"And across the street is a big shopping center. Ya know, the ones filled with clothes and sporting gear? Oh, there's also a shoe store. I can't wait to buy him little shoes to match mi—ours."
After backing in, Kazimir happily exits the car and opens the door for Xolani and Satsujin.
Grabbing a shopping cart from inside of the store, Kazimir quickly places Satsujin in the front and does a quick nose boop.
"Say dada."
The small baby giggles and Kazimir sighs.
"You must still be too young. That's alright, we'll get you talking quick."
Making their way over to the baby section, Kazimir and Xolani look around for a car seat.
"Awww, this one is cute."
"For a girl, yeah. He might want one that's blue. Or has Paw Patrol. Speaking of which, I should get Khristina a new car seat, too. Yeah, you can pick out things for Khristina and I'll pick out things for Satsujin. How does that sound?"
"Kazimir, are you sure we should be doing this on the clock?" Xolani asks, looking up at a pink Disney princess car seat.
Kazimir nods as he picks up a Super Mario Bros. baby car seat.
"Lighten up, Lani. It's not like the higher ups don't go golfing on the clock and write it down as business."
"Well, their karma will come back to bite them. We should be doing what's right."
"Xolani, you know what your problem is? You're too worrisome. We're helping little Satsujin out. We're giving him things he needs. His mother didn't want to do that so as law officials, we need to step up and do our jobs that we were assigned to do."
"And one of them is reporting the correct details to Captain Uzini."
"In which I plan to do." Kazimir replies, setting down the car seat. "Should we get him Mario or the Paw Patrol car seat? Actually, let's get him Paw Patrol to match his outfit."
"I think this pink car seat would fit Khristina."
Kazimir looks over at it and shakes his head.
"I don't know. It's kinda hot pink and she prefers light pink. Maybe that's something I'll just have to order online."
Walking further down the aisle, Kazimir picks up three box of Huggies and places them at the bottom of the shopping cart.
"Which formula should we get him? Maybe we should try out all five brands and see which one he reacts to best."
Watching the young man grab five cans of formula, Kazimir places them inside of the shopping cart.
"Oh, there's baby food. Let's start him out with apples, carrots, peas, and maybe some yogurt. He doesn't look old enough for solids yet."
"I think he might like these little bath toys. See the ducky, Satsujin?"
Xolani pretends to float the duck around and the little boy giggles, reaching out for the toy.
Giving the toy to Satsujin, Xolani looks over at her colleague who was currently picking up multiple plushies.
"Look at him. He should've at least saved this for when he was off the clock."
Little Satsujin laughs as Kazimir walks over with 7 plush animals, throwing them in and taking the shopping cart back over.
"Here's a Pikachu and Eevee one. And this is a Baymax, Spider-Man—oh, a Lightning McQueen one! I think he'll definitely love this one!"
Sitting down in a chair for toddlers, Xolani watches as the young man continued to throw Disney Princess plushies into the cart as well.
"I think Khristina would like this Belle dress. I noticed she doesn't have many character dresses."
"Kazimir–
"Oh, damn! We need to get him a new crib and some bedsheets. Watch him while I grab another shopping cart, Lani."
The young woman sighs and gives Satsujin a smile.
"I think your new daddy might have more than a few screws loose."
— 2 hours later —
After loading five shoeboxes into the trunk, Kazimir closes it and gets inside the driver's seat.
"Now we can head back to the station."
"How are you gonna bring him in without anyone finding out?" Xolani asks, looking back at Satsujin. "There're cameras everywhere."
"And none in the back of the station where we originally came from. The department thought it was useless to add cameras in that area since only cars are parked out back. I say it's a dumb way of thinking but hey, their fault."
"But what about all of this stuff? What if someone sees it?"
"Xolani, please, take a deep breath. I know what I'm doing."
As the two made their way back to the station, the ride fell a little into silence. Staring out of the window, the young woman still couldn't fathom her new acquaintance to be such a rule breaker. However, she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Maybe he is doing the right thing."
Yet, she still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
As Kazimir pulls into the station, he parks further towards the end of the parking lot, before opening the door for Xolani and grabbing Satsujin's car seat.
"Thank you for your help today, Xolani. See you tomorrow?"
The young woman nods and gives Kazimir a smile.
"I'll be here. See you tomorrow."
The two wave goodbye as they go in separate directions. Once he got to the station's back exit, he swipes his card to unlock the door and quickly enters, making a beeline for the staircase.
Walking up, Kazimir quickly looks around and sighs in relief. Most of the department had left for lunch or were on patrol.
Opening the door to his office, he sets the baby seat onto his desk and breathes a sigh of relief.
"How's my little boy feeling?"
The baby giggles and Kazimir smiles.
"Xolani fed you while we were shopping for your new shoes, so your next meal should be around 7:00. Though it may have to be earlier than that. I promised Khristina I'd take her shopping for a lamp."
Sitting down at his desk, Kazimir begins the report of the baby and his missing mother. Typing away, he smiled at the screen before reading over it and printing it out.
"I'll be right back, champ."
Walking out of the office, the young detective walks downstairs and further down the hall, entering an office on the right.
"Kazimir! I've been waiting for some good news!"
Giving the man a blank stare, Kazimir takes a seat in front of him.
"That face doesn't look too good."
"Here's both my and Xolani's reports. The door was unlocked when we arrived but no one was home. No car in the driveway either. Checked every room in the house, no luck. So we went to ask the surrounding neighbors and no one had no idea where they could've went. We do know that they've been missing for about a day or two."
Kazimir watches as the captain reads over the reports and sighs.
"Cases like these…the reports saddens me. You want to see the better for people but some don't want that. Anyway, I'll have a unit sent out to patrol the area and see if she comes back. If not, then there's not much we can do."
"The department can't just ask neighboring cities to keep an eye out for a woman and the baby who matches a particular description?" Kazimir asks.
"We can but it's not like they'll take it seriously. If it didn't happen in their city, they don't care."
"It's gotta be a way that we can find them, Uzini. Chopper search? Pinging her phone?"
"This department doesn't want to do a chopper search unless the woman and her baby are at a high risk. We've already pinged her phone and it doesn't give a location. I understand your concern, Kazimir. Just bare with me, I'll try to have the higher ups place more focus on this case."
The young detective blankly stares at the wall.
"I'm trying but this is a woman and a baby missing. Doesn't anyone understand the danger they could be in? I mean, Xolani had to step out the house just because she thought we'd stumble across something horrific."
Captain Uzini nods as he places the reports in a folder.
"That's the worst part about it. I know it affects you deeply for specific reasons, Kazimir, I know. But unfortunately, like I said, everything done behind these doors require persuasion to the maximum just to get something done. I'll have a copy of these reports made by tomorrow morning."
Kazimir nods as he gets up from the chair and shakes the older man's hand.
"Thanks for trying, Uzini. I do appreciate it."
"All thanks to you, Kazimir."
Walking out of the office, the young detective widely grins as he heads back upstairs to his office.
Opening the door, he closes it and walks over to a now sleeping Satsujin. Smiling, Kazimir gently shakes the baby's fist.
"Hook, line, and sinker, champ."