Thomas looked at him.
“Step away from the stairs.”
Thomas did not move.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
Daniel repeated himself.
“Step away from the stairs.”
Emily slowly lifted one hand.
She pointed.
Not at Thomas.
Not at the front door.
Toward the upstairs hallway behind him.
María followed the direction of her finger.
A bedroom door stood half open.
A pink child’s blanket had been dragged partly into the hall.
And on the carpet near the doorway lay a phone.
Facedown.
María’s attention stayed on it for a second.
Claire’s dispatch line remained active.
That meant the phone could be the one carrying the call.
The one Emily had used.
The one Thomas claimed she could not possibly have used because, according to him, she had been sleeping.
Daniel moved toward the staircase.
Thomas moved with him.
“Officer.”
Daniel stopped.
Thomas spread one arm slightly.
Not enough to make an obvious physical challenge.
Enough to block.
“You don’t have any reason to go up there.”
Daniel looked at him.
“We have a child who called 911 from this address.”
“She gets confused.”
María’s eyes returned to Emily.
The girl’s face changed when her father spoke.
“She has nightmares,” Thomas said.
Daniel did not answer.
Thomas continued.
“She makes things up when she’s scared.”
That sentence landed differently than he intended.
Because Emily had not been found asleep.
She was awake.
Crying.
She had appeared exactly where the caller was expected to be.
And she had pointed toward the hallway Thomas did not want officers entering.
Daniel glanced toward the phone.
Then toward Emily.
“Did you call 911?”
Thomas answered immediately.
“She doesn’t even know how to use that phone.”
Emily’s fingers tightened around the rabbit.
For a second, she said nothing.
Then, barely loud enough to hear:
“I called.”
Thomas turned.
“Emily.”
The way he said her name made her shrink.
María moved.
One step.
That was all.
But she placed herself more clearly between father and daughter.
“Do not speak for her.”
Thomas stared at the officer.
His careful smile was gone now.
Emily looked at María.
Then took one step down.
She stopped.
María lowered one hand.
Not reaching abruptly.
Just making the invitation visible.
“It’s okay.”
Emily descended another step.
Thomas moved.
Daniel immediately shifted into his path.
“Stay where you are.”
“I’m her father.”
