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whatever happened ten years ago?” Olivia interrupted. “I’m worried about what happened today.”
    â€œIf you’re really worried, why don’t you take the money and leave?” said Bobby T.
    Olivia didn’t seem to know how to respond to that.
    â€œAre you worried?” I asked Brynn quietly.
    She shook her head. She’d actually been one of the calmest people after Leo’s body was found. I guess Bobby T was the absolute calmest, so calm he was actually kind of happy, because it was such good blogging material. Frank and I were calm too, but we’ve had a ton of emergency training.
    â€œI think I’m going to go out on the balcony. Want to come?” she said.
    Obviously I did. Frank could keep an ear on the group discussion for motives and clues and all that.
    Brynn and I leaned on the railing and stared out into the grounds. Tiny white lights glowed in lots of the trees. “Pretty,” I said.
    â€œI guess,” Brynn answered. “So what’s the opposite of pufferfish?”
    â€œAll I can say to that is—huh?” I answered.
    â€œI just want to talk about something completely random,” Brynn explained. “Don’t you ever want to do that?”
    On days that involved dead bodies—yeah.
    â€œYeah,” I answered, leaving out the dead bodies part, since I figured that was the point. “So, puffer-fish. They live in water. They get bigger when they’re scared. I’m trying to think of something that lives on land and gets smaller when it’s scared. A snail, maybe? A turtle?”
    â€œThose can both live in water. Some of them,” Brynn said. “You have to be crazier. Like, I don’t know, an anorexic elephant.”
    I laughed. She laughed. It was a good part of a bad day.
    I started laughing when I stepped into the shower the next day. It was decorated with tiny silver fish. Which made me think of pufferfish—and Brynn. She had to be the coolest girl I’d ever met.
    Focus on the mission, a voice in my head said. The voice sounded like Frank.
    â€œOkay, okay,” I muttered. I turned on the water and closed my eyes. I did some good thinking that way. The mission. I couldn’t come up with any way to connect Leo’s death to the threat Ripley had gotten. Everybody in the contest had a motive for sending the threat. A few people were standing out as stronger possibilities. Kit, for one. James definitely seemed like he badly wanted to win. Bobby T’s blog would probably be even more popular if he won a reality TV show.
    I opened my eyes so I could find the soap. My heart gave a hard double beat.
    Blood ran down my body in streaks.

That’s Repulsive
    A high, shrill shriek cut through the secondfloor. I raced toward the sound. Kit burst out of her room just as I got to the door. “Olivia’s bleeding!” she exclaimed. “She’s bleeding a ton!”
    â€œWhat happened? Did she cut herself?” I asked.
    â€œI don’t know. She was taking a shower, then she screamed. I went in there and she had blood all over, even in her hair,” Kit said in a rush.
    â€œCalm down. I think I know what the deal is. At least part of it,” Joe was saying as he strode down the hall toward us. His white terrycloth bathrobe was splotched with red.
    â€œAre you bleeding too?” I demanded.
    â€œNo, but I thought I was for a second,” Joeanswered. “I need to check out the bathroom in there.”
    Kit peeked into the room. “It’s okay.”
    Joe and I hurried inside. Ripley and Mary were huddled around Olivia.
    â€œI don’t see where the blood is coming from,” Ripley told us. “She doesn’t seem to be cut or anything.”
    â€œI don’t think it’s actually blood. I think it’s Jell-O,” Joe answered.
    Olivia’s eyes widened. She ran her finger over a splotch of red on her arm, then sniffed. “It does