It was just another quiet evening. The streets of London glowed under the soft light of lampposts as people went about their businesssome walking their dogs, others heading home from work, a few chatting outside the corner shop. A police patrol car, a sturdy grey SUV with the familiar blue stripe, rolled slowly along the pavement. Inside sat Officers Dawson and Whitmore.
“Bit slow tonight,” Dawson yawned, gazing out the window.
“Dont jinx it,” Whitmore smirked. “This is usually the calm before the storm.”
No sooner had she spoken than a little girlno older than five, barefoot in bunny-print pyjamas, her blonde hair tousledbolted out of a nearby building, her face twisted in panic. She sprinted straight toward their car. Dawson slammed the brakes, and both officers jumped out.
“Hey, sweetheart, you alright?” Whitmore crouched down to her level.
“Youyoure the police, right?” The girl gasped for breath.
“Thats right, love. Whats wrong?”
“Theres theres a man under my bed. Hes wearing a mask. I saw him.”
“Where are your parents?” Dawson frowned.
“Mums in the bath. I shouted for her, but she told me not to be silly.”
The officers exchanged glances. It sounded like a childs overactive imagination, but the girls eyes were wide with real terror.
“What did he look like?” Whitmore asked gently.
“All in black. Mask like a ninja. I woke up and saw him crawling under the bed. He thought I was asleep”
“And you ran?” Dawson clarified.
“Yeah. Straight away. I hid in the wardrobe, then saw your car from the window”
“Alright,” Whitmore nodded. “Lets go check. Better safe than sorry.”
The flat was on the third floor. The girls motherflustered, in a dressing gowninsisted shed heard nothing and assumed her daughter was just scared of the dark.
“Shes been saying things like this lately,” the woman apologised. “Very vivid imagination.”
The officers swept the room with their torches. Under the bed? Nothing.
“Maybe he ran away” the girl whispered from the doorway. “But I really saw him. I promise!”
Dawson was about to brush it off, but Whitmore held up a hand.
“Hold on. Lets check the CCTV. Shes too certain for this to be made up.”
What they saw on the footage sent chills down their spines. Just fifteen minutes before the girl dashed outside, a robbery had been caught on camera next doortwo men in black, sprinting from the building with sacks in hand.
Another angle showed one of them spotting the patrol car mid-chase, veering sharply, andunbelievablyshimmying up a drainpipe. He slipped through an open window straight into the girls flat.
“Bloody hell,” Whitmore breathed. “That was just before she ran to us.”
The next clip showed the man leaping from a window on the opposite side of the building and vanishing into the night.
He was caught the next dayhis mate had been nicked overnight and quickly gave him up for a lighter sentence.
