Portrait of the Missing

38. Curtain Call's senior production carpenter and the person who shared the prop room most closely with Lorna during the Streetcar build. Derek had a master key to the theatre's rear lot and loading dock, and multiple cast members have told the law clinic that he was still on-site the evening of March 2nd, doing strike prep, when Lorna returned to retrieve personal items. He and Lorna had a strained working relationship — he had complained to Vivian Cross in writing that Lorna was 'cataloguing things that aren't her business' in the prop room during the final production week. He told the clinic he left the theatre around 10:30 PM and drove directly home. His address is on the south side of town, in the opposite direction of The Moorings.

The most competent person in any room and the least likely to mention it. Builds sets, runs lights, manages egos, and keeps the Curtain Call from literally and figuratively collapsing. Was in the tech booth running a lighting cue sheet on the night of March 2nd, confirmed by two cast members who ran lines in the orchestra section until at least 11:45 PM. His name appears nowhere in Lorna's appointment book.

The queen of Caldmere's stage. Talented, narcissistic, and capable of extraordinary cruelty in the name of art. She hired Lorna Veil and her fingerprints were on two paint-thinner cans recovered from the annex debris — which she explained as routine prop-room reorganization earlier that day. Her Wren & Finch reservation confirms she was at dinner at 8:15 PM, but the restaurant is four minutes from the theatre by car. She had a 2014 connection to Pinecrest that she has never publicly discussed.

Thirty-one years keeping Pinecrest's eighteen holes immaculate. Reserved, methodical, observant. Claims he was home by 9 PM on the night of March 2nd, 2019, and did not leave again. Lorna Veil, who grew up in Caldmere, had told her cousin she intended to confront someone about 'what happened at Pinecrest in 2014.' Marcus has been the club's groundskeeper since 1993. He uses controlled-burn methods for seasonal grounds maintenance and maintains a locked equipment shed stocked with accelerants approved by the club's insurance carrier.

49. Master's in library science, second life as an amateur genealogist. Has traced half of Caldmere's family trees back to the 1700s. Lorna Veil spent two afternoons in the library's local history room in the week before her death, requesting records on a 2014 Pinecrest property dispute. Maren assisted her with those requests personally. She told the law clinic she had no memory of the specific documents Lorna requested — a claim the clinic found implausible given Maren's reputation for near-perfect recall of patron research inquiries.