Mia, John, and their mom face Detective Janus, who delivers the blunt update: "We could not find him." Janus outlines the exhaustive efforts—infrared helicopter, thermal scans, canine teams—and confirms no sign of Adam in or around the park.

Janus reveals Adam’s backpack was discovered midriver, half a mile downstream from the trail. The fast current and rocks likely carried it until a strap snagged. The phone survived in its rugged case; everything else was drenched and sent to the lab. While a volunteer search will recomb the area, Janus’s tone signals the likelihood has tipped from likely found to likely gone.

Pressed about implications, Janus explains water recoveries often fail and bodies are sometimes never recovered, while personal effects can drift and surface later. She lays out photos of recovered items: the phone, granola bars (Eugene’s favorite), a water bottle, keys, pens, a manila folder, and a swollen green spiral notebook.

Mom does not recognize the notebook. Its cover shows a faded H and a smudged second-letter curve that Mia identifies as Q, recalling Adam’s HQ files. Janus says the team is drying it and believes H stands for Happiness, with a scan of the first page incoming. Mia connects the letters to “Happiness Quotient,” reframing the HQ clue at the center of Adam’s secrets.