2020 Lego Advent Calendar: Day Twenty-Two

It’s a dark winter night. The air is as sharp as needles. I’m on my eighth cup of coffee as I sit in my car waiting…and waiting. The radio crackles and cackles a Christmas song sung by a long-dead crooner. I wait. Merry Christmas? We’ll see.

The waiting is the job. The chasing? That’s the fun. It’s been two hours without a sign. But I know better than to give up. I check my watch. I check my pistol. I check my knife. It’s habit.

Then a flash of headlights. I hear the wet grumble of filthy street snow as the weighty van approaches. I stiffen. And then I relax. No good getting tight. You get tight, you get killed. That’s the rule.

The van stops. The driver steps out. I don’t know him. And if it all goes as planned, I never will. But sometimes the plan fades away in the fog of a discharged firearm. Not today. Today is a good day.

I see what I need to see. I see it all go down. I’ve seen enough. I start the engine. I drive away casually. No cause for alarm. I reach my favorite pay phone, the one at Reggie’s Diner where the food all tastes like nicotine and regret.

I send a dime into the phone. A woman’s voice answers on the first ring. This dame is frantic. I tell her to take a drink. I tell her to take a breath. And I tell her what I saw.

I saw the package. And her item has been received by the local post office. It should arrive tomorrow

It’s gonna be a merry Christmas…for someone.

And I go back out into the night. Another box to hunt. Another gift to spot.

I’m a package tracker.

It’s the job.

I don’t carry a badge. I carry scars. And a scanner.

Excerpt from my hard crime novel Death on a Doorstep: The Gavin Hurlock Files.

Anyway. Lego!

Today we get…