An Unsuitable Job For A Woman

'And who undressed him again, typed out that suicide note, washed the lipstick from his face?'

'I think I know, but I shan't tell you. That's really what you employed me to discover, isn't it? That's what you couldn't bear not to know. But you killed Mark. You even prepared an alibi just in case it was needed. You got Lu

'No, any more than they will believe you. You've been determined to earn your fee, Miss Gray. Your explanation is ingenious; there is even a certain plausibility about some of the details. But you know, and I know, that no police officer in the world would take it seriously. It's unfortunate for you that you couldn't question Lu

'I know, I saw. He tried to kill me tonight. Did you know that? And earlier, he tried to scare me into dropping the case. Was that because he had begun to suspect the truth?'

'If he did try to kill you, he exceeded his instructions. I merely asked him to keep an eye on you. I had contracted for your sole and whole-time services, if you remember, I wanted to be sure I was getting value. I am getting value of a kind. But you mustn't indulge your imagination outside this room. Neither the police nor the courts are sympathetic to slander nor to hysterical nonsense. And what proof have you? None. My wife was cremated. There is nothing alive or dead on this earth to prove that Mark was not her son.'

Cordelia said:

'You visited Dr Gladwin to satisfy yourself that he was too senile to give evidence against you. You needn't have worried. He never did suspect, did he? You chose him as your wife's doctor because he was old and incompetent. But I have one small piece of evidence. Lu

'Then you should have looked after it better. Nothing of Lu

'There are still the female clothes, the black pants and the bra. Someone might remember who bought them, particularly if that person was a man.'

'Men do buy underclothes for their women. But if I were pla

'I might. I like to think that I would. But I should want the decision to be mine, not yours.'

'Of course. That would provide you with the necessary emotional satisfaction. But it wouldn't alter the fact of your dying nor the result of your death. And don't say that what I'm doing here isn't worth one single human life. Spare me that hypocrisy. You don't know and you're incapable of understanding the value of what I'm doing here. What difference will Mark's death make to you? You'd never heard of him until you came to Garforth House.'

Cordelia said:

'It will make a difference to Gary Webber.'

'Am I expected to lose everything I've worked for here because Gary Webber wants someone to play squash or discuss history with?'

Suddenly he looked Cordelia full in the face. He said sharply: 'What is the matter? Are you ill?'

'No I'm not ill. I knew that I must be right. I knew that what I had reasoned was true. But I can't believe it. I can't believe that a human being could be so evil.'

'If you are capable of imagining it, then I'm capable of doing it. Haven't you yet discovered that about human beings, Miss Gray? It's the key to what you would call the wickedness of man.'

Suddenly Cordelia could no longer bear this cynical antiphony. She cried out in passionate protest.

'But what is the use of making the world more beautiful if the people who live in it can't love one another?'

She had stung him at last into anger.

'Love! The most overused word in the language. Has it any meaning except the particular co

'I mean love, as a parent loves a child.'

'The worse for them both, perhaps. But if he doesn't love, there is no power on earth which can stimulate or compel him to. And where there is no love, there can be none of the obligations of love.'

'You could have let him live! The money wasn't important to him. He would have understood your needs and kept silent.'

'Would he? How could he – or I – have explained his rejection of a great fortune in four years' time? People at the mercy of what they call their conscience are never safe. My son was a self-righteous prig. How could I put myself and my work in his hands?'

'You are in mine, Sir Ronald.'

'You are mistaken. I am in no one's hand. Unfortunately for you that tape recorder is not working. We have no witnesses. You will repeat nothing that has been said in this room to anyone outside. If you do I shall have to ruin you. I shall make you unemployable, Miss Gray. And first of all I shall bankrupt that pathetic business of yours. From what Miss Learning told me it shouldn't be difficult. Slander can be a highly expensive indulgence. Remember that if you are ever tempted to talk. Remember this too. You will harm yourself; you will harm Mark's memory; you will not harm me.'