Dylan pointed toward the kitchen, his voice shaking. “Mom, I did not do anything wrong, I swear.” On the floor lay the back door, its lock splintered, and beside it a small gray backpack I had never seen. The officer, whose badge read Reyes, knelt and unzipped it. Inside were a stack of cash, a ring of keys, and a jewelry box. “Ma’am, your son called us twenty minutes ago,” he said. “He locked himself and the baby in the bathroom and told us a man was inside the house.”

My knees went weak. Dylan stared at the floor. “I heard the lock break,” he whispered. “I grabbed Theo and hid. I kept the line open until they came.” Officer Reyes added quietly that the man had fled when the sirens approached, dropping the bag in the hallway. Then he looked at me and said, “But there is something about that bag you need to see, and it involves your neighbor.”