The Steeping Well

The cold open

Rain hums against the reinforced skylights of the garment district loft, casting fractured shadows over rows of copper drying racks. Inside the subterranean wet laboratory, the overhead halogen lamps hum above a deep sunken basalt steeping vat filled with ice-cold conditioning water. Prentice Garrow floats face down in the dark pool, his soaked silk shirt swirling around him, the victim of a brutal drowning in his own private workshop.

The victim

Prentice Garrow, 54, master textile artist and luxury couture dyehouse owner

The lineup

• Pascal Noyer
• Briony Falke
• Callum O'Shea