The 31st of February — Julian Symons

Mrs. Anderson, wife of an advertising man, is killed by falling down a dark flight of stairs. Her death is, at first, written off as accidental. Meanwhile, the grieving Mr. Anderson is immersed in the busy advertising world, with its drunken parties, café pick-ups, bordello visits, zany promotions for questionable products and a general "hyper-reality." Yet what person or force keeps setting back his desk calendar to the date of his wife's death? Why does the local Inspector drop by repeatedly with his cat-and-mouse questions? And why does a sequence of seemingly innocuous events -- a letter in the wrong envelope, a drink at the wrong time -- push a man over the edge?