What the fuck did we do?”
“Shaun said something to you, didn’t he?” Kevin asked.
“Yes.” The screams…
He stepped closer, his hand resting gently on Persey’s shoulder. It was possessive, and before Persey could shake him off, Riot’s eyes had zeroed in on Kevin’s grip. “What was it?”
“Uh…”
“She’ll tell us when she’s ready,” Riot said. Persey was so unused to people defending her, she didn’t even know how to respond.
“Persey?” Neela’s voice quivered in the face of Persey’s silence. “What’s going on?”
Persey’s eyes drifted past the others’ faces, which all stared at her wide-eyed. They were scared now, finally. Already scared and they don’t even know the truth.
Should she tell them? Should Persey be the one to take them from scared to terrified? From “Will I accidentally be killed next?” to “Someone is trying to murder us!” Shaun’s final words would do just that.
Her eyes scanned the roof, looking for the ever-present camera. By explaining her theory, would she set the killer off in the process? Wouldn’t that just be a green light to get rid of all of them? Then their deaths really would be my fault.
But withholding the truth might be just as bad.
She felt Kevin’s fingers twitch against her shoulder. He was tense, though trying to hide it, and as Persey took a slow breath, she felt his hand fall away. They deserved to know. Whatever the consequences.
“Shaun was murdered,” Persey said. “Just like B.J. and Arlo. And I think it has something to do with the murders of Derrick and Melinda Browne.”
WES WAS THE FIRST TO VOICE THE QUESTION PERSEY KNEW they all had on the tips of their tongues. “The owners of Escape-Capades?”
“Former owners,” Kevin corrected him. “Kinda hard to run a company when you’re dead.”
“Um, Persey?” Neela asked, raising her hand like a schoolkid. “You said ‘murder’ not ‘deaths.’ I thought the Brownes died by suicide, and while I suppose since it was a murder-suicide that is still technically a murder, in the context that you presented it, I rather believed or at the very least inferred that their deaths were the result of an unlawful, premeditated act by a third party.”
Persey wasn’t going to quibble about her use of the word “murder.” “I think what’s happening to us is related to the Brownes. And so did Shaun.”
“That’s fucking ridiculous,” Wes said. Always charming. “You might as well claim that aliens have abducted us, and this is one big rat-maze experiment to test our survival abilities.”
“That’s not as fucking ridiculous as you think,” Riot said, his body instantly relaxing as he talked about a favorite subject. “The Hill case aside, evidence in both the Shaver mystery and the Ariel School encounter in Zimbabwe was pretty compelling in support of extraterrestrial intelligences mandated to assess the human instinct to survive.”
“Nobody asked you, freak show.”
Riot laughed. “That’s exactly the kind of witty put-down I’d expect from a spoiled Deerfield asshole.”
Wes went rigid, neck so taut Persey could see the individual tendons articulated through his skin. “How did you know I went to Deerfield?”
“The same way that Mackenzie knew you went to boarding school,” Persey said, not waiting for him to answer. “Or that Riot knew about Shaun’s code-breaking skills. Or that Neela is a power user at Geektacle. Don’t you see? He knows where you went to school because you’re all connected.”
Instead of contradicting her, Riot, Mackenzie, and even Wes fell silent. Deep down they all knew it was true.
“That’s the first time all day the three of you have kept your goddamn mouths shut,” Kevin said, annoyance creeping into his tone. “So I’m going to take it that you’ve already come to the same conclusion.”
More silence. At least they’re not lying about it.
Satisfied with their non-answers, Kevin turned to Persey. “Why do you think this has to do with the Brownes?”
“Before Shaun died, he was trying to tell me something, but he’d been—”
“Paralyzed,” Wes laughed, his silent acquiescence forgotten. “You told us. Hate to break the news, but I’m pretty sure that’s not even possible.”
“He couldn’t move,” Persey said through clenched teeth. She much preferred stoned Wes to mouthy-asshole Wes.
“Fear paralysis?” Riot suggested. “Not that I want to agree with our resident dickhead, but it is a real thing.”
Wes shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”
I’m sure you have. “I don’t think so.” Yes, Shaun had looked utterly terrified, but Persey had the impression that he was scared because of the paralysis, not the other way around.
“I believe you,” Kevin said, looking directly at Wes as he said it.