Run: 2026-10-08-01M4DYNH116TSKT19KJ4GEVDXY

Across the lawn, a bouncy castle sagged under thirty screaming children. Molly lowered her binoculars and wriggled back behind the hedge. "Right. Bev pays by the kilo, so we're taking everything. Twelve presents in the front room, four on the porch, and the good stuff's under the piano in the big silver box." Bill frowned, his fake walrus moustache drooping. "How do you know the good stuff's in the silver box?" "The bow's the size of a hubcap. Nobody puts a bow like that on socks." "Fair enough." Bill squinted at the house. "What about the dog?" "Pickles? I bribed him with a sausage roll an hour ago. He's ours for the afternoon." "And the dad? He looks like the type who keeps a cricket bat by the door." "He's been blowing up balloons since lunch, Bill. He's lost the will to live. Besides, the magician's locked himself in the downstairs loo with a cheese sandwich and his own autobiography. He's not coming out until somebody buys a copy." "So I'm the magician now?" "You're the magician. You make the kids gasp, you pull a quarter from somebody's ear, and while they're staring at your hat, I wheel the sack through the kitchen." "I can't do magic." "You don't need magic. You just need to stand next to a bouncy castle and look confident." "That I can do." Bill patted his top hat. "When do I go on?" "Quarter past three, when they bring out the cake." "And what if they don't look at the cake?" "Bill, it's a birthday party. They always look at the cake." "Fair point. And the sack?" "The big red one. It's a Father Christmas sack from last year." "Perfect. Nobody questions Father Christmas." "Exactly. If anyone asks where the presents are going, you tell them the elves are taking them to be rewrapped." "Brilliant. Nobody argues with an elf. And the getaway?" "Van's round the corner, engine running." "Last time it made that noise, we ended up in a pond." "That was one time, Bill, and the ducks forgave us." A small face popped through the hedge. It belonged to a girl in a unicorn onesie, munching a sausage roll. She was not looking at the cake. "Are you the robbers?" she asked. "No!" they said together. "Mum said you'd say that." "We're the magician and his assistant," Molly added. "Robbers always wear walrus moustaches. Everybody knows that." "It's a disguise," Bill said. The girl considered this, then nodded gravely. "Okay. But you have to take Oliver's present too. He bit me." "Deal," said Molly, offering her hand. The girl shook it, sausage roll and all, then vanished back into the hedge. Somewhere inside, a balloon popped and somebody shrieked with joy. Bill looked at Molly. Molly looked at the silver box, glinting through the front window like a jackpot. "Right," she whispered, tucking the sack under her arm. "Places." Bill straightened his top hat and marched toward the front door as though he'd been invited.