Page 28 of Without a Clue

I’m still sobbing, I realize belatedly.

I hadn’t realized it was so loud until I see Neena putting a hand on my shoulder, but it bounces up and down against my choky breaths.

Jackie wordlessly hands me one of her handkerchiefs.

This is the equivalent of a hug from her, given she despises emotion (probably because at least half of her characters die of polio in any given book). And I’m pretty sure she cares about her vintage handkerchiefs more than the lot of us.

She winces slightly and moves away as I blow my nose.

“This is all . . . all some kind of . . . game?” I say, my heart refusing to slow down as it pounds in my chest.

“A horrible idea of a game,” Neena says, pursing her lips. “He thought it might be good for . . .”—she hesitates—“the ship. Play a sort of live-action murder mystery game.”

“People like to know if they are in a murder mystery game!” I say. “That’s kind of a key factor.”

“And there’s his fault, I know.” She tsks. “We all told him it was a bad plan. He was just so convinced.”

“And you didn’t stop him?!” I cry out. My tears are rapidly evaporating.

She shrugs. “Well . . . he bound us to it. It’s not like we really had a choice.” She pauses. “Oath wise.”

Again with the mysterious rules of being The Magnificent Seven.

“You do realize that’s the kind of thing people in cults say, Neena. This is real life. My real life.”

“Yes,” she hedges. “But . . .” Her words wander off in a but we’re part of The Seven, and we were bound—what really could we do?

I can’t argue with her.

You can’t argue with crazy.

“If he had wanted to bind you to murder, would you all have blindly followed along with that too?” I cast a fiery gaze around the room, landing indignantly on Nash.

“There’s more to it than you know. He was very insistent,” Neena jumps in. “And really, at the end of the day, it wasn’t hurting anyone . . .”

“It hurt me! It traumatized me! Gah!” I rub my eyes. “The image of him dead is going to be brandished into my nightmares forever. Thanks, guys. Successful authors are freaks.”

They’re all wincing before me now.

Like the guilty little ducks they are.

Neena looks especially sorrowful. “We’re so sorry, Penelope. He only broke the plan to us last night. We didn’t hardly have time to think.”

I roll my neck.

He probably messaged them after dinner. Right when he played me with all that nonsense about someone being after him.

He was messing with us all.

“I hate to see you angry, honey. Especially after how well you were doing after yesterday’s breakthrough.”

“What breakthrough?” Nash says.

“From The Incident,” Neena continues in a hiss.

“What incident?” Nash says.

“She was angry then too,” Jackie points out.