Anonymous Tip: Meet the Social Worker

Today we meet the social worker, Donna Corliss. What’s really interesting is how Farris introduces her—hungover with her law school boyfriend, lying to her boss and skipping work.

The late morning sun crept slowly across the bedroom floor. The first ray of light crawled up the bed, touched her eyes and stabbed deep into her skull like a flash of lightening. Donna Corliss would be getting into nothing that Friday, except the bicarbonate of soda.

Yep. This is how we meet social worker Donna Corliss.

She sits up, groans, and turns to her boyfriend, Stephen J. Stockton. Stephen is also in bed hung over, and we soon learn that he is “two days away from his Juris Doctorate” at Gonzaga University School of Law. Not coincidentally, Gonzaga is Farris’s alma mater. Farris speaks of Stephen and his associates as “party-goers” who drowned the pressure of law school in “kegs of beer” and were apprehensive about the bar exam they would face ten weeks later.

As Donna makes coffee and coaxes Stephen out of bed, we learn that Stephen does not like his parents, that Stephen’s parents have a new summer home on a lake, and that Stephen’s father, Connor Stockton, Esq., is a “name” partner at a prestigious law firm, Wilson, Stockton & Bodecker. We also learn that while his father graduated fifth from Gonzaga, Stephen is graduating first. After briefly rehashing his successful father with Donna—Stephen says that his father “has it all” and Donna reminds Stephen that his father is “so proud” of him—Stephen collapses back into his bad, moaning about how terrible he feels.

Next Donna calls her boss, whom we are introduced to as “Mr. Blackburn.” “I don’t think I can come in today,” she says. “I’m not feeling well.” When Blackburn asks if it’s serious, she says she has “a bad headache and some stomach upset.” Farris writes that Blackburn suspected alcohol, but didn’t say anything about it because Donna was one of his “star” social workers. Donna was “as tough as nails,” we are told. “I can’t have my ace investigator out for long,” Blackburn says.

We also learn that Blackburn’s office has the best rating in the state. “Most successful investigations. Most prosecutions. Most convictions.” Donna mentions that Blackburn is hoping to win “Top Child Advocate” again, so it’s clear this is an award he has won before. Blackburn tells Donna to get better quickly. “I can’t have my ace investigator out for long,” he says. Through their banter, Farris establishes that Blackburn is eager to retain his office’s number one rating and receive the “Top Child Advocate” award again, and that Donna feels the pressure.

Blackburn checks his email and finds that a Priority 2 complaint has come in overnight—the report Gordon called in last week. “I guess it can wait till Monday,” he says. Farris explains that Donna was so relieved that there was nothing pressing that she forgot she had a day-long in-service training session already scheduled for Monday. The amount of time it takes Donna to make a visit to the Landis home is going to become a big issue as we move through the book.

Farris finishes this section with this:

She dropped the receiver roughly on the cradle, weaved slowly across the room, and collapsed back on the bed.

This, then, is how Farris introduces his social worker villain.

Actually, in this short section Farris establishes not one but three characters. Donna he establishes as follows: She spent the night in bed with her boyfriend; she drank herself silly at a party; and she called into work sick as a result. We are also told that she is an ace investigator who is “tough as nails,” but we watch her put off investigating a Priority 2 child abuse report. Farris establishes Stephen as is a soon-to-be lawyer who is given to partying, has daddy issues, and comes from old money. Finally, Farris establishes Blackburn as primarily concerned about maintaining his office’s top rating and winning another “Top Child Advocate” award.

But let’s go slightly further before pulling the curtain for the week.

We pick up on Monday morning, as Donna drives to her office—“the Spokane office of the Child Protective Services division of the Department of Social and Health Services of the State of Washington.” We learn that Donna has a BA in sociology from Western Washington University in Bellingham and a graduate degree, presumably in social work, from Washington State University in Pullman, and that she has been working for CPS for five years. And of course, we get commentary like this:

Western had a beautiful campus but was equally well-known as a great party school. When she graduated, Donna had left the university’s reputation well intact.

And then there is this:

After five years on the job, Donna had seen it all. Sexually molested children. Mostly step-fathers and live-in boyfriends. Broken arms. Broken skulls. Scalds. Cigarette burns. And more than a handful of uptight religious nuts who insisted on spanking their children.

Presumably, this is stated from Donna’s perspective—so here we learn that Donna thinks of people as “religious nuts.” And this becomes another theme—Donna dismissive and disdainful of those who are different from her, especially religious types.

Donna arrives at work fifteen minutes early—normal for her, we are told. She checks her email again and pulls up the report about Casey Landis. She “mutters a few foul words under her breath about mothers who beat their kids,” checks her schedule, and concludes: “No evidence of a real emergency. It’ll keep ’til Wednesday.” We learn that Monday will be spent on the in-service training and Tuesday will be given over to juvenile court hearings.

So, what else have we learned? That Donna was a party girl in college, that she has seen horrific abuse, and that she is disdainful of “religious nuts.” That Donna always gets to work early, and that she uses “foul words.” But also, again, that she puts off the Priority 2 report.

This is where we’ll leave off. Next week we meet Gwen Landis and her daughter Casey.