Status Updates From Murder Must Advertise (Lord...

Dean and his sister had a flat. Rumor has it that Willis was turned down and he has a case of sour grapes. He went back to the office and found a paper with dates in Jan and Feb. Five weeks plus letters to go with it. Bredon tried to figure out the code but could not.

Dean ran with a crowd and Willis says that Bredon looks like a good fit. Bredon guesses that it was the Bright Young People and asks if Pym (the owner) knew. Willis said that Pym would have run him out. Willis warns Bredon against it and he says the best thing Dean did was fall down the stairs. Bredon asked if Dean had anyone who cared about him like a sister. Willis got suspcious so Bredon decided to go.

The other side of it is that, if a boss hates it, you suck it up because you should have known better. He confirms what other says. He also says Copley and Willis are lone rangers so don’t hit them up. What does he do a half hour later? Bredon asks Willis about Dean and is told MYOB. Willis seems painfully embarassed. Willis starts talking about not wanting to be part of Dean’s game (as if Bredon knows).

Then he asks why Miss M hated Dean, but Ingleby was okay with him. Dean liked to snoop outside of offices to get ideas and then he never gave credit where credit was due. He wanted to interview Garrett who is filling out a porridge report. He’s acting like the new guy and he explains what Ingleby told him. Garrett says if a big cheese says it’s good you need to credit the person who had the idea. Unwritten rule.

I think he’s trying to come across as someone walking on the dark side. Right now comes a woman with bowls of porridge on a tea tray and they get to be taste testers to help inspire ideas. At least she offers a jug of milk, salt, and sugar. Somehow, I don’t think it will work. Bredon is hilarious. He treats it like a wine-tasting, rolls it on his tongue, and acts like a sommelier, giving a detailed report.

It will take a week before it is finished and the dust is settled. Bredon says it’s a bad idea because it looks like an admission of liability. Then he remarks that it’s a good way to get rid of the unfit (fishing expedition). The gal who figured out Bredon’s game hated Dean, but Ingleby is more of a mind your own business and live and let live kind of guy. They talk shop and Bredon wants to knock off.

I can’t tell what he is saying back but she does not like it. I think he’s saying he needs spending money for consumables. This reminds me of my dh at his new job. LOL Your background can easily give you away. He gets a back to work and, before, Ingleby waltzes in with a foul-smelling cigar, asking for Brewer (dictionary, guard-book, guide-book?). Bredon cracks a joke. Ingleby tells him that the staircase is a goner.

He probably would have said he wouldn’t have tumbled down the stairs with it his coat pocket. Victor was in his mid-twenties and worked because he was a nobody. His dad was a banker; the young woman thought he pushed Victor out of the nest. If he wanted to have fun, he had to earn some money. Bredon asked how Dean got into the agency and she flipped to asking how he got into it. She points out his expensive clothes.

It reminds Bredon of his days at Oxford. There’s nothing he likes more than being interrupted in the middle of thinking of copy to chat with someone. One gal stops by in his office and sees a scarab that belongs to Dean. She says it should go to his sister. Bredon says it’s not worth much and it’s not very old. The onyx is real, but it’s not an Egyptian artifact. Dean saw it as his pet mascot.

One woman writes about everything but women’s item, but two men on the team excel in that. Bredon gets along with everyone. Unlike me (who hates gossip and sees it as toxic), he likes the atmosphere. Two guys seem to hate him: one hates everyone, the other seems to hate him only. He finds the department curiously friendly where everyone helps everyone. It’s such a chatty bunch that he’s shocked anything gets done.

Each manager has his own idiosyncracies as do the clients. I wonder if she used the name Bunbury for the whole-meal because she was earnest in her writing. Ingleby specializes in snobbish copy as he is a college man and adds a literary flair to his copy. He lives in Bloomsbury. Wait, who else lives in Bloomsbury? Oh, it’s Edith’s brother from the Ormdale books.

He has even found the rooftop where messenger boys work out in their free time under the careful eye of a sargeant. He knows who is who and who does what--which managers handle which accounts. What seems to be happening here is a classic toxic work environment. Departments compete against each other. Managers crowd out other managers. Clients are humored and talked about behind their backs.

Ch. 3 Bredon is learning all the ins and outs of copy-writing to avoid getting in trouble with the government. He has learned the key is to write tongue in cheek. There’s also tension between wordsmiths and artists. The poor lay-out artist has to referee the tug-of-war contest as the two groups work out their ambition. He is able to find his way through two floors of agencies.

