The Sin-Eater's Last Supper

Emmanuel Creed

Victim NPC

Sin-eater to House Marrow for thirty years — hired mouth of the old custom, kept on retainer at the cottage-cell, fed at a separate table and despised at every one. Dead tonight, mid-rite, face-down in the funeral…

Lady Vespera Marrow

Character NPC

The matriarch of Marrowfen, three days dead, lying in state upon the bier in the great hall. The vigil is hers; the house is hers; tonight, still, the night is hers.

Aldous Marrow

Suspect

The new master of Marrowfen — grey at forty, courteous, and visibly counting the hours to the burial. He has worn mourning twice in twelve years and worn it well.

Piers Marrow

Suspect

The second son, charming and unlucky, back from town with creditors' letters following him like gulls.

Nurse Thomasin Vane

Suspect

Her ladyship's nurse-companion of twenty years, grey-shawled, steady-handed; the only person in the house who does not seem afraid of the corpse.

Father Elba

Suspect

The parish priest, thunderous and thin, who has refused for years to set foot in Marrowfen while it 'kept a scapegoat on wages.' Tonight, of all nights, he came — and he did not fold a confession.

Mr. Nathaniel Quill

Suspect

The estate lawyer, dry as good paper, who arrived with two locked document cases and has opened neither. He answers every question with the hour at which he will answer it.

Noah Creed

Suspect

The sin-eater's son, twenty, kept at the cottage-cell like his father — with his father's trade waiting for him like a coat on a hook. He has not wept.

Mrs. Hobb

Witness

Housekeeper these thirty years; sets every dish, keeps every key but one, and misses nothing that crosses her table. It was she who laid the confession dishes at six o'clock.

Dr. Meredith Falk

Suspect

Once the county's rising physician, now the family's quiet embarrassment — he certified her ladyship's death in under an hour and has been drinking with unusual method since the flood closed the road.

Mr. Aurelio Sacks

Detective

An alienist of some reputation and no local acquaintance, invited weeks ago by the dead woman herself 'to observe the rite.' He takes notes with a gold pencil, and he impounded the sin-eater's coat before it was cold.

Grace Tarn

Suspect

A tenant farmer's widow in her best black, uninvited but not turned away. The fen took her daughter seven years ago, and in seven years she has never once come up to the Hall — till tonight.

The Woman in Gray

Suspect

A mourner in gray whom nobody remembers inviting and nobody quite dares ask to leave. She signed the condolence book without being watched, and sits where she can see the bier.