Editing Murder Must Advertise (section)

==Plot==
Death Bredon arrives at Pym's Publicity Ltd, an advertising agency, to take up the post of junior copywriter. He is assigned the room of his predecessor Victor Dean, who has died in a fall down the office's iron spiral staircase. The doctor states that death was caused either by a broken neck, due to his landing on his head at the bottom of the stair, or by a wound of the right temple. The death appears suspicious, as the victim apparently made no attempt to save himself as he fell. Looking through Dean's desk, Bredon discovers a partially-completed letter to the firm's proprietor, Mr Pym, telling him that something 'undesirable' is going on in the office.

Bredon befriends Pamela Dean, Victor's sister, so that she can get him into a [[cocaine]]-fuelled [[Costume party|fancy-dress party]] hosted by Dian de Momerie, a [[socialite]] with whom Dean had been associating. Disguised as [[Harlequin]], Bredon attracts the attention of de Momerie and later meets her several times, always in disguise. His presence annoys de Momerie's companion Major Tod Milligan, who is supplying her with drugs.

It is revealed that Death Bredon is in fact Lord Peter Wimsey, who has been brought in by Pym to investigate Dean's death. Various clues turn up: a [[slingshot|catapult]]  belonging to 'Ginger' Joe, the office boy; a carved stone [[Scarab (artifact)|scarab]] belonging to Dean; and £50 in banknotes found in the desk of Mr Tallboy, group manager.

After having a drink in a [[Covent Garden]] [[pub]], newspaper reporter Hector Puncheon discovers that someone has slipped cocaine into his coat pocket. Chief Inspector Charles Parker, Wimsey's brother-in-law, suspects that Puncheon has stumbled on Milligan's drugs gang, but finds no further suspicious activity there. It appears that the cocaine is being distributed from a different pub each week.

Puncheon spots a man from the pub who is behaving suspiciously, and who almost immediately falls in front of a train and is killed. Searching the man's flat, Wimsey and Parker discover a [[telephone directory|phone book]] with the names of many pubs ticked off, including the one in Covent Garden. Wimsey realises what has been happening. One of Pym's major clients runs a newspaper advertisement every Friday, the headline for which is approved a few days earlier. The first letter of the headline is being used to indicate the pub for that week, with Tallboy covertly supplying the letter to the gang in advance.

Milligan is killed in an 'accident', and Wimsey – in his identity as Bredon – is nearly jailed for the murder of Dian de Momerie (also the gang's work). The police want to catch the ringleaders during their next weekly drug distribution. Using the phone book, all they need to find the next pub is the letter for the week, as provided by Tallboy.

Wimsey is sure that Tallboy killed Victor Dean, but he does not want to act until the gang has been rounded up. On the night of the next drug distribution, Tallboy comes to Wimsey's flat to confess. He says that, when he was in financial difficulty, he was lured into the scheme with an innocent-sounding story and the offer of money but soon became trapped. Dean had found out and was blackmailing him, so Tallboy killed Dean, using Ginger Joe's catapult and the scarab, making it look like an accidental fall on the staircase. Wanting to spare his wife and child, Tallboy proposes suicide. Wimsey, seeing a gang member watching in the street below his window, suggests Tallboy leave on foot, without looking behind him. Both know that the gang's killers are waiting, and Tallboy is [[hit and run|knocked down]] and killed as he walks home.