The Gilded Pipette

The cold open

Midnight in the city's private boutique district, where rain glazes the black marble facade of the Quennell Fragrance House. On the velvet sofa of the fourth-floor sensory salon, the city's most celebrated nose sits slumped over a low brass table, lips tinted a faint violet and eyes fixed on the ceiling. A spilled crystal tumbler of bergamot infusion still smells faintly of crushed monkshood.

The victim

Balthazar Quennell, 58, master perfumer and luxury fragrance house founder

The lineup

• Ingrid Haze
• Leonel Veda
• Genevieve Song
• Damian Karr