Peter nearly misses his bus. The bus is full, but he finds a place next to an old woman. The woman next to him is reading the news, and he is grateful that he can read the headlines to catch up with the day’s news because his employer, Alice, expects him to keep up with current events. He’s glad to see that the Bailey case is off the front pages.

After graduating with a degree in literature, Peter worked briefly for his brother at his extermination company. Peter has always enjoyed reading books. He has been a bookworm since he was young. Peter and his brother, David, were called out to Alice’s house, and after Peter impressed Alice with his knowledge of a certain beetle featured in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, Peter was invited to be interviewed as an assistant for Alice until her permanent assistant returned. Peter passed the interview and was hired, and what should have been temporary employment became permanent.

Peter is sitting on the bus thinking about Alice, especially the comment she made about writing about crime:

But one need not be a killer to write about murder, any more than one need procure a time machine to write about the Battle of Agincourt.