Decency (26 page)

“If you would like coffee, please, help yourselves.”

Kelly responded in conciliation more than anticipation of the coffee’s flavor. “That would be nice.”

“Mr. Barrett, the General Counsel, and Mr. Carbajal from the U.S. Attorney’s office will join us shortly. Please excuse me while I retrieve my file.”

With that she was gone, leaving Kelly and Bonnie to wonder how long they would wait this time.

Bonnie whispered, “Do you suppose it’s a tactic to wear us down before we even start?”

Kelly smiled, a little.

Inside of two minutes the door opened again.

This time Angela Bonafacio held it for an energetic man in his fifties, under five feet nine, overweight, seemingly fighting with his suit jacket to keep it straight. His wispy thin, graying hair, combed straight back, sprouted from skin of dark complexion and his brown eyes twinkled. Right behind him was a taller, slender younger man in his early thirties dressed in navy pin stripe, subdued burgundy tie and french cuffed white shirt. His hair was parted in the middle and combed straight back. He seemed to stare.

The older man walked directly to Kelly.

“Ms. Hawkins, welcome, I’m John Barrett and this is Michael Carbajal of the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

…that’s good…he didn’t say “General Counsel” in stentorian fashion after his name…

Kelly made direct, unflinching eye contact with them and offered her hand.

“Thank you for hosting us, Mr. Barrett. This is Bonnie Cummings with my firm.”

Barrett’s handshake was strong and vigorous. Carbajal’s hand seemed to want to escape contact.

Barrett returned Kelly’s direct gaze and spoke earnestly.

“Ms. Hawkins, it was a terrible thing that happened to your husband. I was very saddened and my deepest sympathies are with you.”

“You are kind to mention it, Mr. Barrett.”

…he’s done his homework and he wants me to believe him…

Barrett took the head of the table and motioned to everyone.

“Please, everyone sit. Our accommodations are unavoidably spartan.”

…he doesn’t apologize…he knows he doesn’t need to for things he can’t control…

Bonnie started taking notes at a furious pace.

Barrett quickly started speaking again. “Ms. Hawkins, they tell me Judge Reichardt has put this case on a fast running track and expects the parties to take advantage of that and avoid wasting effort on non-critical issues. Do you assess it the same way?”

…hard to know where he could be going with this…

“Yes, very much so. I would certainly welcome that approach with regard to scheduling, discovery and…”

Barrett raised his palm.

“Forgive me, Ms. Hawkins, for interjecting…”

…then why do it…? this better be good…

“…I know you have views of the information at your disposal that leads you to conclude…”

Barrett nodded to Bonafacio, who stood and quietly whispered, “Excuse me,” then departed the room.

“…that there is liability on the part of the psychologist and the government. The papers you have filed thus far clearly articulate those conclusions. Those conclusions rest, however, on incomplete information.”

…better keep him going in this direction…

“Mr. Barrett, it’s quite normal for an employer to have information about any given employee that the plaintiff’s lawyer does not know about. I think it could behoove us both to have that information made available.”

“Of course. I want to assure you in the strongest possible terms that we are only interested in the truth. I’m also confident that the truth will lead you to conclusions that are different from those you have already drawn.”

…if I were in your shoes, I would be arguing the same thing…

“What is the truth as you see it, Mr. Barrett?”

The door re-opened. Bonafacio entered and held the door. Close behind her was a man whose apparition here caused Kelly to force herself not to betray total shock.

…holy cow…!

It was the same man who “warned” of “Wonderland” at the Old Post Office Pavilion.

Barrett continued, “This man can explain. Ms. Hawkins this is Special Agent Ted Fitzgerald. He is a member of the FBI detailed to this agency.”

Fitzgerald walked quickly to Kelly with his hand extended.

She rose and shook his hand. “Mr. Fitzgerald this is twice you have surprised me now.”

“It may not be the last, Ms. Hawkins.”

As Fitzgerald took his seat, Kelly bent down to Bonnie and whispered,

“This is the guy who ‘warned’ me at the Old Post Office Pavilion.”

Bonnie nodded and continued writing as fast as she could.

…well, this is going to be interesting…

“Ms. Hawkins, as you know the FBI has investigative jurisdiction for espionage in the United States. Mr. Fitzgerald is assigned to our agency for purposes of investigating potential espionage penetration of our systems. He will brief you on the investigative results of a case involving your clients’ daughter.”

Fitzgerald picked up the briefing, “What I’m about to tell you, Ms. Hawkins, is an unclassified overview. The details of it are classified and for you to have access to those details would require that you obtain the necessary clearances.”

