He is put on the spot, though, when visited by a Mrs. Todd who is determined that he investigate her missing cook, Eliza Dunn. Challenged, he decides, with some humor and to avoid an argument, to take the seemingly trivial case. Eliza Dunn, a middle-aged woman, has walked out of her job at the Todds' house in Clapham two days earlier without giving her notice and has not communicated with her employer since, except for sending for her trunk that day.