Luck

Elliot gleefully walked out of his favorite comic book store, the Comics Castle. His hand gripped the newest edition of The Mischief Thief; sure his wallet was lighter but now he would know what would happen to the thief in the story. The plot had captivated him from the first page, a detective who became a thief to help out those in need. Elliot had always been interested in Robin Hood-esque heroes that lived by the code of helping the poor and eliminating those whose greed had caused the world to become rotten. Not wanting to wait any longer he dug his face into the pages as he walked back home, admiring the detail of the artwork. Being too enthralled with the pages, he didn’t see a man coming his way. With a sudden bump, the comic fell to the ground out of his hand.

“Hey!” Elliot protested, rushing to pick up his precious book. The man himself seemed in a rush, didn’t stop, only kept walking down the sidewalk. Quickly bending down to get his comic, something else caught his eye. A small, black book that he was sure had seen better days lay next to his own brand new comic. Not really thinking much about it, Elliot picked up both books. He glanced around him but the man was long gone, he probably dropped it when they crashed. There wasn’t much Elliot could do now, besides throwing it away or taking it home. Figuring the latter was best, he continued on his way with both books under his arm.

Back at his apartment, Elliot placed the books down on his coffee table before settling down on his couch to watch some TV. News images flickered across the screen but his attention kept going back to the black book. He picked it up absentmindedly and opened it to peek inside. The pages were worn, filled with various notes and drawings. As his eyes ran over every detail he realized they weren’t just drawings, they were blueprints of buildings. Nothing that was written made sense, only streets, dates and times. Nonetheless, Elliot didn’t think much of it and assumed it was a schedule for business meetings. Flipping through to the last page one street made him stop, Hearthwick and 36th street, 5 O’clock.

“Huh,” Elliot muttered, “I was just there. I guess he had a meeting there, must be a busy guy.”

Shrugging, he tossed the book off to the side as it no longer held his interest. A breaking news icon flashed across his TV screen. Now, this was going to be good, better than the disappointing book anyway.

“We have breaking news coming out of the corner of Hearthwick and 36th street,” the female newscaster read, “For the third time this week a robber has broken into yet another bank. Police believe today’s break in at the Financially branch is connected to a string of robberies that happened earlier this year…” the woman’s voice trailed off in Elliot’s mind. That’s the same address he had been at, the same address written in the book! He picked it back up, hurriedly flipping through it until he found what he was looking for. Right next to the address was a small sketch of a building labeled “Financially”.

A gasp caught in his throat, it couldn’t be, could it? The guy he had bumped into earlier, was he the thief?

“Police say the cameras never caught the assailant who left with thousands of dollars. They have offered a reward of 20,000 dollars to anyone who might have any information regarding the incident.”

Elliot’s eyes practically jumped out of his skull at the absurd amount of money they were offering as a reward. Even though he was sure the man from earlier was the thief, Elliott needed to make sure. To verify his suspicions he went to his computer, surely there had to be some form of public record blueprints. Sure enough,he found what he was looking for on the city website and searched for the floor plans on the public records. It took a while but he finally came up with the blueprints for the bank branch. With the book in hand he compared the two drawings, his jaw dropped open. Both the sketch and the blueprints matched! The police would definitely find this interesting but he needed further proof. The next several minutes were spent matching news reports and the address is written in the book until he hit a dead end. There were various locations and times but he could no longer find any information online. These were going to be the thief's next hits he figured. It was too late to go to the police and while he really wanted the reward money he wanted to see the thief in action for himself. One of the addresses had a time scheduled for the following day. That’s where he would go he planned before settling into bed for a night’s rest.

