Academy Murders: Look Like an Accident

Crosses, Christmas trees, and smiley faces appeared on Kim’s radar screen in her mind. Of course she could hit all in the black. The firing range court almost stopped her from proceeding to fire. Almost. Every target she engaged with was totally in the black…again. Naomi, not so much. She fired just left of the shoulder in a tight group, though.

Kim looked at her fellow cadet’s work.

“You just have adjust—”

“I just have to let you leave me alone. That’s what the hell I have to do. I’m not a goddamn child.”

“Are you acting like one now, though?” Kim queried.

Naomi shot an acrid look at Kim. Her lip curled up and her eyes squinted.

“Just stay the hell out of my way,” Naomi said.

Later that night, when it was hygiene time, Naomi snuck out for some marijuana. How she got it is still a mystery, the FBI complex was tight. But she got it anyway. She snuck some beer, too. Her boyfriend had run the stuff in through one of the high, barbed wire fences.

“I love you babe,” She kissed him through the fence.

He got in his car and sped off into the distance. Naomi’s eyes got wide at her elements. She pulled the lighter from the package and lit the weed. She smoked it. Then her eyes narrowed and a smile curled around her mouth. She was like a jackal that prowled inside to keep from being spotted. Too late. She didn’t get a chance to sip the beer.

“Hold it right there, cadet!” The lead instructor said with bright lights surrounding her. She was cooked.

“Why did you do this, Cadet Jergunson?”

“Why did I—No excuse, ma’am.”

“Cadet Janklin was caught with unauthorized and illegal substances. You were supposed to be her guardian during this training phase. She will not be corrected. The rest of the cadets will not incur any punishment. You will be disciplined, Jergensen, is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Say it like you’ve got a pair on your chest!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Get to your racks!”

Both women got to sleep easily. Kim didn’t toss and turn in her sleep because she knew that she’d done nothing wrong. Naomi felt satisfied that she got away with it. Even though she rested well, guilt gnawed at her and she wrapped her sheets around her neck. She held on with one hand and strangled the life out of herself.

A few bays away, a cadet who didn’t like the way things were going with a rival cadet talked.

“Hey, why don’t you kill me and make it look like an accident. I can’t shake this thing anymore,” Cadet Valia Siemenson intoned.

Cadet Danavan Weathers looked at her incredulously.

“Either you kill me, or I kill you.”

The wager was on the table. The cards already shuffled. The idea of committing such a heinous crime rankled Valia to her core.

“I—”

“I what?” Danavan said through tears. “I can’t take it. Something happened. I don’t know what it was but another cadet got in trouble. I’m not about to live that life. I’m ready to go home. I’m talking about my home in the sky.”

Valia breathed. She wanted to scream. She wanted to let out a shriek of pain, of disgust. She leaned over to Danavan. She wrapped her arms around her like a sister. She leaned her back a bit. Valia pulled up and heard the crunch of the bones in Danavan’s neck.

That next morning, pandemonium erupted…quietly. It was a silent uprising amongst the women. None of the bodies moved and no voices shouted but there was definitely unrest.