Clue (comic)/Issue 6

The sixth and final issue of *Clue* was published on 22 November 2017.

## Synopsis

The storm has passed, and the police have arrived at the manor of Mr. A. Boddy. Detective Amarillo meets with her colleague Sergeant Zargah to bring in her key suspect Mr. Green, noting that two other persons of interest — Professor Plum and Dr. Orchid — went into the river, and will have to be searched for downstream. Despite Green's protests of his innocence and misogynistic contempt for Amarillo, he is escorted out of the house to a waiting police car.

Professor Plum reawakens from being knocked out by Dr. Orchid, in the care of Mr. Boddy — or, as he's *really* called, Dr. Black. Black advises that Plum not try to leave, as the building is swarming with police officers, and asks how the scientist figured out his true identity; Plum explains that he had initially assumed that Mr. Green was behind the blackmail and leaking of secrets, thanks to it being "up his very slimy alley", but came to realise that it didn't fit, as Green would never do the work himself instead of getting subordinates to do it for him. As such, there was only one man that Plum could think of with the motive and means to carry out the blackmail: the infamous, reclusive CEO of Black Pharmaceuticals. Plum is impressed with the brilliance of Black's plan, but it hasn't entirely gone as intended: Miss Scarlett, hired only to provide the evening with entertainment, is dead. As Black, Orchid and Plum make their way out of the building through a secret passageway, Plum is shocked to discover that Black is Orchid's father (and that he calls her "Orchid")...

*Orchid's birth parents were scientists working for Dr. Black, and after their deaths in a laboratory accident, he adopts her as his own daughter. Growing up, Orchid learns the art of chemistry, while Black takes an interest in the young Plum and arranges for him to recieve scholarships and jobs that will lead him in "the right direction". As adults, Dr. Orchid and Professor Plum come to work together on finding a way to grow the Surobi Zinnia in captivity, but realise that they will need a much higher sample than government regulations will allow. When Orchid informs her father of this, he organises a mercenary raid on the sole known field of the flowers in Afghanistan... led by a man who will come to assume the identity of Mr. Boddy's faithful butler, Upton.*

Making their way through an underground tunnel away from the manor, Plum realises the true genius of Black's plan: the world will think that Mr. Boddy is dead, but "Mr. Boddy" and "Upton" don't really exist, leaving the events as a bizarre mystery. Plum rejects Orchid's plea for him to "join their family", but agrees to work for Black for the money and the chance to work with Surobi Zinnia again — and because he knows that Black will kill him if he refuses. Dr. Orchid apologises to Plum for her ommissions of information, but promises that she didn't lie to him... with one exception. Orchid *did* kill Mrs. Peacock with a candlestick, after she bragged that her killing of her husband brought Black's blackmail to an end.

In Detective Amarillo's police car, Mr. Green begins to angrily rant at her, but is suddenly stopped when he vomits into his hands. The detective quickly pulls over and Green staggers out, falling to his knees in severe gastric distress... because before the meal that began their evening, Dr. Orchid slipped a chemically enhanced laxative into his food as she always joked she would, ensuring him a very uncomfortable night.

Upton is very fed up with the constant use of flashbacks as a narrative device, particularly the last one — a flashback *inside* a flashback. With that, every plot thread has been neatly tied up... or so it seems, for every murder mystery leaves an obvious set of witnesses. But Upton has been ordered to clean up after himself: no clues, and no witnesses... and so, he climbs *out* of the panel of the comic he is in, and into the office of Carlos Guzman, the comic's editor! The shocked editor offers to revise his work, taking out the flashbacks and starting over, but Upton is unswayed and — after a brief scuffle — sends Guzman falling out of his window, choked by his own laptop cord. Next, Upton moves on to letterer Neil Uyetake in the same building, slitting his throat before making his way to the Chilean home of artist Nelson Dániel, who he takes out with his own pen! The last one alive is author Paul Allor, confused as to why he's scripted a comic about his own death... as Upton puts it, "it's a mystery".

With the comic's entire creative team dead, the narrative seems to be concluded. But Upton turns to the viewer and reaches out... because, after all, he did say "no witnesses"...