“The Call That Broke the Silence”

Nothing.

No shouting. No movement. Just the faint hum of a neighborhood carrying on as if nothing were wrong.

He walked up the path, boots brushing past chalk lines that had once been bright suns and stick figures. The drawings stopped abruptly near the front steps.

That, more than anything, unsettled him.

He knocked.

Firm. Measured.

“Police department.”

A moment passed.