Hugo and his wife Jessica move in with Hoederer, who is charming and trusting by nature. Hugo becomes his secretary. Although he tries to convince Jessica that he is in earnest about the murder, she treats the whole thing as a game. Indeed, at first she sees the gun not as a murder weapon but as a metaphor for a phallus, as Hugo perhaps suffers from erectile dysfunction and is unable to please her. Ten days pass and then the negotiations begin with the other parties. With Hoederer coming close to a deal with the members of the class that he loathes, Hugo is on the point of reaching for his gun when a bomb explodes.