A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nPp. 283-287<\/em><\/p>\nI feel like I\u2019ve been doing this a long time. A very, very long time. I\u2019m about ready for this book to end, frankly, but we still have over 180 pages left.<\/p>\n
This section opens with Peter making\u00a0some changes to the official complaint, adding a count against Donna and Rita for falsely claiming there were fading bruises, and adding a count against Donna, Rita, and \u201cthe estate of Gerald Blackburn\u201d for computer tampering. Farris tells us that Peter knew these counts might not be allowed, but he felt Judge Stokes would want to include them if at all possible. Peter just had to find a way to convince him to do so.<\/p>\n
By ten the next morning, Sally and the Amended Complaint ready for Peter\u2019s signature. He debated the alternative of signing the document himself alone or asking Gwen to sign the new complaint as well. The rules permitted either method, and he decided to sign it alone since he realized the only real reason he was considering having her sign was to gain another opportunity to see her. He was trying to do better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While I\u2019m glad Peter didn\u2019t create\u00a0yet another excuse to see Gwen\u2014he\u2019s done that basically every time he could so far\u2014I\u2019m curious whether he checked with Gwen about making these changes. From the beginning, he has been in the driver seat on this lawsuit, with Gwen popping in to play\u00a0the role of tortured love interest.<\/p>\n
Willet was surprised by nothing other than the speed of Peter\u2019s action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Can we stop doing this? It\u2019s getting weird. We know that Peter puts in his paperwork way fast. We\u2019ve been told like fifteen times. We also know that Gail does the same. Honestly, why is Gail surprised at this point? She\u2019s been surprised at Peter\u2019s speed in filing things like five times now, right? If she\u2019s as whip-smart as she\u2019s supposed to be, she would no longer be surprised.<\/p>\n
She was angry at the department\u2014for now she was reasonably certain that Blackburn acted alone\u2014but in a strange way she enjoyed the additional challenge of defending a case with bad facts. She knew the court precedents were on her side, and her job was simply to make Judge Stokes realize that he had no alternative but to dismiss this entire case\u2014even the surgery and tampering counts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is also like the fourth time Farris has explained this.<\/p>\n
She was as dedicated to this case as Peter. Gail Willet would love to set legal precedents advancing the cause of government programs to protect children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s interesting to note that Farris positions Gail as doing what she\u2019s doing in order to advance\u00a0\u201cthe cause of government programs to protect children.\u201d It\u2019s interesting because of what we know about Farris. He appears to be trying to mix some things in his readers\u2019 minds, to associate efforts to protect children through government programs with efforts to put\u00a0computer tampering and fraud beyond legal accountability. It\u2019s a nice propaganda tool, but as someone extremely concerned about the fact that Farris\u2019s parental rights organization is currently hiring more lawyers and planning to litigate more individual cases in an effort to\u00a0set precedents against children\u2019s rights, it is a deeply, deeply troubling approach.<\/p>\n
At this point the scene changes. Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents\u2019 lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.\u2014\u201cWe can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving\u201d\u2014but Donna declines and says she has \u201cso many doubts and so much confusion.\u201d She\u2019s not doing well\u2014not well at all. Peter assumes her fears and confusion are related to Blackburn\u2019s death, and starts her asking questions about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas he involved in anything peculiar just before he was killed?\u201d It was a question the police had never asked her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT. Spokane has some damned incompetent police! Isn\u2019t that something you should ask after any sudden and random death, and especially<\/em> in cases where the deceased is in the middle of defending himself against a civil rights lawsuit? How was Donna not asked this?!<\/p>\nCorliss\u2019s heart sank. She knew she could not lie convincingly to Stephen, but she could not bring herself to tell him the truth. And she felt certain he would feel responsible to tell the police if she revealed the details of the blackmail plot. She knew that Blackburn had coerced a payment out of Coballo, and she had begun to wonder if someone else had been blackmailed as well.<\/p>\n
Stephen\u2019s question prompted her to think, for the first time, that the murder might actually have been committed by someone who had been blackmailed. The thought scared her. Tears rolled down her cheeks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT. Really? Really? A guy blackmails you and an unknown number of other colleagues, tells you he has a\u00a0plan\u00a0to \u201cfix\u201d a legal case with freaking bombs<\/em>, and then gets mysteriously shot and you never even consider<\/em> that this could be at all related? Weren\u2019t we introduced to Donna as an ace investigator?<\/em><\/p>\nSigh. So. Anyway.\u00a0Stephen is all worried about Donna, and worries about how she\u2019ll do when questioned in court given that she\u2019s crying and all he did was ask a few questions, and asks why they can\u2019t get the case postponed further. As he asks more questions\u2014about whether she knows who all was involved with the tampering, whether she\u2019s sure it was Blackburn, and so on\u2014she\u2019s freaking out and squirming and rocking and refusing to make eye contact because she doesn\u2019t want Stephen to know she was in on the computer tampering. Stephen is pretty straight-laced, remember. He probably would<\/em> go to the police.<\/p>\nAmidst all this, she starts worrying that he doesn\u2019t believe her. He responds:<\/p>\n
