“911 call from this address,” Daniel said.
The man frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
Then Daniel added, “A little girl called.”
The change on the man’s face lasted less than a second.
But Maria caught it.
“My daughter is asleep,” he said quickly.
And right then, a sound came from the staircase behind him.
A soft, broken sob.
Everyone turned.
A little girl stood there in pink pajamas, holding an old stuffed rabbit so tightly its ear was bent flat.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
Her hands were trembling.
And she would not look at her father.
Maria stepped forward.
“Sir, we need to speak with her.”
The man shifted to block the hallway.
“This is my house. You can’t just—”
Daniel was already moving inside.
What they found upstairs made the whole house feel different.
Emily’s room was in disarray.
Dirty sheets.
Broken toys.
A smell Maria couldn’t ignore.
Then she saw the bruises on the child’s arms.
She crouched down slowly.
“Emily… can you tell me what happened?”
The girl clutched the rabbit harder.
She looked at her father.
Then at the floor.
And when she finally spoke, both officers went still.
“He said if I told… he’d kill me.”
Daniel turned toward the hallway at the exact moment Thomas Miller took one step backward.
Not toward his daughter.
Toward the back of the house.
What was he trying to get to before they stopped him?
The next part is in the comments… type PART 2 if you want to see what the police found when they searched the basement
