“A 911 call? That has to be a mistake. Or a prank. Kids these days. It’s just me and my daughter, Emily, here tonight. And she’s fast asleep upstairs in her room.”
While speaking, he subtly shifted his body to obstruct the hallway entrance.
My attention dropped toward his hands.
His left hand was hidden casually behind his back.
“Bring your hands to the front, sir,” I ordered, lowering my voice an octave as the interaction shifted instantly from questioning to command.
Thomas blinked, manufacturing offense.
“Excuse me? I’m standing in my own home.”
“Hands where we can clearly see them. Now,” Daniel echoed, widening his stance while his hand hovered only inches from his holster, unsnapping the retention strap.
Thomas slowly and reluctantly moved, almost like someone struggling through deep water.
His left hand emerged from behind his back.
Something was clenched tightly inside it.
A thick, heavy black leather belt.
Its brass buckle was unusually large and weighty, catching the foyer chandelier’s light with an almost malicious gleam. The leather was wound securely around his knuckles.
He was holding it exactly like a weapon.
Or like a tool he had just finished using to hurt someone.
But the belt wasn’t what sent freezing blood through my veins.
Immediately beneath his wrist, stretching upward along his muscular forearm, were three deep, jagged scratches.
The skin had been violently torn open.
Fresh blood gathered inside the wounds, bright, wet, and cherry-red.
Those weren’t old scratches.
They looked like the frantic, desperate claw marks of someone fighting for survival.
“You’re bleeding,” I stated coldly, staring directly at his torn skin.
Thomas glanced at his arm as though discovering the wounds for the first time.
“Oh, this?” He gave another strained, high-pitched laugh, wiping the fresh blood casually against his jeans and leaving behind a dark smear. “Caught it on a rusty nail in the garage earlier while I was organizing. I was just looking for some bandages.”
“With a heavy belt wrapped tightly around your fist?” Daniel challenged, moving directly beside me.
