A little girl called 911 crying: “Daddy’s snake is so big it hurts!”

—”My little brother knows where he hides it, too.”
Mariela felt the air turn to stone.
—”Your little brother?” she asked, lowering her voice even further. “Where is your little brother, Sophie?”
The girl squeezed the rabbit until one of its ears bent.
—”Upstairs… in the gray room.”
Stephen went rigid for a second. Then he turned toward the hallway as if he could no longer hear anything else. The man in handcuffs, by the patrol car, stopped pretending to be calm for the first time.
—”She’s confused,” he said. “The girl makes things up. There is no boy up there.”
But no one believed him.
Mariela touched Sophie’s shoulder with a delicacy that seemed almost impossible in the midst of such fear.
—”What is your little brother’s name?”
The girl swallowed hard.
—”Tommy.”
—”How old is he?”
—”Five.”
The deputy stood up.
—”Dispatch, possible second minor at risk inside the residence. Requesting backup, Victim Services, and medical units.”
From dispatch, Lucy pressed her headset against her ears.
—”Backup is on the way.”
Stephen stepped back inside the house. Mariela stayed half a step behind him, never leaving Sophie’s side. The hallway felt narrower now. The small cameras in the corners, the doors with locks on the outside, the smell of bleach mixed with dampness… it was all too clean to be innocent.