The Carmine Varnish

The cold open

Rain washes over the neon-streaked asphalt outside the Caldera Atelier, an elite stringed instrument sanctuary tucked beneath a downtown brick arcade. Inside the climate-controlled acoustics vault, Ignacio Caldera lies dead across a workbench, strangled with a heavy silver-wound cello string amidst scattered jars of carmine varnish and maple shavings. The soundproof chamber is suffocatingly quiet, broken only by the low hum of precision humidity regulators.

The victim

Ignacio Caldera, 56, master violin conservator and rare instrument appraiser

The lineup

• Gavin Thorpe
• Beatrix Lindt
• Kiran Desai
• Anouk Mercier