Run: 2026-10-08-01M4DZVTNNG1HBJJS102CBER6R

The rain had been drumming on Blackwood Manor since midnight. Inspector Mara Quill arrived at dawn, soaked to the skin. Edmund Garrow lay face down before the cold library fireplace. Blood had pooled beneath his head, dark and already drying. Shards of crystal glittered across the Persian rug near him. Two brandy glasses stood on the mantel, one half full. The grandfather clock had stopped at a quarter past midnight. Beyond the desk, French doors hung open onto the garden. Muddy footprints led from those doors straight to the hearth. Sergeant Tom Reddick whispered, "Nobody has touched a single thing." Mara knelt beside the body and studied the victim's hands. Ink stained his right fingers, though he never wrote letters. In the grate, one scrap of paper survived the flames. Mara lifted it free, and one legible word read Julian. Behind her, a loose floorboard creaked beneath a hurried step. Vivienne Garrow stood frozen in the doorway, wrapped in silk. Her gaze found the body, then lingered on the scrap. "Forgive me, madam, but where exactly were you last night?" Her lips barely moved as she answered, calm and precise. "Asleep upstairs, Inspector, in a separate bedroom for three years." Mara noticed fresh mud darkening the hem of Vivienne's gown. Somewhere above them, a door had clicked shut very softly.