Page 111 of Without a Clue

Stop doing that! I want to cry while waving at his face. Stop thinking about me dead.

“Is this some kind of threat?” I say.

“Of course. Threats are”—he sighs—“everywhere. We could fall off this ship . . . perish by the teeth of a hundred sharks . . . get stuck in a wheel . . . poisoned by stale potatoes . . . all . . . in an instant.”

He sucks in a breath, shaking his head as though wondering how we could be so stupid as to have flipped ourselves off the ship. “We could . . . eat some broccoli with . . . E. coli . . . We could—”

“I get it,” I interject, putting up a hand. “The world’s very scary and we’re all gonna die. Let’s just get this over with. How long did you know Hugh?”

“Forty-two years.”

“Two years longer than everyone else,” I note.

“We are in a similar line . . . of work. Mystery . . . intrigue . . . murder . . . We were meant to find . . . each other . . . and we did.”

“And you two became friends,” I finish.

Ricky gives a unique little pause, saying at last, “You could say that.”

I look up from my notes. “Can I say that?”

“You . . . could.”

“But can I?”

“I suppose.”

I purse my lips.

I can’t tell if he’s speaking sarcastically or sincerely. I can’t tell anything if there’s some darker underlayer to everything he says.

Ricky could be talking about picking up laundry detergent and it would sound like it was code for gun.

“Right . . .” I say, trying to be exceedingly slow and clear. “So were you and Hugh friends all along?”

He gives me a look. “Forty years is a long time for friendship.”

Okay, but what does that mean?

Was he ready to throw him off the ledge?

Let’s change tactics.

Shoot for yes-or-no answers. “Do you think Hugh had people with the goal and intent to kill him?”

“Don’t we all?”

No, Ricky. We don’t all.

“Do you think . . . Hugh,” I say, changing course, “had a more than average number of people incentivized to kill him?”

“All the good ones do.”

“And you think that?”

“What do my thoughts . . . matter? What do . . . anyone’s . . . for that matter?”

Amazing. I am totally and sincerely at a loss.