His face went red and strained, all his authority stripped away in the cramped space of his own upstairs hall.

He made a sudden move to get up, but Daniel’s hand came down firmly on his shoulder.

Emily stood without a sound on the stairs below, twisting the frayed left ear of her gray stuffed rabbit tight in her hands.

“Put your hands behind your back, Mr.

Miller,” Daniel said quietly.

Thomas opened his mouth as though he had one more smooth explanation ready, but he stopped when he caught the glint of metal in Daniel’s hand.

Daniel drew Thomas’s wrists together behind him and snapped steel handcuffs around them in the dim light of the upstairs hall.