Intrigue

A timid bank teller anticipates a bank robbery and steals the money himself before the crook arrives. When the sadistic crook realizes he's been fooled, he tracks down the teller and engages him in a cat-and-mouse chase for the cash.

A bank teller is held up at gun point in his bank. Luckily for him he receives a clue that this is going to occur and diverts most of the cash into his own safety deposit box, leaving only a nominal amount for the crook. The ruse works well, but for the fact that the crook resents the fact that he has been outsmarted. There ensues a terrific battle of wits involving the clever but basically "moral" teller, and the cunning and totally uninhibited bank robber, which involves several other people in ways which cannot be revealed here.—Geoff Jamieson <GJamieso@vitgnos1.telecom.com.au>

In Toronto, the methodical and lonely bank teller Miles Cullen works in a bank in a shopping mall. He feels unrequited love for his coworker Julie Carver but she is having a love affair with the married bank manager Charles Packard. One day, Cullen discovers a note on the counter indicating that the bank will be robbed and he soon identifies the handwriting of a Santa Claus in the mall as the author of the note. However he does not tell the police about of his findings and he hides a large amount of cash in his lunch box. When the thief heists the bank, he keeps the money for himself. Soon the thief Arthur Reikle, who is a psychopath, tracks Cullen down, breaks in his apartment and threatens him to give the robbed money to him. However Cullen sets Reikle up and he is arrested for stealing a van. Meanwhile Cullen's father dies and he meets his nurse Elaine Murielat the funeral. They have a love affair and Cullen finds that she is working with Reikle that is in jail. But she is in love with Cullen and helps him to recover the key of the safety deposit box that he had lost. But soon Reikle is released from jail. What will happen to Cullen and Elaine?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It's the approach to Christmas at the busy Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. Lonely, mild-mannered Miles Cullen is the vault teller at the First Bank of Toronto branch located in the mall, his only regular company being his tropical fish and games of chess he plays against himself. He can admit to her that he is attracted to his coworker, Julie Carver, the branch's operations officer, he not holding it against her that she has just started dating the obsequious bank manager, married Charles Packard. Miles comes into evidence first that someone is planning on holding up the bank, second that the perpetrator is one specific charity collection Santa in the mall he has seen, and third that the holdup will take place immediately after one of the bank's business clients, Mr. Fogelman, makes his weekly deposit, larger this time of year due to the Christmas rush ensuring that there will be a large amount of cash on the bank floor. After weighing the options, strategically-minded Miles decides on what he assumes is the day of the holdup that he will secretly pilfer the day's deposits, including Fogelman's, and hand over only the start of the day float to the robber, who he will do whatever to allow get away so that he himself can pocket the day's deposits without detection. The plan goes according to Miles' revised script. However, what Miles does not anticipate is that in becoming a media darling surrounding the holdup, Arthur Reikle, the perpetrator, notices the discrepancy between his take and what has been reported on the news as the actual amount stolen. Coming out from under his Santa disguise, Reikle begins a systematic stalking of Miles for Miles' take of the robbery, knowing that Miles cannot go to the police. Things take a potentially dangerous turn for Miles when he learns that Reikle is a sociopath not averse to violence and murder. Thus begins a game of cat and mouse between the two men; it never being clear who is the cat and who is the mouse. Two other people factor into what happens between the two: Elaine, a beautiful young woman who works at Miles' father's nursing home; and Julie herself, who arguably knows the goings-on at the bank better than anyone.—Huggo