Motor Sports

by Mike Mayak

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for the April 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were: a Caper Story, set at a Racetrack, involving a pair of leg irons. I’d just done a racetrack story about a month ago, so this is a sequel. Enjoy! —-mike

“Okay,” Patrick said. “How much money was taken?”

“None of it,” Riley said. “They didn’t even try to get into the safe. What they did take…” Riley shook his head. “You know those little cardboard boxes we give the customers for the hot dogs?”

“Yeah?” Patrick said.

“Every last one of ‘em. Gone!” Riley said.

“I finished talking to the cops,” Joel said, walking into the office. “At least they made out a report.”

Joel was 23, sandy-haired, tall and lean. He was one of Riley’s cousins that Riley had inherited a share in the racetrack with months ago. Riley and his husband Patrick had moved to Kansas from New Jersey to run it and so far everything had run smoothly.

Patrick had said that was probably because while the headline in the Wichita Eagle had said “Gay Couple Takes Over Local Racetrack” nobody read newspapers anymore.

They watched as Joel walked out of the back office of the racetrack attached to the snack bar.

“You know, if we’d just caught the guys, I still have that set of leg irons we got that one year…” Patrick began.

Riley blushed. The shackles had been a gag gift. Just then, Joel rushed back into the office, holding up his cellphone.

“I just called this guy I used to work with. He knows a private detective. He’s coming over here to investigate!”

Riley and Patrick glanced at each other.

“And you’re paying him,” Patrick said.

“Right.” Riley said.

“Right.” Joel said.

Riley sighed. What’s next?

The detective, a nondescript-looking guy in his thirties showed up the next day; introduced himself as “Keller” and inspected the storeroom, the office, the safe and the snack bar up front.

“You really ought to have a security system,” he told Joel, Patrick and Riley.

“Yeah,” they all admitted. Keller handed them a business card.

“These guys are pretty good,” he said.

The security people came out on Monday when the track was closed.

Wednesday night, Patrick and Riley were awakened by a phone call.

At the racetrack, they met with two police officers who had arrested the two men they recognized as their security people. The police had been after this bunch for a while. The perps weren’t even local. They had the caper set up with the “detective.” They installed “security” and came back later to steal the cash. Nobody would think anybody was breaking into a safe where security had been installed if the security system wasn’t going off. And they were the ones who had stolen the hot dog containers.

That was how they did it. Scared folks into calling Keller, then did the phony installation. Joel’s friend had been ripped-off the same way.

When the cops left with the thieves, Riley grinned at Patrick. “Glad you called the police and told you how suspicious you were.” Riley said.

“Yeah,” it helped that I used to date a guy who was a genuine paranoid,” Patrick said. “That taught me a few things.”

“Tomorrow WE are going to get REAL security installed,” Riley said.

“And Joel is paying for it!” Patrick said with a broad smile.

—end—

Here’s that first story “Hot Rod.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/03/07/ride-the-hot-rod-for-friday-flash-fics-from-mike-mayak-march-7-2025/