Dominik cleared his throat. “Krusty the Clown, in the nuclear power plant, with the poisoned donut.” Dominik pulled the three cards out of the envelope, peeked at them, then, with a flourish, triumphantly laid them out for everyone to show he was right.

There was a pause. “How did you figure it out so quickly?” Seta asked, eyebrow quirked. “I don’t even have half the boxes crossed off yet.”

“Me neither,” Harley chimed in. “Highly suspicious.”

“I didn’t cheat, if that’s what you’re implying,” Dominik said primly.

“You must have, though,” Harley insisted. “Like, it’s literally impossible for you to have gotten it so fast.”

“I have a strategy,” Dominik allowed, shrugging and collecting the cards.

“‘Strategy’?” Seta repeated, with air quotes.

“I can’t tell you,” Dominik said, “or else I won’t be able to use it anymore.”

“Right.” Harley nodded. “Because it’s cheating.”

“It is not!”

Archer sighed and took a pull of his beer. He glanced at Caleb, wanting to share an eye roll, but Caleb was talking to Ben on the floor next to him.

“You’re going to have to tell us your strategy,” Betty waded in. “Or else it seems like you cheated.”

“Fine,” Dominik relented, wounded at the lack of trust.

The group waited, breath held.

“When someone makes a suggestion and then someone else proves them wrong,” Dominik explained, “I can tell what they’re crossing off by where they mark their detective sheet.”

Seta blinked at him. “What?”

Dominik rubbed at the fuzz on his head. “Like, if you guessed Bart and someone shows you one of their cards to prove you wrong, then you mark off something at the top of your sheet where the suspects are, I know the murderer isn’t Bart. So, I can cross him off, too.”

There was silence around the table for a good five seconds before everyone began yelling at once. “That’s totally cheating!”

“No, it’s not!”

“Yes, it is!”

“It doesn’t say you can’t in the rules!”

“Oh my God, are you for real?”

“It’s a good strategy!”

“That is the cheat-iest cheating I have ever heard of!”

Archer watched the fighting, wondering what Mateo would have said. It was better with his calm, steadying presence here.

“Fine! I won’t play anymore!” Dominik announced. He got up and stormed off toward the back door.

“Don’t be a baby!” Seta called after him. “We can play again for real now that we all know how you cheat.”

The screen door slammed.

Seta snorted. “Ridiculous.”

“So…” Caleb hedged into the awkward silence. “Who wants to go for a midnight swim?”

“Yeah, sure,” Seta agreed, starting to clean up the game.

“Bedtime for me,” Beau yawned.

At the same time, Ben hopped up. “I’m in for a swim.”

Beau frowned. “You were saying you were tired, earlier.”