Wednesday night had finally arrived after a long week of reading previous detectives case notes on this Phantom Thief Gold. Truthfully Dan was glad the wait was over, it meant for the night he wouldn't have to read anything else about this guy and his crimes because he'd be putting a stop to them permanently.
Which, about time! He'd had to read about so many of Phantom Thief Gold's crimes this week, it had driven him insane given how much he struggles to focus on activities like reading. So while the crimes themselves were pretty bad, the fact that Dan had to spend two whole days reading about them all was possibly unforgivable.

Now though it was very nearly time for the action to take place. He stood with a group of police that AAAnimus had made him bring along, really he didn't think they needed to be there but it wasn't really his choice to make.
It did feel pretty weird standing alongside them though, all the police in their uniforms that genuinely looked so stupid that Dan had to resist the urge to laugh. Then there was him dressed in blue jeans that'd been patched up on the knees after an incident with an angry cat during one of his missing pet cases. He wore a white T-shirt under a completely zipped up red hoodie because for such a warm day, it really had turned out to be a cold night. He'd pinned his badge that let people know he's a detective onto a black scarf he'd grabbed before leaving. He also wore his scuffed up red converse shoes he'd had for at least three years now and a random pink beanie he'd found lying around at home that probably actually belonged to his cousin's friend, that was irrelevant though. Point being, when surrounded by police in all their matching uniforms, he stood out.

Good, that meant he couldn't be mistaken for one of them so when he caught Phantom Thief Gold, everyone would know it was the amazingly skilled detective who'd caught him and not the police force.

The blue eyed detective pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time. There was only around three minutes until the time the Phantom Thief had stated in his card. The museum was his target tonight so the letter had been found in the owner's office. Dan had visited the day before to take a look around the building, figure out any potential escape routes that the phantom thief could use and to take a look at the item he'd said he'd be stealing.
This time it was a small statuette in the shape of a dragon. He wasn't sure why, but apparently it was quite expensive and considered an excellent piece of art in the eyes of critics. To Dan it just looked like a fat stone dragon that shouldn't cost more than ten dollars at a yard sale but his job was to stop the thief from stealing it, not to criticise the thief's choice of artwork to steal.

Earlier after a short discussion the detective and the police had agreed to surround the outside of the museum from all angles from the street. The plan was to stop the thief from entering the building at all.

The alarm on Dan's phone went off. Midnight on the dot.

Nothing happened.

A minute passed and then another minute, yet there was still nothing.

Finally after five minutes had passed, one of the police spoke up, "Where is this guy? I thought everyone said he was usually spot on time?"

Dan nodded, about to reply that he thought so too but then someone else spoke up. "I am always on time!" A cheerful voice called from atop the museum roof. "On time to steal, that is. Really now, I don't just walk through the front entrance for all of my heists!"
Everyone snapped their heads upwards and finally caught sight of the thief. Not that it seemed like he was even trying to hide, he was standing up on the roof waving down at them all with one gloved hand. The lower part of his face was covered by a white mask, he wore a white dress shirt partially covered by a long black cloak with gold detailing on it that trailed all the way down his back and his hands were covered by white fingerless gloves. On his lower half he wore knee length black shorts and see through grey socks patterned with the occasional golden moon or star. Finally, he wore pale yellow boots. A brown satchel bag hung from one shoulder and in the hand he wasn't using to wave cheerily at the people below, was the fat dragon statuette.

The detective's eyes widened in shock. How had he gotten past them? They'd all been there way over an hour keeping watch to prevent the thief's entrance to the museum. Yet he'd still gotten in there and stolen the fat dragon- Priceless statuette.

"You! Get down here with that right now and turn yourself in!" A police officer screeched, Dan recognized him as the one who'd tried to arrest his cousin for walking his dog that one time... Noting that, he didn't resist the urge to roll his eyes at how stupid he was if he thought that would work.

Phantom Thief Gold stared blankly for a moment before bursting out into a fit of laughter, "Are you serious?" He asked, genuinely incredulous.

"Yeah! I'm a part of the police and my daddy is the mayor of Los Volmos. So you better turn yourself in now or you'll get arrested."

The red streaked detective could feel the collective eye roll from everyone other than Chip and the phantom thief, who was instead letting out a contemplative hum. "But if I turn myself in, I'll get arrested anyway. So it'd be a lose-lose situation for me! No, I much prefer my version of this."

His eyes scanned through the crowd below until they landed on Dan, who was looking right back as amber met blue.

For a moment there was silence, then Gold broke it. "My version being, if you want me to stop stealing, you have to catch me." He winked.

And maybe it was just the eye contact or his imagination... But for some reason Dan couldn't help but think those words were aimed at him and him alone.

"But that won't be happening tonight. Goodbye for now!"

The eye contact broke as Phantom Thief Gold turned around and ran towards the back of the museum's roof. A yell sounded up from the police who were stationed around there as in the light of the moon they could all see the phantom thief running away across the rooftops, statuette in hand.

"Ugh! We lost him." Chip complained. No one responded to the annoying cop, trying instead to focus on their own thoughts on the thief's successful heist.

Next time, Dan noted, they'd surround the item that the thief was planning on taking, the outside of the building and the roof, too.

His emotions were conflicted by annoyance and disappointment. Annoyed that the thief had escaped him and disappointed that he hadn't planned better so Phantom Thief Gold wouldn't be able to escape and would be forced to turn himself in.

Next time, he wouldn't get away with it.

Next time, he'd catch the thief.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it wasn't very long until the next time...