"I don't know what I was expecting to be a tea party, but it wasn't this."
Making his way through the large crowd of mourners, Kazimir looks around for the young girl who promised to greet him.
Suddenly, he notices a small figure running towards him and smiles.
"Mr. Kazimir! You came! I'm so happy to see you!"
He chuckles and nods, watching as the young girl cheerfully jumps up and down in the air.
"Same to you, Khristina."
"Khristina! There you are!" a deep Russian accent bellows out.
Turning around, Kazimir watches as a tall, young male with dark hair, orangish eyes, and dark brown skin quickly walks past him and over to the young girl.
"You shouldn't run around just anywhere. You could get lost or mess your dress up."
The little girl rolls her eyes as she gets lifted from off of the ground.
"Uh, you're that famous law student who found a loophole in that one celebrity case. Alexei La'rine, right?" Kazimir asks.
The young man nods.
"You must be Kazimir Cizetto. My little sister here has told me a lot about you. But to answer your question, yes, that's me; my late parents' second child."
"I'm really sorry about the death of your parents. I know how hard it can be dealing with the death of loved ones." Kazimir replies.
Alexei sadly smiles.
"Thank you. Honestly, I wish I would've paid more attention to whatever drones my father constantly complained about. No one knows for sure who killed them, but I'm certain the drones must play a factor."
Kazimir raises a brow, remembering the drone Pierre had shot down about two weeks ago.
Checking his watch, Alexei sighs.
"Anyway, I really hate to cut this conversation short, but Khristina and I have a long drive back. After a successful conversation with my older brother, we decided Khristina would just stay with me."
He turns to his younger sister and smiles.
"Khristina, give Mr. Cizetto a hug. We have to say goodbye to the rest of our relatives and we don't have all day."
The young girl frowns.
"But I don't wanna go back! I wanna stay here with mama and papa and Dréy!"
She squirms out of her second eldest brother's arms and stomps her foot.
Alexei sighs and squats down.
"I understand, Khristina, but mother, father, and Dréy would all want you to keep moving on with your future."
"But I wanna stay here with all my friends!" she says, crossing her arms.
"I know and I wish I could've left you here for your own sake as well, but Dréy claims he is-
"I'll take her in."
Looking up, Khristina smiles and Alexei raises a brow.
The young law student chuckles and shakes his head.
"Oh no, I couldn't let you-
"I insist. Besides, it's pretty hard for a kid her age to move around during the time of a death." Kazimir interrupts.
Alexei looks down and nods.
"Actually, I think I do remember reading about that at one point."
He sighs and squats back down to his little sister's height.
"Well, Khristina? Would you like to stay here with Mr. Cizetto?"
Khristina smiles and spins around.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
She runs over to Kazimir and smiles up at him, the young detective smiling back down.
"Alright. All of her belongings are back at my brother's place and make sure to monitor any online activity she has. By the way, I also have a small gift for you."
Taking out his checkbook, Alexei quickly writes a check before tearing it out and handing it to Kazimir.
"It won't cover my entire gratitude, but please, take this."
The law student then turns to his younger sister, patting her head.
"You be good to Mr. Cizetto, Khristina. He didn't have to take you in, you know."
"I will!" she happily replies.
Alexei nods and turns to leave before being stopped by a concerned Kazimir.
"Uh, a check for $2.5 million? I can't accept this."
Smirking, Alexei turns back to face Kazimir.
"No, please. I insist."
Continuing to walk, he waves as the two wish him a safe travel back, before disappearing into the large crowd.
--- 3 days later ---
Yawning, a still asleep Kazimir sleepily rolls off of the couch, hitting the beeping alarm clock.
He walks into the kitchen and blinks a couple of times, seeing breakfast cooked and done on the stovetop.
Turning around, he notices the little girl sitting and happily swinging her legs, taking a bite of the toast off of her plate.
