Clue (comic)/Issue 2

***The investigation into the death at Boddy's mansion sees the plot thickened with the discovery of a room full of blackmail material.***

The second issue of *Clue* was published on 19 July 2017.

## Synopsis

The storm continues to rage over Mr. Boddy's mansion, as within, Detectives Ochre and Amarillo show Professor Plum what they've discovered: a video of himself in an orphanage as a child, discussing the philosophy of determinism and his own experiments, to the chagrin of his social worker. The detectives want to know why Mr. Boddy would have the footage, along with a lot of other information on Plum, but the Professor knows as little about it as they do. One man does know why, however, along with knowing why Plum would want Mrs. Peacock dead, and that the Professor isn't the only suspect: Upton, Mr. Boddy's butler and the narrator of *Clue*.

Our narrator also knows that, two hours previously, the detectives returned to Boddy's study to investigate the out-of-place book that Ochre had seen before Mrs. Peacock was murdered; and on removing it, the bookcases slid back to reveal Mr. Boddy's hidden "blackmail room", full of files and information about each of the guests, along with what the detectives believe to be random junk. Upton, though disappointed that the detectives aren't focusing on the *real* clues, leaves to attend to the guests' various needs: Senator White requests beefed up security to keep her safe (which Upton is, unfortunately, unable to provide); Miss Scarlett asks for flowers; Colonel Mustard for a toothbrush, pocket watch, and paperclips; Dr. Orchid for a glass of ice water; Professor Plum for books to read (*any* books); and the ever-selfish Mr. Green for an absurd list of entertainment devices and food, topped off with "whatever everyone else is asking for". While the butler does his best to fulfil their requests, the detectives interrogate the guests one by one, but glean no useful information... but don't interrogate Miss Scarlett. When she asks why, Detective Ochre explains that, unlike the other guests, Boddy hadn't collected any blackmail material on her; apparently, she was only present because Mr. Boddy genuinely liked her music.

The detective's frank assessment obviously gets to the rapper, as she snaps at Upton on next seeing him; at the same time, an angry Professor Plum heads down to Dr. Orchid's room, and declares to her that he intends to take action and investigate himself, with Orchid cutting him off halfway through a long speech to agree to come with him. The two scientists make their way to Boddy's study (inadvertently alerting the other guests to their plans along the way), but when they get there, they are confronted by Detective Ochre; the detective has discovered a key piece of evidence: a ledger detailing payments made from Mrs. Peacock's late husband, Ambassador Peacock, to Plum's orphanage and to Plum himself... payments that were cut off the month after the Ambassador died. Plum admits that the Ambassador was his father, but denies killing Mrs. Peacock; when Ochre attempts to apprehend the Professor, he knocks the detective to the ground with a heavy book, and Orchid and Plum flee together out of a window. A recovering Ochre is found by another guest, who Ochre requests fetch his partner Amarillo... but instead, the unseen guest responds by murdering the detective with a lead pipe.

Clambering down the house's drainpipe and fleeing across its grounds, Dr. Orchid and Professor Plum take a moment to regroup in the greenhouse, but what they find shocks them: rows and rows of the Surobi zinnia flower, something thought to be impossible to grow in captivity, and something that a lot of people would kill to control...

## Featured characters

*(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)*

* ~~Mrs. Peacock (5)~~
* Senator White (6)
* Mr. Green (7)
* Miss Scarlett (8)
* Colonel Mustard (9)
* Dr. Orchid (10)
* ~~Detective Ochre (3)~~
* ~~Ambassador Peacock (photograph) (11)~~

## Notes

### Suspect tracker

* **Professor Plum** and **Dr. Orchid** still lack an alibi for Mrs. Peacock's murder, and Plum has now been revealed to have a potential motive; Orchid doesn't have any evident motive, but does seem to be somewhat familiar with Upton, and notably *isn't* shown being interrogated by the detectives. However, neither can be responsible for the death of Detective Ochre, as they had fled the room at the time of his murder.
* **Mrs. Peacock**, **Mr. Green**, **Colonel Mustard**, and **Senator White** are all shown to have had blackmail material collected on them by Mr. Boddy, though it's not clear if any of them were aware of the fact. Green and Mustard could have killed Ochre, but neither has any motive that stands out; it seems unlikely that White killed him, as she was last seen barricading herself into her room with the furniture.
* As Ochre put it, **Miss Scarlett** is the "person of least interest": nothing on her in the blackmail room, and no apparent motivation for killing Boddy or Peacock. She *did* seem quite upset at being told that, but she wouldn't kill someone for not being a suspect in a murder investigation... right? (And let's not forget that she asked for *flowers*...)

### *Clue* references

* Ochre is murdered with a Lead Pipe, in the Study: both a weapon and a location from the board game.
* Looks like the detectives' guess about Peacock's motivation for murder from last issue was correct: Mr. Boddy was, indeed, at least planning on blackmailing his guests (other than Miss Scarlett). This is, again, taken from the 1985 *Clue* film, where Boddy was blackmailing all of them.