Academy Murders: Anagram

Purple ink sunk into the page. Yawquisha’s perfect penmanship pushed her to excel. As she signed the bottom of the letter, she ensured she had the right postage and envelope size. She sent it and returned to her apartment.

Showers for Kim remained a literally prickly affair. The water was often cold and the needles of water often stung against her exposed skin. After washing and drying off, Kim kept her wits together and noticed that she had spent all of seven seconds in the showers.

A fresh pair of purple scrubs gave her a jolt of semi-comfort. They didn’t scratch but they weren’t silk skivvies in any sense.

“Jergensen, mail!”

Kim had just got done drying her face when the guard walked to her and flicked the envelope on the floor. She shot a glance at him. It wasn’t full of venom or spite, just an angry curiosity. No time for that, she thought.

The letter found her in the right mind frame despite the conditions. When she looked at the ink, she knew she was in good health. Her mental state had gone from on edge to slightly placid.

After consuming the contents of the letter, she almost wept. She had someone in her corner. Even Captain Framingham refrained from dishing out kites. His position was understandable, though. He had to distance himself from Kim for legal purposes.

Kim’s parents or brother never wrote, though. It was surprising that they didn’t take the time to commit pen to paper. But then again…it wasn’t. They didn’t even want her to be a cop. Now, in her current predicament, she had to remember that they would not be sending any letters anytime soon.

“Guard!” Kim called with the clarion clearness she had trained herself to do in Boot Camp all those years ago.

“What is it—” The guard stopped short.

“You’re already done reading and writing your response?”

Kim nodded.

“Okay.” The guard took the note and walked away.

Another spider showed up on the wall. Smaller and more spindly, it slinked its way to the bottom. The fluorescent light flickered more and the ideas in Kim’s head began to spin.

Yawquisha’s words swirled around in her mind and she took them to her soul. The young woman had such an effect on her that it felt as if they were sisters. But she knew that she would have to be the objective hater in all of this. Though Yawquisha was her ride-along she had to refrain from calling her friend. Affinity aside, Kim needed to keep the facts in perspective.

She re-read the note. Like a hawk spying its prey, she scoped out for anagrams, non sequiturs, and other codes that would let her know that Yawquisha knew what she was saying.

Again, she read and noticed the second letter and the last letter of each word spelled out a word jumble. With her unjumbling words, she knew that she had to be onto the coding that the young woman had envisioned for her to decipher.

The word spelled out: DRUG. At first, she didn’t know what to make of it. Was she supposed to take a drug? Was there a drug for her to sell? Yawquisha couldn’t have meant that. What did this “DRUG” word mean? Kim started toying with the acronym. Maybe it meant Delay Reading Under God. That didn’t make sense, though. She kept pressing. Maybe it did make sense. Only, the delay would impede a trial while the recitation of the pledge of allegiance was read.

A smirk curled around her mouth and she hit her rack as the light dimmed.