“Mr. Fitzgerald, what’s classified and what’s not, is strictly your concern. I appreciate your openness and I’m anxious to hear it. But I have to make it absolutely clear that I am under no obligation whatsoever to safeguard the information.”

“Of course. Let’s start from the beginning. Some three and one half years ago Miss Pierce reported that there was an unplanned and possibly unauthorized change in the software that she works with. She acted quite properly in making the report.

“She did not know that the change was induced as a law enforcement effort to identify improper conduct on the part of NSA employees. Consider it a ‘sting’ if you will. As a fairly routine matter, non-standard procedures of one kind or another are put in place to see what happens. In this particular kind of operation, the desired outcome is for all of those who come in contact with the unauthorized software to report it. In other words, Miss Pierce passed the test.”

…do you people suppose that is going to be any comfort to her or her folks now…?

“However, one of her subordinates also independently identified the unauthorized software and did not report it. He flunked the test. To confidently assess his inaction as deliberate, we inserted another unplanned software program. Essentially, the same thing occurred. Miss Pierce reported the matter. Her subordinate did not.

“It became a matter of management discretion as to how to proceed at the point. Miss Pierce was notified that her subordinate would be terminated. She was unaware of the sting or its results and did not know of any reason to terminate the subordinate. She would have been informed a short time later when the changes could have been finally scrubbed out of the systems. However, at that point the subordinate was notified of his impending termination. We had reason to believe that he was aware that Miss Pierce had also discovered the changes. He started attempting to exploit the unauthorized software - in other words to sell the information that could be obtained, unbeknownst her. In order to prevent him from suspecting that his actions had been discovered, we initiated a ruse. Miss Pierce would be notified of her termination as well. But understand, we had to maintain her access to programs and data. So we could not actually notify her of termination, ruse or not.

“She was referred to psychological evaluation as part of the ruse. Although, Dr. Cochran did not know there was a ruse at work. No matter what he would have concluded, Miss Pierce was not going to be terminated.

“Although the subordinate was unable to follow through with exploiting the information, to sell it, the operation was successful. The tragedy is Miss Pierce did not live to see herself vindicated.”

…whatever case we had may be completely gone…

“Mr. Fitzgerald, that certainly explains a lot. I have just one question though.”

“I’ll be happy to answer it if I can.”

“How did you become aware I was representing the Pierces? The case was not filed until after you met me at the Post Office Pavilion.”

“That’s not really such a mystery. A third employee, also a former subordinate of Miss Pierce, also attempted to sell access to the information. During investigation he claimed she was involved. In other words, he claimed she was the brains behind it and apparently hoped to avoid further consequences by appearing to give us information. We did not assess the claim as very credible. We do believe that the two subordinates were working together but not with Miss Pierce. However, as much to disprove it as to investigate it we instituted a standard probable cause wiretap of the Pierces’ phone. We terminated it when we became aware of your involvement, to avoid exposing our investigation to any possible claim of breaching attorney client confidentiality.

“Still, we hoped that you would continue your efforts and possibly develop other avenues of inquiry that we may not have found. Consequently, I met with you at the Old Post Office Pavilion to give you as much encouragement as we could.”

“Well it had that effect all right. You’ll understand if I don’t really appreciate it though.”

Barrett spoke up again.

“Of course we understand, Ms. Hawkins. I want to emphasize to you that we are in a very difficult and complex business here. It is virtually impossible to tell where the lines of employer-employee relations cross with criminal law, such as espionage. Stated a different way, it is not certain if those lines ever totally separate.”

“Mr. Barrett, I can understand that.”

…easy now, word this carefully…

“For now, you have given us a great deal to consider and to
re
consider. I think it best that we take a few days to do so before we proceed with the consultation that we came here to do.”

“I think that would be a wise course. In that Mr. Carbajal is the Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the case, it would be appropriate for you to communicate through him.”

“Agreed.”

“Then I believe we are adjourned. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Indeed, Mr. Barrett, the pleasure was mine.”

Their jailer led them out, insuring that they returned the visitors passes.

Once in the car, Kelly suggested the obvious. “I think we’re back to square one. Maybe worse.”

Bonnie was glummer than the escort was. “It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. Honestly…right now, part of me wants to think, ‘God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.’ But another part of me…maybe it’s just from living with the case and working so hard on it…another part of me wants to think, ‘Something is wrong….’ I’ll tell you one thing, if there’s anyone working there who isn’t paranoid, they really have something wrong with them.”

“I wouldn’t put it much differently. Right now, I don’t know what to think either.”

Both were silent as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

“Bonnie, there is one good thing about this.”

“And it is?”

“We don’t have to worry about whether we have an obligation to disclose the contents of Samantha’s letters to national security or law enforcement agencies.” •