What we mean
by deduction.

Leo says he saw Maya leave an office. A recording puts her elsewhere. Another recording places him where he could have seen someone leave.

There are two claims inside his sentence. The records rule out one without ruling out the other. You have not simply discarded a witness; you have changed what part of his account you can use.

Not every case should ask the same question.

A timeline asks what could fit into an interval. A physical reconstruction asks what one mechanism could do to another. A risky favour asks what a person stands to gain or protect.

These problems need different evidence. They also lead to different kinds of conclusions. A ninety-second journey cannot happen in forty-five seconds. A relationship, by contrast, can offer a persuasive explanation for a favour without making every other explanation impossible.

That difference matters. Social reasoning should not be dressed up as certainty. Nor should a hard physical limit become merely another hunch.

A reason to believe an explanation is not always a reason to rule out every other one.

Relationships can change the reading.

Suppose someone has repeatedly put their own interests aside for a partner. When they take another risk, on the partner’s apparent behalf, loyalty is a reasonable explanation.

New evidence might show that this particular act served someone else. The earlier loyalty does not have to have been fake. What changes is which relationship explains the act you are investigating.

That is the kind of reversal we want to earn: one that changes your understanding without making your earlier reasoning foolish.

What we’re making now.

Secret Evidence is developing its first mystery game. The five short cases on this site are stand-alone readings exploring some of its concerns: time, testimony, physical cause, intention, and the relationships behind a decision.

They are small on purpose. Each gives you a few facts and a question before offering an interpretation. The larger game is still in development.

Start wherever your curiosity takes you.