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Juvenile Bureau. Reports of children going door to door, begging for food, despite being from a well to do family crosses the path of Joe Friday.
Working the day watch, Joe Friday and Ben Romero walk the halls of headquarters when they learn of the half starved kids. The laundress and cook in a colonial style mansion tells what she knows of the kids. She doesn’t mind giving out food, and though she feels its not her place, something needs to be done about the missing parents, and other kids who are in a bind in the house.
In voiceover, Joe describes the unkempt condition of the mansion where the kids are fending for themselves. Alone for at least four days, young Robert explains that his mom hasn’t left before… um… well OK, not very often, or… well a few times. There’s a lot for such a young boy to take care of, including a sick baby. Joe reports in voiceover how the kids were given attention by the juvenile departments, and the comatose baby taken to medical care. The search begins for the missing mother. Will her body turn up in the morgue? The matter turns serious when the baby dies.
The only lead is a blood stained coat of the missing woman. A meeting with Mrs Macintosh who is on an outing with her kids at the zoo. Joe and Ben learn of an ex-husband, Richard. Who is Larry, and what’s his connection to the missing mother?
The trail leads to a hotel room where the loveless mother feels that kids, and her life have become too much of a drag on her. Joe has the news that her life is about to become even more of a drag.
