@Jim@poa.st The second I heard one of the kids wasn't there, I was assuming one of them who was old enough to know something was seriously wrong with their parents, went and told somebody who was obliged to report it, (and the kid was never sent back). Maybe even at the encouragement of a concerned adult inquiring after their well-being after the infamous stream. Like they just asked some of the obvious poignant questions over the phone, and the kid just spilled their guts.
If you were a kid and your parents were acting like that, the house going to shit, and then they moved another cokehead whore in, what the fuck would you do? Maybe you're even old enough to have seen and episode of 'The Shield' or one of those cop reality shows or something, so you'd know exactly what the problem was. How safe would you feel in that house if your father went from a good, relatively normal Dad to a degenerate, irrational, alcoholic/junkie at the rate of knots we saw online? Especially if he got pissy when you called him on his shit or tried to get between him and his habit?
That would explain the absence of one child, the mandatory reporter, the cops having sufficient information for a warrant, (based on child abuse/neglect), etc. Child neglect could even be defined by just not educating them for a sufficient period, because you're 'too busy' snorting shit up your prodigious nose and kinda lose track of time.
I think that would also explain the look on Nick's face in his mugshot. It's not so much he knows he's going to be on the internet, but pissed that his own kid narced on him, and he's blaming that kid for all this shit, so still hasn't even admitted he has a problem to himself. So in his mind there was no child abuse/neglect, it was just his stupid kid overreacting, and just wait till he gets home and tells them how THEY destroyed the family and his career, blah, blah.
I don't know how old his kids are, but if he has five, that means one of them is probably old enough to start thinking for themselves, if only out of self-preservation, or sincerely trying to get help because they've been alive long enough to notice the switch and realise their parents are "sick". It would certainly be difficult for Nick to maintain the façade and avoid the ensuing fallout, regardless of all his money and legal knowledge.
On the other hand, maybe he's the greatest Dad in the world, keeps all his drinking and degenerate shit in one room, and the kid was just pissed he got told to put away his toys, so he figured, "I'll show you Dad ... " Maybe the truth is somewhere in-between. Who the fuck knows for sure? But just saying a house full of adult addicts might be a place a kid might consider leaving or otherwise acting upon, even if they didn't fully understand what the alternative/consequences would be.
It's getting so a man can't even enjoy a good floor burger these days without some little shit putting in their moralising two cents:
youtube.com/watch?v=tUk87Fc0054