My heart pounded.
I dialed 911.
« I… I found something that may be connected to an old missing-child case. »
The dispatcher asked me to stay where I was and not touch anything else.
Minutes later, officers arrived. Nathan was as confused as I was.
When detectives examined the backpack, they quickly discovered something important: it had been hidden deep behind the couch long before Nathan or his mother had last used that room. The house had previously belonged to another family, and the couch itself had been purchased secondhand years earlier.