Chapter 23

Opening her hand, she drops a slightly ripped condom which had a hole poked in the middle into her brother's hand.

Both Kazimir and Alexei's jaw drops and the now angered brother rolls up his sleeves.

"Watch her for me." Alexei says, handing his little sister over to the young detective.

Kazimir grabs Khristina's hand and walks over to a picnic table, watching as the pissed off law student made his way to the restroom.

Swinging the restroom's door open, Alexei angrily knocks on a stall.

A loud snarl comes from inside.

"Who is it? I'm pee-

With his shoulder, Alexei forcefully pushes the door open and drags Roger out by his shirt collar, repeatedly banging his head against both the bathroom's mirror and wall until the police chief was no longer conscious.

He exits the restroom before shortly returning with a duffle bag.

Zipping it open, Alexei places the unconscious man inside and zips it back up.

Walking back outside, the young law student makes his way over to Khristina and Kazimir, taking a seat the picnic table.

"Khristina, Mr. Brookstone told me he had an emergency and had to leave early. He isn't going to be back, so don't count on interacting with that clown again."

The little girl crosses her arms and frowns.

"But he was a nice man because he gave me a gift!"

Alexei shakes his head, dropping the large duffel bag onto the concrete.

"Khristina, I want you to listen closely. When someone offers you something and you don't know the person, tell them you won't accept it, then run and tell an adult you know that someone tried to make you take something. If you do know the person and they offer you something and you feel off about it, once again, tell someone different that you trust and make sure they notify me, Dréy, or Mr. Cizetto in both scenarios."

Khristina nods and smiles.

"Okay! But what if I don't have time and the person tries to force me to take it?"

Removing his smartwatch from his wrist, Alexei hands it to the small girl.

"Here, I barely use this watch anyway. First thing I want you to do is kick them in their no-no spot and run away as far as you can to a safe place such as a park or a store. See the phone icon? That is where Dréy, Mr. Cizetto, and I contacts are located. All you have to do is tap either one of our names and tell us what happened."

Khristina happily nods.

"Okay, Alexei! But why'd you tell me all of that?"

"It's just for your safety, Khrissy. Besides, stupid Mr. Brookstone gave you a piece of trash, which isn't a gift at all." Alexei says, patting his younger sister's head.

He stands up and grabs the duffel bag, Khristina and Kazimir following him to the car.

"What's for dinner?" the little girl asks as Kazimir buckles her seatbelt.

Alexei's chuckles, closing the trunk of his car.

"I've been so busy, I haven't even thought of that. Do you have anything specific in mind?"

Khristina widely smiles, bouncing around in her car seat.

"Fried chicken, spinach, and macaroni and cheese! And for dessert, ice cream and apple pie for Mr. Kazimir!"

Alexei nods, turning to the young detective.

"Care to stay for dinner, Mr. Cizetto?"

"Sure, I'll join you both." Kazimir replies with a soft smile.

"Perfect. I also left our "problem" somewhat conscious, so if it's not too much to ask, I'd like you to finish it off. I doubt we'd get much information out if I have to see his face again."

Kazimir's eyes grow wide and he gazes away from the window, turning to Alexei.

The two men start to chuckle and Khristina starts to kick the back of her brother's seat.

"What're you two laughing about?! I wanna know too!"

---------

"LET ME OUT! SOMEONE PLEASE LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Much to Roger Brookstone's joy, he breathes a sigh of relief upon seeing a dimly lit light, quickly taking it back with a scream of pain as a as bullet enters his reproduction area.

Looking up, his eyes follow the barrel of a gun, an M4 being aimed to his head.

"No need to scream or move, the room is soundproof and you won't be going anywhere, anyway." Kazimir says, placing the large gun in front of his feet.

"Machine guns are illegal in Claiza City, son!" Roger says watching as the young man, loads a magazine.

"And so is attempted rape. Now, tell me everything you know about Merderaé."

The police chief raises a brow and shakes his head in confusion.

"Why would I tell you? Just kill me already since you're going to do-

"Roger, I'm being generous. Keep avoiding the topic and I'll just let Alexei deal with you." Kazimir interrupts, sticking the barrel of the gun in the man's mouth. "Now, you can at least die by being of 1% use or just go by being plain useless."

He takes the barrel out of the man's mouth and Roger sighs.

"I understand your sister's boyfriend had a father who was apart of Merderaé, but I-

The man abruptly stops speaking upon seeing Kazimir's angered eyes.

"He what?"

"You didn't know?" Roger asks with a nervous chuckle.

