Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief

Amateur detective Ernest Cunningham writes from inside a locked steel safe with roughly fourteen hours of air. He announces that this account will break the Golden Age “fair-play” tradition he normally follows: He must withhold the killer’s identity because he has not yet solved the case.

Shoved into the safe by an unknown person, he inventories his supplies—notebook, pen, black marker, flashlight, broken radio, magnet, chemistry textbook, jar of water, and a revolver with two bullets. He tells the reader that he was robbing the bank, and everyone inside is a thief. He counts 10 suspects and 10 thefts, including a gold pen, a dollar, sums up to $25 million, a coffee cup, a life, and a heart. He hopes that writing down the clues will help him identify the killer before he becomes the next victim.

In a café in the country town of Huxley, Australia, Ernest reads that Laurence Birch, the actor cast to play him in a television adaptation of his books, has died after being struck by a delivery van. Ernest is with his fiancée Juliette, and they are rehearsing for a loan meeting at Huxley’s Bank. Outside, a massive migration of small white moth-like butterflies darkens the sky.