It was an ordinary evening. The city streets were filled with the soft glow of streetlights, and people hurried about their business: some were walking their dogs, others returning from work, some chatting near the store. A police patrol, a gray SUV with a distinctive stripe, slowly drove along the sidewalk. Inside sat two officers — Kovalyov and Melnikova.
— Quiet tonight, — Kovalyov yawned, looking out the window.
— If only it were always like this, — Melnikova smiled, — though it usually means the calm before the storm.
She didn’t have time to finish before a little girl — no more than five years old — ran barefoot out of an apartment building, wearing bunny pajamas, her blonde hair loose. Her face was full of panic.
She ran straight toward the patrol car. Kovalyov instantly hit the brakes, and the officers jumped out.
— Hey, are you okay? — Melnikova knelt in front of the girl.
— You… you’re police, right? — The girl was out of breath.
— Yes, sweetie. What happened?
— Under my bed… there’s a man. He’s wearing a mask. I saw him.
— Where are your parents? — Kovalyov frowned.
— Mom’s in the bathroom. I yelled to her, but she told me not to scare her.
The officers exchanged glances. It sounded like a child’s fantasy, but the girl’s eyes trembled with real fear.
— What did he look like? — Melnikova asked softly.
— Black clothes. A mask, like a ninja. I woke up and saw him crawling under my bed. He thought I was asleep…
— And you ran away? — Kovalyov clarified.
— Yes. Right away. I hid in the closet, then saw your car from the window…
— Alright, — Melnikova nodded. — Let’s check. Better be sure.
The apartment was on the third floor. The girl’s mother — frightened and embarrassed in her bathrobe — insisted she hadn’t heard anything and thought her daughter was just scared of the dark.
— Lately she’s been saying there’s something hiding in the corner, — the woman apologized. — She has an active imagination.
The officers searched the room with flashlights. There was nothing under the bed.
— Maybe he ran away… — the girl whispered from the doorway. — But I saw him. I swear!
Kovalyov was about to brush it off, but Melnikova stopped him.
— Wait. Let’s check the cameras. That look in her eyes… you can’t fake that.
What they saw on the footage shocked everyone.
The recordings turned into a real-life thriller. About fifteen minutes before the girl appeared on the street, a robbery had been captured at a nearby house. Two men in black clothes ran out of a building with bags in their hands.
Another camera showed that during the chase, one of them spotted the patrol car, abruptly turned a corner, climbed a drainpipe, and slipped through a slightly open window — into the apartment on the third floor. The very apartment where the girl lived.
— That’s him… — Melnikova exhaled. — And this was literally a minute before she ran to us.
On the next clip, the man could be seen jumping out a window on the opposite side of the building and disappearing into the yard.
The suspect was caught the next day — his partner had been arrested earlier that night and gave him up in exchange for a lighter sentence.
