Page 24 of Smoke and Glitter

"I don't think so."

She pulls another statement over and lays it beside the first.

"I think he's protecting somebody."

"How can you tell?" Dom asks.

Autumn taps one of the pages. "Look at who he keeps talking about. Then look at who he doesn't."

Everyone leans in again.

I watch her rearrange the papers until the mess starts making sense to her. Her hair works loose around her face as she reads, and at some point she starts stealing chips from my bowl instead of reaching for her own.

"Do you do this with actual people?" Dom asks.

Autumn looks up. "Do what?"

"Know they're lying."

She reaches for another statement. "People are terrible liars. They over-explain."

Bex looks immediately at Colt.

He points at her. "Don't."

She hasn't said anything.

Autumn smiles before going back to the evidence.

A while later, her hand lands on my thigh.

"Wait."

She reads a line again and points toward the locked tin that's been sitting in the middle of the table since we opened the box.

"Try those numbers as dates."

Dom takes the tin and turns the dial.

A few clicks later, the lock opens.

The room erupts.

Colt accuses Autumn of having secretly played this box before. Bex wants to know how nobody else saw it. Marisol empties the tin onto the table and announces that the photograph, key and hardware-store receipt inside have somehow made the entire thing worse.

Autumn is already reaching for the receipt.

Her hand is still on my leg.

I don't think she knows it.

I leave it there.

The game keeps going for another hour, but after that nobody stays entirely on task. The murder competes with dinner, Summer's news and three other conversations that start and stop around the room.

I'm clearing empty bowls when Summer finds another bottle of wine.

"Sam, where's the corkscrew?"