An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

Cordelia awakens in her car, somewhat recovered from the shock of her attempted murder and Chris Lunn’s death. She drives directly to Sir Ronald’s home. The front door is open, and Cordelia thinks “the house had waited for her” (194). As she is standing in the hall, Miss Leaming comes down the stairs and takes the pistol from her hand. She tells Cordelia Sir Ronald is in the study.

Cordelia confronts Sir Ronald with what she has figured out: He killed his own son and staged the scene to look like “an accidental death during sexual experiment” (196). Sir Ronald asks her who interfered with the body and staged the suicide; Cordelia responds, “I think I know, but I shan’t tell you” (196). She accuses him of sending Chris Lunn to kill her. Sir Ronald insists he only asked Lunn to follow her, to ensure Sir Ronald was “getting value” for his investment in her services.

Sir Ronald denies all of Cordelia’s accusations, and any evidence she might have used to prove the truth of them is gone. While Sir Ronald all but admits his guilt, he has plausible deniability, and she knows it. They get into an argument about the nature of good and evil, with Sir Ronald telling Cordelia that “Mark’s death was necessary and, unlike most deaths, it served a purpose” (198).