Anonymous Tip: The Computer Tells All

A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris

Pp. 259-264

Aaron meets Judge Stokes in his office to go over some ground rules before examining the CPS computer. Judge Stokes tells Aaron he wants to learn as much as possible about Aaron’s technology because “I think this may open up a whole new area of legal inquiry.” He explains that before computers, ordinary methods could be used to determine whether records had been changed, but that computers threw all that over. Then he tells Aaron this:

“OK. Let’s get to our rules. First, you are not allowed to tell your friend Peter Barron about anything we find. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“OK. This is very important. You seem like a man of character and you’ve got a government security clearance, so I am going to leave you on your honor.”

Aaron smiled and nodded.

I don’t know enough about the legal process to know whether this sort of thing is routinely allowed, but at least we know Judge Stokes knows that Aaron and Peter are good friends, and aren’t just working together on this professionally.

Judge Stokes and Aaron drive together to the CPS office, where they’re met by Jeremy Bowden, “the CPS chief system analyst from Olympia,” who says he is under “strict orders” to “comply fully” with all of their requests. Farris tells us that the department was unwilling to “get caught in a coverup even if they did have some investigators who had gone too far.” The trio enters the computer room and Aaron sits at the computer, with the other two on either side.

He stroked the keyboard and ran some initial diagnostic commands to understand the basic nature of the system. Then with the assistance of Bowden, they located the sectors on the hard drive where the Landis files were supposed to be located.

After a few more minutes, he pulled a 3.5″ floppy disk out of his briefcase and put it in the A: drive in the body of the computer.

“We’re getting there, Judge,” Aaron said. “The preliminaries are just about over.”

Aaron typed the strokes to run the sectors on the hard drive through his “deciphering” program. He spent about ten minutes scrolling through files until he said, “Bingo. This looks like one of the Landis reports.” It was the intake record. After twenty seconds of slow scrolling, Aaron said, “And here are your changes.”

I’m going to need someone with more 1990s computer skills than I have to tell me whether Farris got the computer side of all of this right. Regardless, Judge Stokes as Aaron to print the changes, and Aaron suggests copying them to a floppy instead, and printing them later, which the judge agrees to.

Next Aaron asks what other files they’d have on the Landis case, in addition to the initial report, and then, through searching and scrolling, finds the investigate notes, with more changes. The judge is excited, and tells him to keep looking, but he doesn’t find any more records. They go to “an office right down the hall” to print the information out. Bowden has a question.

“Can I get a copy?”

“Not from us,” the judge said. “They’re your records. I can’t stop the Department from using their own records, but I will say that if any further changes are made, I will jail however makes them for contempt of my court.”

“I won’t risk it, Your Honor. I won’t even go back and look. You’ve got a clever man here in Mr. Roberts,” Bowden said.

After the information is printed, Aaron gives both the papers and the floppy disk to Judge Stokes, who takes them back to his office to read through them.

Two days later—Friday July 22nd, if you’re still keeping track—Judge Stokes issues a ruling, finding that there were four changes made to the Landis file, all the same day that the lawsuit was filed against the CPS. There was no way to tell on which computer the changes had been made. Here were the changes:

(1) The date of the intake call had been changed from May 5 to May 9;

(2) The nature of the injuries had bene changed from “unknown” to “severe bruises”;

(3) The name of the reporter had been changed from “anonymous” to the name of a medical professional—the new name was not specified in the order; and

(4) The coding of the call had been changed from a Code 2 to a Code 1.

Predictably, Gail and Matt Bartholomew freak out on each other immediately.

Gail Willet’s face turned ashen white when she got the judge’s order. Her first call was to Matt Bartholomew, who was floored.

“What have you gotten us into, Ms. Willet?”

“What are you talking about, Bartholomew?” Willet answered angrily. “Your agency—and I remind you—you, represent this agency. Your agency apparently thinks it’s OK to tamper with government records. I had nothing to do with this.”

They go on like this for a while. Once Gail has Matt apologizing for accusing her of having any part in this, Gail says she’s going to the library to look up cases where governments used forged documents, knowingly. She’s hoping to find some sort of immunity.

Peter wasn’t able to reach Gwen with the news of the judge’s order until after she left for work on Friday afternoon. They agreed to meet Saturday morning at ten for brunch and discuss the case. Gordon would be exercising visitation of Casey starting at nine.

First, how the heck was it easier to reach Gwen after she was at work than before? At least we know she’s still going to work from time to time, I suppose. Second, why meet for brunch rather than in a more professional setting, especially given that they’re supposed to be keeping things professional? And third, what is UP with the way Farris discusses visitation!? It sounds creepy and gross!

I know this is a short segment, but I’m going to leave things here for now. Discuss!