It was just an ordinary evening. The streets of London were bathed in the soft glow of streetlights, and people were going about their businesssome walking their dogs, others heading home from work, a few chatting outside the corner shop. A police patrol car, a grey SUV with the classic blue stripe, rolled slowly along the pavement. Inside were two officersInspector Harris and Sergeant Collins.
“Quiet night,” Harris yawned, glancing out the window.
“Too quiet,” Collins smirked. “Usually means troubles brewing.”
No sooner had she said it than a little girlno older than fivecame sprinting out of a nearby flat block. Blonde hair, bunny-print pyjamas, barefoot. Pure panic on her face.
She bolted straight for the patrol car. Harris slammed the brakes, and both officers jumped out.
“Hey, sweetheart, you alright?” Collins crouched down to her level.
“Youyoure the police, right?” The girl gasped for breath.
“Yeah, love. Whats wrong?”
“Theres theres a man under my bed. Wearing a mask. I saw him.”
“Where are your parents?” Harris frowned.
“Mums in the bath. I shouted for her, but she told me not to be silly.”
The officers exchanged a look. Couldve been a kids overactive imagination, but the terror in her eyes was real.
“What did he look like?” Collins asked gently.
“All in black. A mask like a burglars. I woke up and saw him crawling under the bed. He thought I was asleep…”
“And you just ran?” Harris pressed.
“Yeah. Straight away. Hid in the wardrobe first, then saw your car from the window…”
“Alright,” Collins nodded. “Lets go check. Better safe than sorry.”
The flat was on the third floor. The girls muma flustered woman in a bathrobeinsisted she hadnt heard a thing and thought her daughter was just scared of the dark.
“Shes been saying stuff like this latelythings hiding in the shadows,” the mum apologised. “Shes got a wild imagination.”
The officers searched the room with their torches. Under the bed? Nothing.
“Maybe he ran away,” the girl whispered from the doorway. “But I *saw* him. I swear!”
Harris was about to brush it off, but Collins stopped him with a look.
“Hold on. Lets check the CCTV. Shes too shaken for this to be made up.”
What they saw next sent chills down their spines.
The footage turned the whole thing into a proper crime drama. Fifteen minutes before the girl ran outside, another buildings cameras caught a robberytwo blokes in black, sprinting out with bags in hand.
Then, on another camera, one of them spotted the patrol car, ducked down an alley, andbloody hellscaled a drainpipe. He slipped through an open window straight into the girls flat.
“Thats him,” Collins breathed. “Right before she bolted.”
The next clip showed him leaping out the opposite window and vanishing into the estate.
They caught him the next dayhis mate got nicked that night and gave him up to save his own skin.
