undertow | bellamy blake (book one)

9 | mob mentality

"So, there's a murderer in the camp?" Jasper asked.

"There's more than one murderer in this camp. This isn't news. We need to keep it quiet," Bellamy stated. Jovie wanted to let a breath of relief, but Clarke wasn't going to let it be that easy. She went to go outside, but Bellamy quickly stepped in front of her.

"Get out of my way, Bellamy."

"Clarke, be smart about this. Look at what we've achieved... the wall, the patrols. Like it or not, thinking the Grounders killed Wells is good for us," he told her.

"Oh, good for you, you mean. What... keep people afraid and they'll work for you? Is that it?" Clarke demanded.

"Yeah. That's it," he said. "But it's good for all of us. Fear of the Grounders is building that wall. And besides, what are you gonna do? Just walk out there and ask the killer to step forward? You don't even know whose knife that is."

"Oh, really?" Clarke said. Jovie could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She knew whose knife that was and so did Clarke.

"J.M. John Murphy. The people have a right to know," Clarke said. They all looked over at Jovie who just had a blank look on her face. She was trying not to show that she was scared about what would happen to her brother.

"How do you know it's not mine?" Jovie pointed out, considering the siblings had the same initials.

"Is it?" Clarke asked with a raised eyebrow. When Jovie remained silent, Clarke nodded and pushed her way past the other blonde. "Thought so."

"Clarke, just let me talk to him first!" Jovie called out as she followed Clarke outside. Maybe if she just asked her brother then he might tell her. Confronting Murphy straight up was bound to not end well. Clarke just ignored her as she stormed up to Murphy and shoved him.

"You son of a bitch!" Clarke screamed.

"What's your problem?" Murphy asked with a light laugh. Clarke held up his knife and scowled at him.

"Recognize this?" She said.

"It's my knife. Where'd you find it?" He said as he tried to grab it from her. She dodged his open hand, not allowing him to take it from her.

"Where you dropped it after you killed Wells," she accused.

"Where I what? The Grounders killed Wells, not me," he defended himself. At this point the camp had stopped working and were already forming a circle as they watched the scene go down. Jovie already knew that calling Murphy out like this was not the right call. It would have been better to confront him alone. Now the camp was forming their own opinions on what had happened and it wasn't looking good on Murphy's part. But she knew her brother. He was an asshole, sure, but he wouldn't have looked so surprised when Clarke said what she did. He would have admitted to killing Wells.

"I know what you did, and you're gonna pay for it," Clarke threatened. Jovie stepped forward.

"Clarke, that's enough," Jovie said. "He didn't do it."

"You don't know that!" She snapped without taking her eyes off of Murphy.

"And you don't know that he did," Jovie retorted. It didn't look good, but that didn't mean he definitely did it. Maybe if they let him talk they could find out the truth, but instead they were just assuming he did.

"Bellamy, you really believe this crap?" Murphy said, looking over Clarke's shoulder at the camp's other leader. Bellamy just stood there with his arms crossed as he watched the whole thing go down.

"You threatened to kill him. We all heard you. You hated Wells!" Clarke continued.

"Plenty of people hated Wells. His father was the Chancellor that locked us up," he reminded her.