Tammy’s Reviews > Murder Must Advertise > Status Update

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.

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.