**Diary Entry 18th October**
It was just another quiet evening. The streets of Manchester glowed softly under the lamplight as people hurried aboutwalking their dogs, returning from work, or chatting outside convenience stores. A patrol car, a grey Land Rover with the familiar blue stripe, rolled slowly along the pavement. Inside sat two officersInspector Dawson and Sergeant Whitmore.
“Quiet night,” Dawson yawned, glancing out the window.
“Too quiet,” Whitmore smirked. “That usually means troubles brewing.”
She barely finished speaking when a little girlno older than fiveburst out of a nearby block of flats. Blonde hair, bunny-printed pyjamas, barefoot, and eyes wide with terror. She sprinted straight toward the patrol car. Dawson hit the brakes, and both officers jumped out.
“Hey, love, you alright?” Whitmore crouched down to her level.
“Youyoure police, right?” The girl gasped for breath.
“Thats right, sweetheart. Whats wrong?”
“Under my bed theres a man. Hes wearing a mask. I saw him.”
“Wheres your mum?” Dawson frowned.
“Shes in the bath. I shouted, but she told me not to scare her.”
The officers exchanged glances. It sounded like a childs wild imagination, but the girls hands shook, her voice thin with fear.
“What did he look like?” Whitmore asked gently.
“All black. Mask like a ninja. I woke up and saw him crawl under the bed. He thought I was asleep”
“And you ran?” Dawson pressed.
“Yes. Straight away. Hid in the wardrobe, then I saw your car outside.”
“Alright,” Whitmore nodded. “Lets have a look. Better safe than sorry.”
The flat was on the third floor. The girls mothera flustered woman in a dressing gowninsisted shed heard nothing, blaming it on her daughters fear of the dark.
“Shes been saying things hide in the corners lately,” the woman apologised. “Shes got a vivid imagination.”
The officers checked the room with torches. Nothing under the bed.
“Maybe he ran away” the girl whispered from the doorway. “But I *saw* him. I swear!”
Dawson nearly dismissed it, but Whitmore held up a hand.
“Wait. Lets check the CCTV. Shes too shaken to be making this up.”
What they found chilled them to the bone.
Footage from a nearby building showed a robbery fifteen minutes earliertwo men in black fleeing with bags. One spotted the patrol car, ducked into an alley, then scaled a drainpipe straight into an open window. The girls window.
“There he is,” Whitmore breathed. “Right before she ran to us.”
The next clip showed him leaping out the opposite window, vanishing into the night.
They caught him the next dayhis mate had been nicked earlier and gave him up for a lighter sentence.
**Lesson learned:** Never dismiss a childs fear. Even the wildest tales can hide the sharpest truth.