The next morning, Elliot got dressed immediately in order to head to the next location written in the book. Harold avenue & Ford street - Timeless Memories Jewelers. The jewelry store was in a small shopping center near the bank from the day before. Not having much to do except wait for the man, Elliott milled about waiting for 3 o’clock to hit. It was unbelievable just how brazen this thief was. Who in their right mind would commit a crime at this time of day with people walking about? That man was surely a lunatic for even attempting such a thing. But Elliott wasn't one to judge. The whole scenario reminded him of the main character of his comic book. Maybe even this thief gave back to those in need but that wasn't any concern to him now; he had already made up his mind to give the book to the police. Of course the reward money was going to be nice, but in good conscience Elliott couldn't keep this information knowing the owner was the thief everyone was looking for. 2:55 rolled around so Elliot sat himself down nearby where he could get a better view of the store. Not too long after, a man who looked suspiciously familiar walked into the jewelers. Elliot stood up without thinking, adrenaline coursed through him sure this was the man he was waiting for. Without warning alarms went off and the same man ran out while the security who were nearby raced after him. As if he knew he was there, the thief ran by Elliott and threw him a smirk. This caught the young man off guard. Did he know who he was and why he was there?

Stories about thieves and stealing from the rich were fun to read. Living it in reality was a different story. The man smiling at him was too much. Not being one for trouble, Elliott knew it was time to turn the book in. Reward money or not he needed to. Waiting a bit so they wouldn't think he was a part of it, Elliot went to a police station and explained the situation. Of course they didn't believe him at first but after checking his alibi out they accepted the information he gave them. They would need a couple days to verify in order to give him his reward money. Relieved it was all over he didn't care if it took them days or weeks or even months. His obligation was done. Now, it was up to the police to catch the guy, the thief that had been eluding them for months.

A few days after Elliot had turned the book in, the police called him in to speak to them. Not expecting anything other than receiving the reward money, Elliot was taken aback when the police accused him of fabricating the whole situation. The expected hit from the day before apparently hadn’t turned out how the police wanted. No thief had shown up, nothing had been stolen. On the contrary, at the very same time they were ready to arrest him, the thief had been robbing a completely different location. Every man and patrol car available to the station had been the original spot expecting an arrest and they came up with nothing. Instead of receiving the reward money Elliot spent the rest of the day under interrogation. But with no proof that Elliott had fabricated the story, the police had no choice but to release him. Back at home the young man couldn't help but feel that he had been set up even though there was no way that was the case. Why hadn't the thief shown up? Did he know that the police were going to be there? If so, how? More questions than answers and this only made him feel more frustrated. If only he hadn't picked up that book he wouldn't have gotten himself into this mess. Although the police had no proof or evidence that Elliott had lied he couldn't help but to feel they weren't finished with him yet. No use worrying about it though, he couldn't do anything about it. With this thought he decided it was best to go to bed to forget the whole thing. The night’s rest was filled with nightmares of him being chased.

To his relief the next morning started off relatively normal, no calls from the police or knocks at his door to arrest him. Given the week's events he really needed to do something to relax which meant a trip to Comics Castle. The little book store was almost empty when he arrived, much to his liking. Reading would bring him peace and he could choose a couple comics before heading back home. As he read to his heart’s content someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“You’re Elliott right?” the young cashier asked him with a disinterested sigh. Elliot nodded his head not really sure what this was about.

“Here,” she said, handing him a small envelope. “Some guy asked me to give you this the next time you stopped by.”

She turned to go back to her spot behind the counter, leaving him standing there full of confusion. What was inside the envelope almost made him faint. A check for $20,000! And a note with a simple, thank you for getting them off my tail. Heart beating in his chest, Elliott looked around him but he didn't see the man anywhere. Running outside he thought maybe the man was there but couldn't catch a glimpse of him either. This was his plan all along he realized. He wanted me to turn the book into the police to throw them off his trail! A laugh escaped him, it was such a convoluted plan! The man must have also known they would accuse Elliot of making things up; so he gave him the reward money that he never received. There would never be a way for him to know why he had been chosen, he supposed it all came down to luck. Whatever the case, Elliot couldn’t help but hope now that the police never caught this real-life mischief thief.