Tammy’s Reviews > Murder Must Advertise > Status Update

Mission accomplished! Copley mops his brow and congratulates himself for being the last man standing. A hero. He is disgusted at the hot mess known as Tallboy’s desk. When he pulls the roll-top down, a registered envelope addressed to his home falls out. It was already opened and he sees a wad of bills (money) inside. He can not believe the carelessness. It might have tempted a charwoman. It’s fifty pounds.

He rings up the paper and tells him his plight. The last thing he wants to do is leave it as “reserved for Pym’s” because it is a sign of incompetence. They will be the laughing stock of all. He goes to Tallboy’s desk and he agrees. The sketch alone is fine as is the copy. Put together is inappropriate. He decides to tweak the headline. He comes up with some lines and calls the paper. Goudy Bold is still a font.

Caller says it came in ten minutes ago, confirming his opinion that Tallboy is slack. He had no business until he confirmed that the paper had received the block. Mrs. Johnson must have dawdled and took her sweet time. He offers to make some calls. Mr. Armstrong is the person most likely to be at home and Copley calls him, but he is not there. He calls Tallboy who is not home. He calls Mr. Pym who is eating out.

The paper has a problem with the Nutrax half-double ad. Copley is a cranky old man, dubious of Tallboy. They can’t put it in the paper because they think readers might interpret it the wrong way. He’s super prudish and does not want to provide a pornographer’s holiday! Since he knows all, he exults like Jeremiah over a prophecy coming true. He chews the caller out for calling too late.

Younger and older brothers get loud and wake up Wally, who confiscates the book so Ginger will sleep. Wally promises not to read it once he is told why Ginger was up. He falls asleep writing the latest installment of his detective novel in his head.

His friends say that they never went into Mrs. Johnson’s drawer. He believes them. He asks another friend who walks buy. One did see miss Parton take Mrs. Johnson’s purse to the canteen one day at lunch, two days after confiscation. Who witnessed the confiscation? Prout, Hartley, Wedderburn. His brother walkes up and scolds him and teases him about writing poetry. They fight and Joe says it’s private.

Oh, I wonder if he went on a date with Harriet, “the one young woman who showed no signs of yielding to him.” Ginger Joe gets out of bed in the middle of the night. He writes a report late at night because it’s the only time for privacy. He’s writing in an old composition book for English class. He wrote in the style of Sexton Blake and he tried to ignore his spelling. Joe is 14.5 years old. He writes his report.

He called PD to find out what was in the letter. She had forwarded a note from Dian. She did not give Dian his address which was smart. He instructs PD to make him sound mysterious and always on the go. He’s like a yellow-dog dingo, always on the run and hard to catch. Didn’t Diana have hunting dogs? He promises to tell her more when he knows more. After hanging up, he hopes she can keep her head on straight.

He can narrow down the culprits to (1) people he told the catapult story to, (2) the person missing the pencil. or (3) people who asked for his address. LPW imagines their shock at seeing him arrive without harm, without even a black eye. Charlie did not leave a mark on the assailant. Nobody acted surprised at wwing DB that morning. LPW stops conjecturing and leaves so that Charlie can rest.

It came from the manufacturer, Darling’s, or Pym’s. Half a gross were sent out for testing since they have a special propelling mechanism. LPW deduces that DB was the target, not Charlie. The assailant saw him get mail for Box 4 and clocked Charlie. The name on the letter was PD. He wonders if one of the twenty people he talked to about using catapults on the roof at the tea party is the assailant.