A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nPp. 297-299<\/em><\/p>\nLast week the local newspaper posted an article about Gwen\u2019s civil rights case, but while Gwen and Peter had reason to be pleased with the article, Donna did not. She was especially worried about the\u00a0questions the article raised about Blackburn\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
She knew she was innocent of any connection to Blackburn\u2019s death, but she was terrified that somehow the detectives might stumble into the\u00a0blackmail plot and implicate her in the perjury and document tampering.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And now we get the next installment in Donna\u2019s relationship with Stephen. And it\u2019s, uh, a bit of a departure. Donna calls Stephen and calls and calls, but it\u2019s 7:30 p.m. in Spokane when he finally picks up\u2014and 10:30 in his new city, Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen, it\u2019s Donna.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, hi, Donna,\u201d Stockton said with\u00a0as much enthusiasm as he could muster.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As you may remember, the last time we heard from Stephen, he went from begging Donna to come with him to Washington, D.C., and marry him to deciding that he didn\u2019t want to marry her after all, because of the mess she was in with work, and potentially shady\u00a0dealings there. It was all very sudden, and he didn\u2019t tell her about his change of heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere have you been all day? I have been trying to get you for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stockton motioned to the young woman co-worker who had been his companion for a day of\u00a0sight-seeing that she should sit down in the living room. He mouthed the words \u201cI\u2019ll be a few minutes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wait, what exactly is Farris trying to imply, here? It\u2019s Sunday night for crying out loud. Both Stephen and his co-worker presumably have work in the morning. If they spent the day sight-seeing, why exactly did she come back to his apartment afterwards? And even if she did, just to see his place\u00a0or something, it\u2019s 10:30 p.m. on a work night<\/em>. Is she on her way out, or are we to assume that they are\u00a0going to have sex? Because frankly, that seems like a bad idea, given that this is a co-worker<\/em>.<\/p>\nWhere did all of Stephen\u2019s supposed ethics go so quickly? Oh wait. If Farris is okay with a romance between a lawyer and his (penniless) client, he probably doesn\u2019t have any idea that workplace romances are often inadvisable. It\u2019s not clear, of course, what sort of co-worker she is. Another lawyer? Or a secretary, or other administrative staffer? Of course, Farris probably wouldn\u2019t see that as relevant, or understand the distinction.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I\u2019ve just been out sight-seeing. This is really an interesting town. Lots to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds great,\u201d Corliss said. \u201cIn fact, it sounds so great that I\u2019ve decided to join you there\u2014take you up on all those offers you\u2019ve made time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The young woman got up off the couch in Stockton\u2019s apartment. She walked across the living area and started looking at his bookshelf in earnest. Stockton thought that she was clearly better looking than Donna Corliss and didn\u2019t come wrapped in a pile of ethical problems that he neither wanted nor needed right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course<\/em> Stephen thinks about looks first, because of course<\/em> he does.<\/p>\nBecause, after all, this book is written by Farris.<\/p>\n
Farris has actually\u00a0been very kind in his treatment of Stephen. He has portrayed\u00a0Stephen as ethical, loyal, and honest. Yes, he goes out drinking and was sleeping with Donna even though they weren\u2019t married, but he did ask her to marry him, and he did study hard for the bar. From where I\u2019m sitting, what\u2019s happening here now is either out of step with Stephen\u2019s character, or else Farris doesn\u2019t think what he\u2019s doing is out of step with being ethical, loyal, and honest, which is rather telling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s a surprising development,\u201d Stockton said. \u201cWhat made you change your mind?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I guess I just miss you, Stephen.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Stephen presses, asking if there\u2019s anything new going on, anything new with the case she\u2019d mentioned, and so forth. Donna says there\u2019s nothing, that the only change is a newspaper article. Stephen asks her to have his dad\u2019s secretary fax it to his office the next day, and Donna is becoming exasperated.<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen, here we are talking about faxes and newspaper articles and everything under the sun. I\u2019ve just agreed to marry you and you haven\u2019t said anything about that. What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. I really don\u2019t. I can\u2019t talk right now. I\u2019m with some of my co-workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah? What\u2019s her name?