The Gilded Mitre

The cold open

Midnight rain slants across the skylights of the Mercer Street framing atelier, catching the glint of twenty-four-karat leaf drifted across dark walnut floorboards. Slumped face-down beside the mitre saw bench lies Benton Cross, his skull fractured by a single crushing blow from a heavy cast-iron corner vise. The air smells of rabbit-skin glue, solvent, and fresh blood pooling across an unfinished Baroque molding.

The victim

Benton Cross, 56, master frame gilder and private art financier

The lineup

• Jonas Kray
• Nadia Belkacem
• Eamon Pryor
• Delilah Ross