“I do not deny your sense of duty.”
“And the facts of the case—”
“Say—rather—your interpretation of those facts.”
“Madam!”
“For in the interpretation lies the meaning of your action. I can only warn you, for your own sake, to be careful.”
Parker Steel’s mask of unsympathetic suavity lost its unflurried coldness for the moment.
“My dear Mrs. Murchison, I have my day’s work before me, and I am a busy man. It is my misfortune to have earned your resentment by the discovery of a blunder. Please consider the question to be beyond our individual interests.”
“Then I am to understand—?”
“That I have already adopted the only course that seemed honest to me. I have declined to give a death certificate and I have communicated with the coroner.”
Catherine took the blow without flinching, though a deep resentment stirred in her as she remembered how her husband had bulwarked Parker Steel.