guess I'll go and pick up some snacks for Khristina since she'll be here a while."

The young detective stands up and heads towards the door, quickly being stopped.

"Hey!"

Turning around, Kazimir catches a pair of keys.

"Take my car. You walk too slow and the questioning will probably be over by the time you come back."

Kazimir shakes his head and walks out of the door.

Starting up the car, he quickly drives to the nearest grocery store, picking up cookies and small tubs of ice cream for the small girl.

Upon checking out, Kazimir quickly heads back to the law department, carrying multiple grocery bags inside.

He sets the bags down, putting the ice cream in the freezer, the three siblings arriving shortly after.

"Mr. Kazimir!" Khristina says, happily running over to the young man.

"Hello Khristina. I bought you some ice cream and cookies since we might be here for a while."

"Thank you, Mr. Kazimir!"

She grabs a small ice cream tub and some cookies, crunching the cookies in the ice cream.

"I guess I'll start asking if any of you had any problems with your father."

Pierre turns to Dréy, who puts his soda can down to answer the question.

"I mean, you know me and my old man used to argue like regular father and son but other than that, things were straight between the two of us."

"Noted. What about you, Khristina?"

"Papa used to buy me lots of things, whatever I wanted! And he'd sing me lullabies and hold me until I fell asleep."

She looks down at the floor, her second eldest brother quickly stepping in to comfort her.

"Alright, got that. And how about you, Alexei?"

Averting his attention from Khristina, he turns to Pierre.

"My father and I used to get along when we were younger. When I was 16, my best and only friend got arrested for an arson he didn't commit. That's when things got shaky between the two of us. I was set on attending law school to provide the correct justice for my friend, but my father wasn't quite happy with my choice."

He stops for a moment before continuing.

"That's when we got into arguments. Lots of arguments. Throughout the rest of my high school years, I tried my best to impress him and it worked most of the time but I knew he was still disappointed with me trying to become a lawyer. Nonetheless, he still paid for my university education but the two of us never had a chance to come to terms."

"Well, that's quite a lot." Pierre replies, writing some of the statement down.

"News to me and I lived wit' y'all." Dréy adds, swirling the soda in the can around.

"Yes, I believe we tried as hard as we could to make it seem like things were perfect between the two of us." Alexei states, brushing a few cookie crumbs from Khristina's dress.

Turning to a new page in his notebook, Pierre looks up.

"Onto the next question; have any of you noticed anything suspicious in the days leading up to the murder?"

"Mur-der?" Khristina pronounces. "What's a mur-der?"

"Pardon my interruption, but Khristina isn't of the right age to hear all of this." Alexei quickly says.

"I'll take her to go color and read while you both answer the questions." Kazimir replies, picking the young girl up.

"But what's a mur-der?" Khristina asks once more.

"A flock of crows." Kazimir quickly replies. "Have you seen any crows lately?"

Khristina shakes her head.

"No, I don't think so. Did that help?"

Kazimir smiles.

"Yes, thank you."

--- an hour later ---

Upon completing the questioning, the three men walk into the next room to find both Kazimir and Khristina coloring.

"What should I name my unicorn?" Kazimir asks, showing it to Khristina.

"Mr. Glitterpants!"

He chuckles and writes the name at the top.

"Well you two seem to be having a lovely play date." Pierre interrupts, crossing his arms.

"You're all done?" Kazimir asks, looking up.

"Yessir and hungry." Dréy replies.

"I'm hungry too!" Khristina says, jumping up. "What about you, Mr. Kazimir?"

"A bit."

"So where we going to eat at?" Pierre asks.

"A restaurant that cooks in front of you!" the young girl quickly replies.

"Sounds good to me." Dréy says, his detective friend agreeing. "But my wallet back at the crib, so I can't pay."

"Me neither, my paycheck didn't clear yet." Pierre adds.

"You two are cheapskates." Kazimir replies, standing up.

"I'm assuming you have almost $5,000 to go pay for each person in this room to go sit and watch some people flip some fancy ass food in the air?" Pierre asks.

"I never said that either." Kazimir replies.

"It's fine. I'll cover it all."

Everyone turns to the quiet law student and thanks him.

"I'll drive!" Pierre says, holding up his keys.

"Fine with me." Dréy replies, following the man out the door.

"Wait, I wanna come along too! I like Mr. Pierre's car!"

Khristina runs over to the two men and Pierre shrugs.

"My car holds up to five people and since I've got some boxes full of papers in the back, it's limited to three."

"So then why'd you offer to drive?" Kazimir asks with a huff.

The professional detective laughs.

"I was being nice, duh."

"It's quite alright. You can ride with me, Mr. Cizetto." Alexei says, taking out his keys.

"Oh, thank you." the young university student replies, following the man out of the door.