Miss Marian Wainwright

Marian Wainwright is the steady one in a Williston family undone by a double death the coroner calls accidental asphyxiation, though no poison can be found and the door was never locked. While her mother faints and the servants panic, Marian telephones the doctor and directs the household, her coolness noted and quietly wondered at. She matters because the case's central question, whether two healthy people can simply stop breathing in an unlocked room, presses hardest against the family she holds together.