\u201d Corliss asked angrily.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Can I just point out how much more quickly Donna usually catches onto things than Gwen does? Gwen would be all \u201cOh, okay, sorry to bother you, I\u2019m sure you have important things to do, I\u2019ll let you go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me call you back soon, OK? It really would be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou pig! You use me for three years and then dump me in less than a week! You\u2019re a pig!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re jumping to conclusions. Please let me call later. Bye.\u201d He hung up the phone before she could speak again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh, so much to talk abut! First, what is this bit about Stephen using<\/em> Donna? Is she talking about sex? If so, what she said only makes sense if she\u2019s coming from Farris\u2019s perspective on sex, and that would be just weird, especially because she\u2019s supposed to be a feminist.<\/p>\nLook, Donna has reason to be angry here. She told Stephen\u00a0she didn\u2019t want to get married and move with him to Washington, D.C., where he\u2019s going to be working\u00a0for two years before moving back to Washington state, but she never broke up<\/em> with him. He\u2019s her boyfriend<\/em>. She also didn\u2019t\u00a0know he\u2019d decided to stop asking her to come with him. There are lots of things she could throw at him here. Going with \u201cyou use me for three years\u201d rather than something else is just weird<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnyway, Farris tells us that Donna is furious, throws herself on the couch, spends several minutes screaming, and then cries \u201ca brokenhearted cry\u201d that lasts \u201cfor hours, or so it seemed.\u201d Okay then. Downton Abbey could have been titled \u201cHow many more ways can we torture Edith.\u201d I\u2019m getting the same feeling here, with what Farris is doing to Donna.<\/p>\n
The rest of this section is comparatively boring. Peter takes his reply brief to the courthouse on Monday morning, and apparently the\u00a0whole office comes \u201calive with activity\u201d at seeing the\u00a0name on the file, given the newspaper article.<\/p>\n
Photocopies of the Sunday article were waiting on every desk on the ninth floor\u2014including Judge Stokes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wait. How? Why?<\/p>\n
The clerk who accepted the brief for filing took the extra copy Peter supplied for the judge and said he would deliver it personally ASAP. And he did, after a short stop at the copy machine where he burned off three quick copies for the clerk\u2019s office staff to read when things weren\u2019t terribly busy that day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Is that allowed?<\/p>\n
Judge Stokes\u2019 law clerk\u2014\u201ca young woman lawyer who had graduated from the University of Washington near the top of her class a year earlier\u201d\u2014calls Peter within the hour to tell him that\u00a0oral arguments on the motion to dismiss will be the following Monday at 9 a.m. Farris says she tells Peter that each side will have thirty minutes \u201cjust like arguments in the Supreme Court.\u201d I\u2019m not sure what the significance of this is, but I think we\u2019re supposed to be impressed.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one more thing. At the very end of this section we learn that Peter starts getting phone calls, calls Farris says were \u201cgenerated by the article.\u201d There are six calls, to be precise.<\/p>\n
All were from\u00a0people who believed they had been the victims of CPS. None of the six remembered any involvement by Corliss, Coballo, or Blackburn. All six were eventually reunited with their children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Peter takes notes and says he\u2019ll call them if he finds anything \u201crelative to their cases.\u201d Let me tell you what I don\u2019t understand, here. There are indeed actual oversteps by CPS, but for every case where a parent has an actual grievance there are at least three\u00a0cases where abusive or neglectful parents falsely claim CPS overreach. Maybe more, I don\u2019t know. The point is, Peter has no way to know whether the people calling him were actually victims of CPS, or whether they were abusive parents spinning the story their way\u2014which is what abusive parents do<\/em>. But you know what? I don\u2019t think Farris has even thought of that<\/em>, and Peter sure doesn\u2019t seem\u00a0to.<\/p>\nIck. This was a weird section. I have no idea why Farris grouped Donna and Stephen\u2019s conversation Sunday night together with this bit about Peter\u2019s Monday morning, but so be it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ick. This was a weird section. I have no idea why Farris grouped Donna and Stephen’s conversation Sunday night together with this bit about Peter’s Monday morning, but so be it. Get ready for the ride! <\/p>\n
Click through to read more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":29371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-29369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\n
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