Run: 2026-09-23-01M37HQ636VYV88Y4HN9X73T2C

Molly spread a floor plan across the dashboard, pinning its corners with two particularly stale, sticky doughnuts. The house was marked in crayon because the blueprint had come from a six-year-old who charged them three stickers and a promise never to tell his mother. “We enter disguised as magicians.” Bill studied the drawing. A frosting smudge labeled the front door; a glittery skull labeled the hallway. Beyond it waited the living room, where twenty wrapped presents would sit beneath a banner welcoming Princess Poppy to the grand age of five. “I can barely shuffle cards.” Their client, a rival birthday girl, had paid in quarters and the kind of icy stare normally reserved for boardroom takeovers. Molly respected a professional. Bill respected cake, which was why he had agreed to carry the sacks only after negotiating for leftovers. “Then be the disappearing act.” Outside, a minivan disgorged shrieking children in capes. Their parents followed, clutching balloons and wearing expressions of people who had already lost. Molly adjusted her top hat. Bill checked the escape route: through the kitchen, past the dog, over the fence. The dog appeared at the window, wearing a tiny police uniform. “With presents, not with dignity?”