"Good morning, Mr. Kazimir! I made breakfast in my starter oven! Alexei told me that everyone should always do something kind once in a blue moon, so I did!"
"You made all this by yourself?" Kazimir asks, staring at the delicious looking food.
"Mhm! Mama taught me how to use my starter oven when I kept asking to cook something for the others."
Hearing the noticeable change of tone in her voice grow a bit sad, Kazimir picks up a piece of bacon and eats it.
He was right. It was absolutely delicious.
"It's really good, Khristina. May I know your secret one day?"
Khristina smiles and giggles.
"Yeah! I'll give you some recipes later!"
Nodding, Kazimir puts together a plate of food and sits down in front of Khristina.
"Your friend is supposed to pick you up today for a play date. What're some of your plans?"
She ponders a bit before responding.
"We're going to the movies and after the movies we're going to go get pizza!"
"That sounds fun. I wish I could do that." Kazimir sighs, taking a sip of milk.
"If you wanna come along Mr. Kazimir, you can. It'll be so much fun with you there!"
He chuckles.
"I wish I could, but I have school to attend, followed by work. Now, when should I come and get you?"
Khristina shrugs.
"Ummm, I don't know. You have to speak to my friend's mama for that."
He nods, a knock suddenly coming at the door.
"That must be them!"
Jumping from her seat, Khristina runs over to the door and Kazimir opens it and groans as he comes face to face with his co-worker, Pierre.
"The hell are you doing here this early?"
"Not to see you, rude bastard. I'm here for Khristina."
"Why?" Kazimir asks, crossing his arms.
Pierre motions for someone to come over to him and a little girl shyly walks up, her face changing into excitement once she recognizes Khristina.
"The girl's mom got into a wreck before she could pick up Khristina. Luckily, the little brat of her's was safe, but kept crying about how she wouldn't be able to have the play date with little La'rine."
The two men look down at the young girls singing nursery rhymes.
"But being the kind man I am, I told the woman that I'd make sure her daughter got the play date she wanted." Pierre says, smiling.
"And she trusts you?" Kazimir asks, shaking his head.
"I'm Pierre Richano, best detective in Claiza City. Who the hell doesn't?"
Kazimir rolls his eyes and groans.
"Whatever. But if Khristina comes back to me with one scratch on her, I'll murder you myself."
Pierre laughs.
"Calm down, she'll be perfectly fine. Anyway, me and you have a mission to complete at around four this afternoon."
"What is it this time?" Kazimir asks, watching from afar as the two younger girls whisper secrets into each other's ears.
"Interviewing people where the murder took place. See if anybody at least witnessed something."
"What even happened? I never received the full story."
Pierre sighs, putting his hands in his pockets.
"I'm not supposed to tell you since you're still a rookie, but I guess it won't hurt."
He checks his watch before continuing.
"It was sometime around 1:10 in the afternoon when officers got a call about gunshots being fired from somewhere in the neighborhood. According to the two officers who responded, no one knows who exactly fired the shots and when we tried to check the security cameras on the front of the house, all the data from the past 72 hours had been wiped. Hell, we even contacted the company that owned the set of cameras and they told us the data for that specific set owned by the La'rines had been hacked and wiped from their own database as well."
Kazimir frowns.
"Well what about finger or shoe prints?"
"After scanning the house thoroughly four times, I couldn't find anything to that matter either." Pierre replies, rubbing the back of his neck. "Damn, looks like it's really gonna be one of those cases."
Turning towards the two girls, the older man smiles.
"You two ready to go?"
Looking back at Pierre, they both cheer in excitement.
"YES! YES! YES! YES!"
He walks over, picking both of them up and turns to Kazimir.
"I'll tell you more later. Have a good day at school though!"
The two girls giggle, Khristina turning back and waving at Kazimir.
"Bye bye, Mr. Kazimir! I'll save you some pizza if I can!"
The young detective chuckles and waves back.
"Goodbye, Khristina! And thank you!"