The Spanish Cedar

The cold open

Rain lashed the leaded glass above the mezzanine lounge of the St. Jude Building, where blue smoke hung like gauze over worn leather and dark mahogany. Deep inside the climate-controlled Spanish cedar vault, the proprietor lay face-up among rows of vintage vitolas, a single .25 caliber bullet hole drilled cleanly through his silk vest. The scent of aromatic tobacco could not mask the sharp, metallic bite of freshly spent gunpowder.

The victim

Quentin Navarre, 54, proprietor of an exclusive private cigar lounge and rare vitola collector

The lineup

• Felix Marceau
• Vesper Lindqvist
• Judith Beauregard
• Gideon Farrow