The Greatest Trick

Officer Brian thought he was the man. Tough as nails, smarter than the whole precinct combined, and twice as brave. He strutted around the station like a sheriff from an old western — shades on at night, a toothpick forever clenched between his teeth, and an ego bigger than the city budget.

While everyone else got quiet when the name Tony Abracadabra came up, Brian would scoff.

“Magic? Please. I deal in facts, not cheap parlor tricks.”

Tony “Abracadabra” wasn’t just a mobster — he was the mobster. A master of making problems disappear. Evidence? Gone. Witnesses? Forgot everything. Lawyers? Suddenly retired. Cops? Vanished into thin air, like rabbits in a hat.

Despite the warnings — and there were many — Brian decided to go after him alone.

“Justice,” he said.

“Courage,” he insisted.

“Idiocy,” his colleagues muttered. And they were right.

One dark night, Brian woke up blindfolded, tied up, and lying on the cold floor of what smelled like a warehouse. When the blindfold came off, there he was — Tony Abracadabra himself, sharp suit, smug smile, and that twinkle in his eye that always came right before someone vanished.

“For my next trick,” Tony grinned, “you’ll still be wearing a uniform… just not the one you’re used to.”

Cut to a few months later.

The bass thumped in the red-lit club. The air was thick with cheap perfume and the faint scent of cherry lip gloss. And there she was, strutting her stuff with a polished baton in one hand and confidence in every curve. Long blonde hair, fishnet stockings, and a blue costume so tight it might as well have been painted on. Her badge hung from her neck — not a police badge, but one that read:

“Brianna — Night Security (and occasional entertainer)”

Brian? Never heard from again. Officer Tough Guy? Gone. Now, Brianna danced every night, the shining centerpiece of Tony’s latest act. And her family? Still wondering where he disappeared to. But just like any great magician knows…

A real trick is never revealed.