"Cizetto."
Stopping in his tracks, the young man turns to his captain.
"Pierre has called out for another week, meaning you'll get to work with someone new." Captain Uzini says. "His name is Kenneth Mondalle; a new detective that just joined the Claiza City Police Department."
Kazimir turns to where the captain pointed, making his way over to the man.
"Kenneth?"
A brown-skinned man with curly, dark hair and two-toned brown eyes looks up at Kazimir, before turning back forward and nodding.
The young detective sits down and extends a hand.
"Hey, I'm Kazimir."
"You can work on whatever you need to and I'll work on whatever I need to." Kenneth replies in a deep French accent, looking at a piece of paper in front of him.
Kazimir watches as the man gets up and leaves the room.
"The hell is his problem?"
------
"YOU'RE IT!"
Screams and laughter of children fill the large playground as the bright sun happily danced in the clear blue sky.
"My sister wanted me to ask you if you were married, Mr. La'rine."
Looking down at the small girl, Laurenté shakes his head.
"Not yet, Gina. I do hope I meet the right woman soon, though."
"Okay, I'll tell sissy!" the young girl says, swinging the man's hand. "She said you were very hot and that she wouldn't mind starting a family with you. Sissy's had three husbands in the past, but she said all of them were ugly and-
"Gina, I don't think your sister would want you to share her personal information with just anyone." Laurenté says, chuckling.
"It doesn't matter Mr. La'rine 'cause my whole family knows about it and the neighbors do too!"
"Gina, come play with soccer with us!"
"But I wanna talk with Mr. Laurenté, Layla!" the small girl shouts back.
Khristina runs over and gives Gina a big smile.
"If you join my team, I'll invite you over for dinner at my place!" Khristina says. "And we can play dress-up and then play on Mr. Kazimir's PlayStation!"
After thinking for a few seconds, Gina agrees and follows Khristina to an empty part of the playground.
Laurenté softly laughs and takes a seat at a table under a covering.
"How're Khristina's grades?"
Looking up, the slightly fatigued teacher smiles, taking the check from his cousin.
"Aren't you supposed to be going back to college? Did you add in my extra fees to this too?"
The law student nods, before looking at his watch and taking a seat next to Laurenté.
"I asked the professors if I could finish the semester online and they all agreed. I have a couple of countries I need to visit."
"I thought you told me you'd quit with the arm dealing." Laurenté says, scanning the check into his bank account application.
Alexei shakes his head.
"Someone's speaking for me? I'd like to meet him."
"Welp, since you're still in business, what're you selling?"
The young law student gives Laurenté a smile.
"Why don't you come see? Tell one of the other teachers to watch your students for a bit."
After asking another co-worker to keep an eye on his class, Laurenté follows Alexei to his car.
"New car?"
"Dréy bought it for me. He said I needed something "fast" in my life, whatever that means." Alexei replies, opening the trunk. "Well, that's what I've received today."
Laurenté smiles, picking up a few of the large machine guns.
"Shiny. You sure know how to pick 'em, cousin. I'll take two of whatever you'd recommend. Just leave them in my vineyard behind one of the large vine wires."
Alexei nods and closes his trunk.
"How's Kazimir doing? I'd ask Khristina, but I can never get a chance to; she's so hyperactive."
"I'm sure he's doing fine." the young law student says following his cousin back to the playground. "I just don't know if I like Khristina being so smitten with him; he's the only man she seems to want to marry."
"She's little, probably sees him as a person to look up to." Laurenté replies. "It'll wear off-
All of a sudden, a large group of kids screaming in fear, run towards the school building.
"Mr. La'rine!"
The two cousins watch as another teacher runs over to them.
"Mr. La'rine, I've got the police on the phone! Someone posed as an ice cream man has taken Khristina!"
"WHAT?!"
"Hey, hey, hey Alexei, just sit-
"LADY, WHERE'D THEY'D GO?!"
"I don't-
"YOU SAW HER GO OFF WITH THE PERSON, JUST GIVE ME A FUCKING CAR COLOR, LICENSE PLATE, OR A DAMN DIRECTION!"
The woman begins to shake her head and cry.
"I'm sorry, sir! I don't remember! It all happened to quickly!"
"You are one useless bit-
"Alexei! Pull yourself together, man!" Laurenté says, sitting his younger cousin down on a bench. "Madame, may I ask you to please watch my class, I'll talk to the police."
He turns back to where his cousin sat and sighs.
"And he's gone."
-------
Rolling a pen back and forth, Kazimir looks out the window as he waits for his new partner, Kenneth, to come back.
"Good afternoon, Kazimir! I bought us lunch!"
Looking up, the young man gives Milette a warm smile.
"Thanks. Ah, it's onigiri; my favorite."
"Where's your partner?" Milette asks. "I got assigned to a new one from the previous police department, but she went off to eat lunch with her boyfriend."