"His parents paid your department hush money to forget about the whole case. Of course I didn't know. Hell, I barely knew shit about the bastard, including his last name."

The police chief sighs.

"If I tell you everything you need to know, you have to promise to let me go."

Nodding, Kazimir leans down to the man's level to shake his hand, putting his other hand behind his back and crossing his fingers.

"It's a deal. However, you tell one person what happened to you and I'll make it known what you tried to do to Khristina, track you down even if you go into hiding, and kill you."

Roger nods and begins to explain.

"I'd first like to start off by saying that Amir Kansaye's death and your sister, Camille's, don't have the same ties to each other. Yes, both deaths had some correlation to Merderaé, but not the same end goal."

"Just skip to the point." Kazimir says, crossing his arms.

"You see, your sister was only murdered because she wasn't comfortable with the idea of having sex with her current boyfriend at the time. He got mad, forced himself upon her, and then killed her. His father, who has a high influence in Merderaé, paid us to not investigate any further." Roger explains.

Kazimir nods.

"Keep going."

Clearing his throat, Roger continues.

"Amir Kansaye had no idea of the group as far as the department knew of. However, your friend's father took a lot of secrets to the grave with him."

Motioning for the man to stop talking, Kazimir takes his phone from his pocket and immediately begins to record an audio message.

"Continue." he says, holding the phone towards the scared police chief.

"Elliot La'rine wasn't in Merderaé at the time, but he knew one of his co-workers were. The thing is, Merderaé members must keep their membership a secret and not known to anyone else but themselves. If one is given a recruitment card to join Merderaé, it is usually left in the person's mailbox. Mr. La'rine only found out because he was given a card and directly asked to join the group." Roger says. "Of course, Mr. La'rine passed up the offer and that's when he was murdered because of another man's foolish mistake and envy."

Kazimir groans and rolls his eyes.

"So what does that have to do with Amir's death?"

"I'm getting to that." Roger says. "When Mr. La'rine was asked to join, he was also asked if his second eldest son, Alexei, would join. Because the group knew about his son's aspiring career and since lawyers, unbeknownst to the public, often turn up dead or missing in Claiza City, Alexei's membership in Merderaé would automatically guarantee his protection. However, Mr. La'rine wanted nothing or any part of his family to have anything to do with Merderaé. This only made for further harassment, such as vandalization of property, slander of Elliot La'rine's name, in which he surprisingly took care of very well, and drone stalking."

Roger clears his throat a bit more, continuing.

"After the La'rine parents' death, one of the members thought it'd be a great idea to drive Alexei into a serious depression in order to have him find our group to fall back on for mental healing. So that's the reason why Amir Kansaye was killed; to get Alexei to join."

Kazimir nods and sighs.

"Then I'd like to ask you a few questions. What was the name of the man who paid the department hush money to give up on the case of Camille's death, the name of the person who killed Mr. and Mrs. La'rine, and the name of the person who placed a hit on Amir?"

"The name of the man who paid us hush money is also the same man who killed Mr. and Mrs. La'rine; Brent Domonkos."

The young detective's eyes widen and he suddenly starts to throw up fluids over both the police chief's shoes and floor.

Roger looks up at him in disgust and confusion.

"You have some nerve-

"HURRY THE FUCK UP AND TELL ME WHO ELSE!" Kazimir angrily interrupts.

"The name of the young man who wanted Amir Kansaye dead is-

Suddenly, Roger's eyes widen and his body immediately goes limp.

Walking over to him, Kazimir taps his head with the M4's barrel

"Roger. Roger, wake up. Who killed-

He looks down, noticing a syringe in the man's hand.

"The coward poisoned himself, huh?"

Pulling the gun's trigger, the young detective opens fire, watching as bullets punctured the already dead man's body.

Once the chamber ran out of bullets, Kazimir zips the duffel bag closed and goes to clean up his fluids from earlier.

After he finished, he stares down at the black bag for a few seconds more before walking back upstairs.

Closing the basement door behind him, the young man walks into the bathroom to wash himself up and then into the kitchen where he was greeted with the smell of food.

"Hello, Mr. Kazimir! How was your nap?!" Khristina asks, waving a spoon in the air with half-cooked spinach on it.

"It was nice, thank you." Kazimir replies, yawning.

She smiles and runs into the living room to watch one of her cartoons.

"What'd he say?" Alexei asks, wiping his hands in a cloth.

Kazimir hands his phone to the young law student.

"I believe it's best if you have a listen from the dead man himself."