He walks to a limosine and two men come out of a shop. They are dressed like detectives. One opens the car and the cigarette man toosed his out. He gets in the care with detectives on either side. The girls think he is being arrested. They can’t decide if it’s Bredon, but he shows up at work the next day. Then he says he has a cousin who looks like him but he’s too much of a goodie two-shoes to be arrested.

They are walking near the Picadilly merry-go-round and they see a man that looks like someone they call the Pet. Bredon? He’s got the evening cloak, monocle and gardenia in his pocket and looks like a gentleman. He also smokes a cigarette. YUCK! One acts like she knows him and he tips his hat at her as if she were a strangers. She is embarassed to think that he believes she’s a tart.

The secretary snatched the file from Bredon who thought it was funny and asked how long it would take him to earn Dean’s salary. Salaries are a sore subject that everyone wants to keep secret so he’s been warned. Wealth is not the only barrier. There’s tension between the college educated and those who are not. Same is true today. The girls gossip about the bad blood between Willis and Dean and then go home.

The confusion about whether he was alive or dead caused them to work on the body. They did feel comfortable leaving sprawled on the stairs head down. Atkins, the guy at the bottom, stated he was cannons and fell like a sack of potatoes.

They note that unlike some people he’s already paid his tea bills. Then they talk about an obnoxious guy named Garrett who complains about how one woman handles tea. She told him to take over and he says, “I’m not an errand-girl” and she was insulted. They turn back to Bredon. He asked for a file. She was so busy getting someone else a file that she told him to get it himself. He grabbed somone’s PRIVATE file! Oops.

Bredon wonders if Pym is behind it. That require black mail of the whole office which takes money. However, it could be a few key witnesses to shape the narrative of the stairs being the fault. Over tea pastries the women gossip about Bredon. One thinks he was raised in wealth but lost his money in the slump and he has to work. She called him “newly poor.” Another thinks his family tired of supporting him.

After previous accidents, people were interviewed. It was their opinion that people should be more careful and no harm will be done. The insurance company had recommended replacing the spiral staircase with something solid. I don’t know how, but I think it was a set up. He was dead before the fall and the purpose of the fall was to hide how he really died. Bredon makes a list because something nefarious happened.

The doctor who arrived on the scene saw that his neck was broken at the fourth cervical vertebra with bruising on his right temple plus a broken tibia on his left leg. He found no heart disease nor any hint of vertigo or fainting spells. There were no signs of alcohol or drug abuse. His eyes appeared to be in good condition. His sister Pamela Dean confirmed he was in good health with no vision nor mobility issues.

Daniels said to Atkins that they can’t leave Dean there on the steps. Armstrong suggested taking him to the boardroom to lie him on the table. They had a hard tie prying the book out of his hands. The charwoman was bringing tea around so the time was 3:30. She did not hear him shout or cry out when he fell which she found odd. She blamed the stairs because all the foot traffic has polished the stairs.

Prout went first, and he was very focused on time and sunlight pouring into one's eyes at a certain time. He has a photographer's eye. He had a collision with Daniels because of his tripod. Danies had been talking to Freeman. He did not hear Dean walk along the corridor, which is odd. Daniels had been a stretcher-bearer in the war, and he believed Dean was dead, but others tried to work on him.

Ch. 2 “Bredon” studies the police reports. He has met the witnesses interviewed and he reads their accounts. The most important thing I noticed is that Victor Dean held on to the book stiffly as he was falling. He did not try to grab the railings which means he must have been dead before he fell. I pretty sure that is an obvious clue that any rookie should see. LOL

This time is easier. I let the banter fly over my head instead of wondering if I was a dunce. It flows like a sitcom. Several things made me laugh and I am wondering if the descent imagery in the form of the iron staircase will mean anything. It is Sayers after all.

Ingleby loses his temper over an account Nutrax. Mr. Tallboy laughs at Bredon’s first name DEATH! Miss Rossiter jokes that his stuff should have universal appeal.

Prout the photographer has been planning his exit for five years but caves when they beg and plead for him to stay. OMG! What a twist on CM “They have set his feet in a large room.” But, Prout complains about it and thinks they need a Mussoline to organize trade conditions. He’s a firebrand. He goes to the copyroom and Miss Rossiter wants his full name and address and demands everything to be in block letters.

Bredon sees Ingleby in the lavatory and he learns that Daniels is a group manager with a bunch of clients. Bredon asked why he was so defensive about insurance and Ingleby thinks it has to be with seniority. He’s been there for so long that he doesn’t like a new guy dissing the place. It’s run like the goverment (no initiative, hustle, or curiosity). A feisty red-headed photographer scrubs his hands with pumice.