Academy Murders: Working Order

“Pageantry. Pure pageantry,” Alister Kosh refrained. He had a big sloping forehead and a thin neck which made him resemble a bubble gum machine. He turned away from the screen and got up to fix an Old Fashion.

“I’m telling you, Al, she’s guilty.” His wife Lucinda said this and only half believed herself. She never went the full way with anything. She always said the exact thing but her mind carried reservations.

The trial played out on the screen. Kim looked smart in a dark brown business suit. Her ears held her kinky hair. She looked like she was about to look at the face of the believer’s God. Instead of going along with the mystical, she of course steeled herself. Her mouth looked like a closed her purse and her nose slightly twitched every now and again.

“Prosecutor, do you have any opening statements?” The judge was a yellow man with slick black hair and a puffy face. He wore glasses and an expensive watch that synced together so he could have a heads up display of the proceedings.

“Yes, your honor.” The prosecutor, Ballina Vinser remained a model of stringy blonde hair, a smoker’s lip, high end shoes that were too tight and gold jewelry around her neck and wrist. She moved with the easiness of a cheetah just waking up and not going fast at all.

“Former Detective Kim Jergensen had everything going for her. Ex-Marine officer who studied nights to go from sergeant to her final rank as captain,” Ballina said. Kim bristled a bit at the “Ex” part. “She helped slam the gavel on two murderers in her home state of Delaware. She found fame through this act. However, she wanted more. She wanted to try her hand out at the Academy but was eventually rejected the first time around.”

Ballina had a certain drawl as she spoke due to her slightly crooked mouth. With her years as District Attorney, fourteen in total, she always welcomed the glee of watching the defendant sit. Now, she didn’t experience any happiness with Kim. Her brown skin radiated despite being locked in a cell. Her head stood upright and her back was a steel column promoting the rest of her body. Ballina attempted to break up the harmony of Kim’s presence but failed in that regard. Still, she plowed forward, nonetheless.

“This woman is accomplished. There’s no denying that. She served her country and her home city and state. She should have been applauded for all of that. However, she couldn’t hide from the fact that she wasn’t famous enough. To become truly celebrated in the media eye, she had to do something disastrous. She had to be the bad girl.” Ballina walked with her finger tips touching.

“Do you see what I’m saying? Two young women are dead because of Miss Jergensen. She is responsible for taking lives just so she could increase her profile. There is nothing worse than a woman seeking to scale the heights of notoriety and doing so with not one but two young ladies’ blood on her hands.” Ballina faced the jury.

“I implore all of you…search in your hearts…remember that these women were the daughters of Manuel and Vercara Nunez and Daphne Corruthers. Her husband had been killed in a bar fight. She has lost her husband and a daughter to the senseless violence of a selfish individual. Miss Jergensen doesn’t care about that. Her only goal is to advance herself. Yes, she was accomplished. And yes, she showed herself to be a good cop. But good cops can go rotten, too. I beseech you…know that the families demand justice. And the only way for that to take hold is through your decision to find Miss Jergensen guilty. I yield your Honor.”

Kim saw the clock in her mind and all the mechanisms continue to function in working order.