The father yanked the door handle.

Locked.

Again.

Nothing.

His hands began to shake.

“My baby…”

The woman grabbed his shoulder.

“Don’t open it yet.”

He spun toward her.

“What?”

Her eyes never left the fogged window.

“I saw someone move before you came back.”

The father’s face drained of color.

“That’s impossible. My daughter was alone.”

The woman swallowed.

“No. She wasn’t.”

Another faint shape passed behind the child seat.

The father stumbled back half a step.

His phone slipped from his hand and hit the asphalt.

Then the tiny handprint appeared again.

Lower this time.

Weak.

The father rushed forward, pounding on the glass.

“Emma! Daddy’s here!”

No answer.

Only the alarm.

Only the fog.

Only that larger shadow becoming still behind her seat.

The woman lifted the emergency hammer again, but now her hands were trembling.

The father looked at her.

For one terrible second, neither of them moved.

Then a soft voice came from inside the locked SUV.

Not the baby.

An adult voice.

“Don’t open the door.”