A plate of red herrings

The cocktail party for The Guardian's editorial staff was no occasion for celebration. One by one, most of them were privately told that their services would no longer be needed by the United Broadcasting Network, new owner of the popular magazine. Bryan Colley seemed to enjoy giving people the sack—or so it evidently appeared to the person who brained Colley in his office with the statue of a fisherman whose rod was made of steel. Police named Assistant Fiction Editor Nora Curran the obvious suspect; but couldn't it be that they'd been served with a plate of red herrings?