Page 23 of Smoke and Glitter

Then Autumn nudges my hip with hers.

"You're staring."

"I'm allowed."

She looks at Summer, and her expression softens.

Bex eventually remembers the game tucked under her arm and drops the box onto my coffee table.

"Nobody touch anything."

Colt is already reaching for the lid.

She slaps his hand away.

"What the hell?"

"There's an order."

"It's a game."

"It's an investigation."

He looks at me for help.

I carry the chili into the living room. "You're on your own."

By the time everyone has food, the coffee table is buried under witness statements, photographs and enough fake police paperwork to make me regret agreeing to this.

Lucia stays on the couch with her crayons while the rest of us take over the floor. Autumn settles beside me with her legs folded under her, eating out of a Frito bag while Bex tries to keep Colt from accusing the first person whose photograph he doesn't like.

For a while, I pay more attention to Autumn than the murder.

She's quiet, going back through the same few pages while everybody else argues over suspects. When she reaches across me for another statement, I hand it to her before she has to ask.

A minute later she stops reading.

"He's lying about the car."

The room goes quiet.

Bex shifts closer. "Who?"

"The brother."

Colt sits forward. "I knew it."

Autumn glances at him. "You thought he was guilty because of his haircut."

"It was a suspicious haircut."

Summer takes his drink out of his hand. "You're done."

Autumn turns the police interview so we can see it.

"He brings up the car twice when nobody asks him about it. Make, color, where he parked it. People don't usually volunteer that much detail unless they want you looking at the detail instead of something else."

Dom leans forward from the couch. "So where he was is a lie?"