\u201cWho said I didn\u2019t believe you? I was just asking if you knew what really happened. I remember that one time you were involved with Blackburn in embellishing some facts on a case. I just wanted to know what you knew.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He\u2019s referring to the time they were having lunch after the very first hearing, and Donna told him that she had fabricated the bruises in the case. At that time she claimed it was because she knew, given the way Gwen said she spanked Casey, that there had to sometimes be bruises, that she was just looking out for Casey, and that she had to embellish the facts because the law didn\u2019t go far enough to protect children. She did not mention to him that she had actually<\/em> decided to use this \u201cCode B\u201d procedure because Gwen had screamed\u00a0at her and called her a witch. Either way, Stephen was not okay<\/em>\u00a0what Donna told him.<\/p>\nOkay, back to the present:<\/p>\n
Despite the inability to see her eyes, Stockton had doubts about her story. She protested way too much. He knew her well enough and had good lawyerly instincts. He decided to change the subject. For the first time he was secretly glad she was not going with him to Washington, D.C. He would not ask her again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The conversation ends there, and on Sunday Stephen leaves for D.C.<\/p>\n
Stephen is still a confusing character to me. He is supposed to be\u00a0the\u00a0trust fund kid of a rich lawyer father, following in his father\u2019s footsteps as he is expected to do, but one might expect such a character to be privileged and entitled and okay with adjusting the facts as needed to get the required ends. Instead, he is ethically scrupulous and hard working\u2014remember all the weeks of study he put in for the bar. He doesn\u2019t expect to slide by on his dad\u2019s handouts, and in fact he\u2019s rather glad to be going to D.C. for a time to establish himself before coming back to his father\u2019s firm.<\/p>\n
As for Donna, her character started out confident and cool and is now in full meltdown mode. I get that people do find themselves in such situations, but\u00a0given Farris\u2019s initial presentation of Donna I would have expected her to be acting more like Gail at this point. Instead, she has shifted from being\u00a0cool and calculating to bursting into tears every time someone mentions the case. Now yes, she did just have a colleague murdered, but if she was that<\/em> affected by Blackburn\u2019s death you\u2019d think she would have spent more time thinking about why he was killed and who could have done it.<\/p>\nEither way, Stephen is leaving the picture and Peter and Gail are gearing up for a\u00a0battle over whether the tampering charges can be added to the case. It should be riveting.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents’ lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.—“We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving”—but Donna declines and says she has “so many doubts and so much confusion.” She’s not doing well—not well at all.<\/p>\n
Click through to read the full post! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":29163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-29160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\n
Anonymous Tip: Donna's Melting Down<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents' lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.---"We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving"---but Donna declines and says she has "so many doubts and so much confusion." She's not doing well---not well at all. Click through to read the full post!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymous Tip: Donna's Melting Down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents' lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.---"We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving"---but Donna declines and says she has "so many doubts and so much confusion." She's not doing well---not well at all. Click through to read the full post!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-29T09:52:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2016\/04\/woman-1006102_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"433\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html\",\"name\":\"Anonymous Tip: Donna's Melting Down\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-29T09:52:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-29T09:52:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents' lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.---\\\"We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving\\\"---but Donna declines and says she has \\\"so many doubts and so much confusion.\\\" She's not doing well---not well at all. Click through to read the full post!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anonymous Tip: Donna’s Melting Down\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anonymous Tip: Donna's Melting Down","description":"Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents' lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.---\"We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving\"---but Donna declines and says she has \"so many doubts and so much confusion.\" She's not doing well---not well at all. Click through to read the full post!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anonymous Tip: Donna's Melting Down","og_description":"Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents' lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.---\"We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving\"---but Donna declines and says she has \"so many doubts and so much confusion.\" She's not doing well---not well at all. Click through to read the full post!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2016-04-29T09:52:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":433,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2016\/04\/woman-1006102_1920.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html","name":"Anonymous Tip: Donna's Melting Down","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-04-29T09:52:24+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-29T09:52:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"Donna takes vacation time to spend a week with her boyfriend, Stephen, at his parents' lake house. Stephen has finished taking the bar, you see. He tries again to convince Donna that she should come with him to D.C.---\"We can get married there or back here at Thanksgiving\"---but Donna declines and says she has \"so many doubts and so much confusion.\" She's not doing well---not well at all. Click through to read the full post!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/04\/anonymous-tip-donnas-melting-down.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anonymous Tip: Donna’s Melting Down"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}