The call came in just after midnight. “Please… come quick. There’s someone in my room.” The dispatcher, pulling the headset closer, frowned — the voice was small, frightened. A five-year-old girl, who should have been deep in sleep, was instead whispering her fears into the night.
Her parents, groggy with sleep and disbelief, insisted she was imagining things, perhaps a nightmare lingering at the edge of her consciousness. But the officer on duty, seasoned by years of experience, trusted his gut. The tremor in her voice was too real, too urgent to ignore. Within minutes, a patrol car was dispatched, its siren slicing through the quiet suburb.
