How to Become a Contracted Assassin

Chapter Three

When I was in college, I was hired for my first assassination. At that point, I was still in contact with Bruno, and he would occasionally have a job for me. Nothing major, just getting people suspended or arrested for minor offenses. Sometimes, he would give me names of potential clients. Eventually, he referred me to his friend, Drew Mortenson.
Oh, Drew! Drew was- and still is- a genius. Not in the usual way, though. Drew knew how people worked. Academically, he was just average, but socially? He was beyond brilliant. He could convince someone to commit a felony without ever directly mentioning it. Drew could manipulate anyone. Anyone, that is, but me. Drew and I were fast friends. Bruno had told Drew about me, and Drew proposed mutual training. I was very practiced in the art of general deception and committing crimes, then making it look like it had been somebody else. Drew taught me how to manipulate flawlessly, and I taught Drew how to effectively cover your tracks and lay a convincing false trail.
For a long time, Drew and I were very close, and we split paychecks. Then the worst thing imaginable happened: I was asked to kill Drew. I consented, but then I informed Drew, and we made a plan. Not a plan to kill Drew, a plan to annihilate his enemy. Any enemy of Drew was an enemy to me.
Kyle Overland was a nasty piece of work. He was spoiled, he was a snob, and worst of all, he was smart. Drew and I spent a very long time planning and perfecting his demise. When we were finally ready to take action, it was perfect. It was pretty obvious that Kyle had a rather large crush on me. Drew and I were going to use that.
I invited Kyle on a walk. While walking, I told him I liked him a lot. While we were arranging a first date, Drew was in a group of people, waiting for my signal. I offered Kyle a drink of my water, and he accepted. Kyle took a large swig out of my water bottle. He handed it back to me, and I tried not to smile to obviously. What I wasn't expecting was for Kyle to kiss me. I pretended to enjoy the kiss, knowing that the poison would cause me to pass out in around three minutes. Drew and I had planned for something like this. When Kyle fell down, I fell with him. When he wouldn't wake up, I put on the water works and cried, screaming for help. Drew came with a crowd of people, a mass of shouting and screaming. Somebody called an ambulance, and Kyle and I were carried away. I could only hope he hadn't made it.

I woke up in a hospital bed. Sitting up, I surveyed the room, noting the door and window. I was alone, and I had no idea if Drew had finished laying a trail to blame Kyle's ex-girlfriend for the poisoned water. I was bored, so I faked another round of sobbing, just in case I was being watched. Eventually, I fell asleep again. When I awoke, Drew was sitting next to my bed. I sat up and gazed at him groggily. "Where's Kyle?" I asked, remembering at the last minute that I needed to put on an act. When Drew failed to reply, I "panicked" and shook his arm. "Where is Kyle?!" I asked again, and this time, Drew looked at me, with a tearful expression and spoke the words I needed to hear. "He... he didn't make it. Somebody poisoned him!"
I gasped and then forced myself to cry when I wanted to cheer and clap my hands with jubilation. When the nurse entered my room, we continued to act until Drew left two hours later.
The next four days were very dull, nobody visited me after Drew came on the first day. Not even my own family cared enough to visit me. Not that I would have visited them in the same situation, but still. They didn't even send a card. When I was finally released from the hospital, I was required to go to the police station for an interview about the crime.
When I walked in, I was greeted by a woman. "Hello," she greeted, "I'm officer Laura Clancy, and I'll be interviewing you."

Officer Clancy showed me to a private room, and we both sat down. "What is your name?"
"Allison Louise Parker."
"Birthday?"
"April the seventeenth, two-thousand-twenty-one."
"Where do you live?"
"I live on campus at Millford University in the state of Deleanor."
The questions went on and on, until finally Officer Clancy asked a question that took me by surprise.
"Were you aware of any tension between Kyle Overland and Drew Mortenson?"