"He walked out of the room two hours ago." Kazimir replies, taking a bite of his onigiri. "I swear, I can't put up with another Pierre."
The young woman giggles and opens her water bottle.
"Maybe he's used to working alone and isn't comfortable with being alongside others. Give him a chance, I'm sure he's a nice man."
Suddenly, Kazimir's phone begins to vibrate and he sighs, mouthing a "sorry" to Milette, before exiting the room.
"Kazimir Cizetto spea-
"You have two days to hand over $1 million. Place it near the green ice cream truck. I'll message you the directions." a robotic voice interrupts.
The young man raises a brow.
"Uh, who is this?"
"Like I said, two days."
The line on the other end hangs up and Kazimir rolls his eyes.
"Must be a damn prank call."
*DING!*
Looking down at his phone, the young detective clicks on the message, his eyes widening at the sight of a video followed by directions to a building.
"OH FUCK!"
Several people turn to him and he gives them an angry look, before clicking on the video.
"Mr. Kazimir! Please help me!"
The young man looks down in horror as Khristina had been tied up, a large bruise across her cheek.
His chest started to hurt; almost as if he was about to have a heart attack.
"Not now, Kazimir. Not now."
He runs back into the room, quickly grabbing his belongings.
"Is everything okay?" Milette asks, tilting her head in confusion.
"NO!" the young detective screams.
Upon gathering his things, Kazimir makes his way over to Captain Uzini.
"I gotta leave captain, I'll finish whatever you want me to do tomorrow."
"Now, wait-
Ignoring the man, the young detective runs out of the room and through the exit doors, a car immediately pulling up in front of him.
"MAN, WATCH WHERE THE HELL YOU PARK-
"Just get in."
Taking a closer look at the driver, Kazimir groans.
"Now you wanna help."
He gets in, quickly closing the door and shows the directions to Kenneth.
"I need you to-
"I already have them in my head, I was one of the first to hear about it."
Anxiously tapping his foot, the young detective looks out of the passenger window.
"You have any relations to the young girl?" Kenneth asks, looking at Kazimir out of his peripheral vision.
"Yeah, it's a long story, but she's like a little sister and a daughter I've never had. I don't wanna lose her, too! I can't lose her! She holds a huge part in my heart and I don't know what'd I do if something even more terrible were to happen to her!"
Kenneth watches as the young man puts his head in his hands, before stopping the car.
"The building is a few blocks away. My wife used to patrol this area a lot, so I know it pretty well."
Kazimir watches as the man gets out of the car and follows him to what looked like a large office building.
"The ice cream truck must be parked behind this place. See if you can find it and I'll scan inside the building."
The young detective nods and makes his way to the back of the large building, running over to the green ice cream truck.
He knocks on it, hoping to hear Khristina's voice.
Nothing.
"KHRISTINA, PLEASE ANSWER ME! KHRISTINA, I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU! PLEASE JUST ANSWER ME!"
The young man slams his fist against the closed window and begins to scream, accidentally punching a hole through the covered window.
With his flashlight, he looks inside, only to see the small girl's uniform dress and bow-filled shoes.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit-"
"Hey."
Turning, Kazimir makes his way over to Kenneth.
"I found this behind one of the business cards."
Taking the card out of the man's hand, Kazimir looks down at it and angrily balls it up.
"I KNEW IT! I FUCKING-
*BRRRRINNGGG!*
"Hello?!"
"Aye, we got a meeting at my place." Dréy's voice says, a little tiredly.
"I can't make it, Dréy. I'm sorry, but Khristina needs me-
"Bruh, don't make me pull up to where ever you at and knock you out."
Kazimir looks at the phone as if he just heard the most horrific thing in the world.
"Man, Khristina's clothes are in the fucking ice cream truck and-
"Bro, I know, but we ain't gonna get anywhere if we all go different directions. We need to have a chat. Now, c'mon."
Dréy hangs up and Kazimir groans.
"The young man's right; not having a set plan will only take longer. Let's go."
Sighing, Kazimir follows Kenneth back to the car.
"I thought you said you needed to work on something."
"Doesn't mean I'll leave a partner hanging out to dry." Kenneth says.
He turns into a small neighborhood, before pulling into a driveway.
Quickly getting out of the car, Kazimir runs up to the front door, knocking on it hysterically.
"Come in." Dréy says, opening the door. "You want somethin' to drink?"
"Does it look like I can drink anything?!"
Dréy shrugs and turns to Kenneth.
"A'ight, what about you, man?"
"No thank you."
The two men sit down and Dréy picks up his phone.
"You heard anything from my baby brother, Kash?"
Kazimir shakes his head.
"I swear he ain't answering on purpose."
"We can't track his location, Dréy!"
Looking up, Kazimir turns to Jai, who sits down on a couch followed by Lennox.
"Yeah, he's got his phone off." Dréy says, sighing. "I could ping it, but I'mma need his phone data information from his cellular service provider. Damn, guess I-
*KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!*