<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Jerry Dawson</span></span></span><br/><br/><a class="postlink" href="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/Galvin_Fugazi/52369226-3528-4ca1-91bb-aab87f83ff6d_zpsf1eea54c.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Jerry made a short stop at his parents' place to say hello to them and to three of his younger siblings who still lived there. Jerry was the third eldest, he had two elder brothers and four younger sisters and a younger brother. All the brothers and one sister were already married, he was the odd one out, who had never found a girl he liked enough for marriage. The three youngest girls, Jenny, Marylin and Tanya were living with his parents, although Marylin was engaged and maybe soon gone too. The big house got more lonely lately and if the loud base from Tanya's room wouldn't tell everybody she was home, it may have already something peaceful, too peaceful for his parents liking. But there were already two grand-children with Ralph and Tom and soon the house would be very lively again. Jerry stayed for an hour, leaving the house with a stack of fresh-baked bread, cookies and some home-made jam. Somehow his mother seemed to believe that a single-living man must starve most of the time.<br/><br/>When Jerry arrived finally at home or the smallish flat he called home, he ate some of the fresh bread with ham and turned his stereo on. The voice of Sia filled the room, while he put his feet on the table and opened the folder he had taken with him. Ivy Belmonte, 23, single mom, one kid, a girl, five, named Isabelle. The facts looked like many he had seen the past three days. He worked deeper into her dossier. Father disappeared at age ten, no financial support for his daughter or the wife. Mother raised her of her own, seemed to have faired pretty well with that, daughter went to highschool and had decent marks. Not too bad for a girl raised by a single mom. He wondered why she ended up with CPS. He tried to calculate back from the age of mother and child and the picture rose from the dust. Aha, she had got pregnant while at school, dropped out and the father left her later. Jerry examined those few notes Maria had left on the background. Ok, he had been close, actually the father left her even before the girl was born. Asshole, he should at least have supported her, but it looked like he refused even that. Probably one of the jocks trying to get every girl in his bed. No sense of respect and responsibility with those.  <br/><br/>But Jerry still had no clue why there was a file about Ivy Belmonte. Not every single mother automatically became a case at CPS. He tried to find the first entry and he found it with a medical bulletin attached. Isabelle Belmonte had been in hospital with a broken arm and heavy concussions all over her body at age three. The girl had been delivered to the hospital by a neighbour and the mother had arrived later from work. Apparently the girl had been with a babysitter, who fell asleep and she had opened the front door and walked out into the hallway at night and fallen down the stairs. The story was backed up by the babysitter and the neighbour, but CPS had been called because of one fact. The mother had not been able to pay the medical bill, but managed to pay it once CPS had been involved.<br/><br/>Now, that sounded like she had found someone to loan her the money, but Jerry dug deeper into the file. There was her annual spreadsheet from IRS and Jerry checked the medical bill again. No, the idea that someone loaned her that amount of money seemed ridiculous, regarding that she just earned enough to pay for food, clothes and....where did she live?....her flat. No, she had found money some other way and Jerrry had seen enough files the past days to know how she may have made the money. Theft, dealing or prostitution. <br/><br/>He checked her file again. No she wasn't black, she was white, so he scratched the dealing. Where did she work? The Nightlife, as a bartender. Of course Jerry had heard of The Nightlife. Officially it was a nightclub, inofficially it was a brothel. The girls working there were all prostitutes and if Ivy Belmonte was working there it was more than likely that she was a prostitute too.  <br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Give her the benefit of the doubt, Jerry."</span><br/><br/>He was willing to do so, but Maria's file had often told only half of the story so far. He remembered the four kids used for those films and how Samantha had made clear that he had to watch his back, as the press was on their heels. No, he would try to come up with a better picture of Ivy Belmonte. Maybe he should simply check out the nightclub. He had never been in one and only listened to the horror stories of it Sunday at church, but hey, going one time in his life in a nightclub wouldn't send him straight to hell. Especially as it was for the benefit of the little girl. He just would have to prepare himself, clothes, money...what else would he need there?</div>