The baby begged for more pudding. Her mother handed the child and the dessert to Rob.

"Has she eaten?" Ellis asked.

"Believe me, she eats," Alex said. "She just finished two slices of pizza."

"OK. So let's think about this. If you're having a hard time paying for this place and your husband isn't working... I think 700 would push you guys over the top. Do you think you can talk your landlord into leaving it at 600?"

"I'm going to find work," Rob repeated, trying to appease the baby, who was fussing, trying to grab the pudding.

Ellis gave them a voucher for food stamps, then told them she would come back for a second visit.

"I did tell your husband... "

"Boyfriend," Alex corrected.

"... boyfriend, that you will have to clean up."

"No problem," Rob said. "She's had a lot of doctor's appointments the last couple of days. We've been coming back dead tired. It usually doesn't look this way."

Ellis nodded. "I'll leave you my card so you can call with questions and concerns."

"Thanks," Alex said. "Sorry about the mess."

• 

In the back of every DHS worker's mind lurks the chilling knowledge that no matter how thoroughly you investigate, how carefully you monitor, children might still get hurt.

After the ambulance took off with Nakesha Bridges and her toddler, Soloman went into the house and found a spindly young man giving a bottle to a 5-month-old baby on his lap. Politely but pointedly, Soloman grilled him. He was the baby's father, 20 years old, working and trying to finish high school.

"Do you have any idea how long we've been trying to get in touch with you?" she asked.

He said he had no idea that DHS was looking for him, or that Bridges - his baby's mother - had claimed to live at this address. It was his family's home. He and Bridges were no longer a couple. She came over from time to time. Whenever she left the baby, his parents helped out.

Soloman looked around the ground floor and talked to other family members before she advised the baby's father to seek emergency custody. Then she told him he should persuade Bridges to be straight with DHS and stop running.

He said he would try.

"But she just might be scared of you guys."