The evidence is a little shaky. In its article, our reader targets a Silicon Valley figure because AD calls Hawaii the "the Hamptons of the Silicon Valley (instead of potato fields, there's lava)." From there, it was a matter of a Google search for the architect's firm, "Hill Glazier Architects." That turned up a building permit for a $3.7 million home listing both Fluegel and Hill Glazier, a Palo Alto firm.

So there you have it. Another key detail: the lady of the household is Puerto-Rican born, according to the home's interior designer. Anyone know if Fluegel's wife fits that description? Not that it matters. Whoever owns the house joins the likes of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, retired Hewlett-Packard CFO Bob Wayman, and former HP chairwoman Patricia Dunn. If Hawaii is the Hamptons of Silicon Valley, the point isn't who owns this house. It's that you don't.

Heather was nude upon the bed and Kim, above her, was also nude, but wearing some sort of complicated black leather harness. Through numerous buckles and D-rings, the straps crossed her shoulders, spanned her full breasts, encircled her waist, and passed between her legs to rise again over her firm buttocks to rejoin the other straps at the waist. She held a long, black whip in her right hand. It had a leather handle, and numerous strands whirling in the air as she manipulated it over the prone girl on the bed. Heather's body was glistening with perspiration as she moaned in anticipation of the whiplash, which seemed always to be withheld.

Summary and analysis:
Patricia Dunn explains that four articles appeared in early January in the Wall Street Journal, revealing confidential information leaked from the board. These leaks violated an official board member agreement. As Dunn says, this was a legitimate reason to open an investigation of the board, and several HP executives encouraged her to do so.

From here on, Dunn says, she delegated work. Unbeknownst to her, the company she contracted to investigate the leaks hired a subcontractor. Dunn's major problem here is not willful criminality but negligence over the investigation.

Her second problem is believing that investigators could legally obtain people's phone records. That's the statement that bewildered Congressman Greg Walden at Dunn's Congressional hearing.

Takeaway: Dunn shows she's refined her "play dumb, point fingers" strategy into a believable (though unfortunate) story of a heroic chairwoman who trusted too much. Her routine should be polished up by the time she needs to tell it to a jury.

The money paragraph:

Despite reports to the contrary, I did not unilaterally decide to initiate a leak investigation. I did not run, supervise or direct the investigations. I did not select or hire the investigators or direct who should be investigated. Nor was I aware of exactly who was being investigated. The company's legal and security departments were in charge of the work. In fact, I was a full subject of the investigations and was "pretexted" along with the others. While I did (appropriately) receive periodic reports on the progress of the investigation, I was not aware until after the investigation was complete and the results were presented to the full board of some of the tactics used. I am still learning about some of the techniques that were used or contemplated.

Word counts:
Total: 1500
"Carly Fiorina": 1
"Mark Hurd": 1
"Larry Sonsini": 0
"I": 38
"H-P way": 2
"Legal": 10
"Illegal": 0
"Confidential": 5
"Apology/ies/ize": 1

Earlier: SV Confidential: Pat Dunn thought she could pull up anyone's phone records [Valleywag]

HP's former CEO and chairwoman told 60 Minutes last night, "When I get very angry, I get very quiet." And then she writes a book. Carly Fiorina is riding the HP scandal high, knowing she's a golden source, and each interview is secretly a pitch for her new memoir. Fiorina's story: When revealing news articles made it clear that someone on the board was leaking confidential info to the press, she put her foot down, but she didn't stomp through the law in the process.

"When no one would fess up, I said, 'We have to have an investigation.'" But, she tells 60 Minutes, her investigation didn't involve the fraud or pretexting of successive chairwoman Patricia Dunn's.

While Fiorina failed to uncover the leaker with legal means, she says, she may have been fired by those scared of being discovered. "Perhaps there were people afraid of losing their job," she tells 60 Minutes, "because they loved being an HP board member."

"I think the way this was handled was... heartless in some ways and disrespectful in other ways...maybe they took great pleasure in seeing me beat up for weeks and weeks and weeks, I don't know." Ah, sweet primetime revenge.

60 Minutes interview with Carly Fiorina [CBS News]

So why is she suddenly so wise about the world of corporate espionage?

If you think that Hewlett-Packard is the only company that has an investigations force — which by the way, is peopled mostly with former law enforcement officers that do all kinds of private detective work, monitoring, posing as other people in order to solve problems to protect shareholder value — you're being na ve.

Wow, Ms. Dunn, I liked you better when you were na ve.

Former H.P. Chairwoman Makes Court Appearance [NY Times]
Earlier: SV Confidential: Pat Dunn thought she could pull up anyone's phone records [Valleywag]

Stage four ovarian cancer is incurable, and chemotherapy is obviously a taxing treatment. If Lockyer decides to drag Dunn into court, he'll have a hard time convicting someone who's lost her hair due to cancer treatments.

Ex-Leader Among 5 Charged in Hewlett Case [NY Times]
Dunn faces recurrent cancer threat [Houston Chronicle]

All the indictees, says the Times, will be charged with four felonies: "Using of false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes."

What this means: Investigators that took the Fifth in the Congressional hearing may still have to relinquish evidence of their allegedly fraudulent tactics. This could reveal, as Dunn has claimed, that HP isn't the only major company dabbling in phone fraud. Oh boy, who's next?

It also means the Times needs a new shot of Dunn, because their current one with the bald men knocking heads behind her is getting old.

California to Indict Former Leader of H.P. [NY Times]

The Wall Street Journal:

Sure, Ms. Dunn, check into rehab like everyone else.

At one point, Walden asked about the illegally obtained phone records, "How did you think they were getting them?" When Dunn said she thought that there were normal, legal methods to get people's phone records — Walden offered the example of Dunn calling up the phone company and saying "I want Greg Walden's phone records" — he exclaimed, "You're serious." Several in the audience chuckled. "I'm not being funny here," said Walden, "I'm being honest."

We'll see if we can get video tomorrow morning. [C-SPAN Live]

A few more daily highlights follow.

Outside investigator Ron DeLia chose to take the Fifth instead of testifying before Congress about his involvement in a probably illegal investigation of Hewlett-Packard board members and reporters. Ron probably regrets publically saying that using someone's Social Security number to find their personal info is definitely illegal and fraudulent — since that's what his agency did for HP, according to everyone who did testify today. [Pinhead's Progress]

Dunn says HP isn't the only company using the techniques that Congress investigated it for. Weird, she said she didn't know anything about these techniques. [Washington Post]

One of HP's investigators smashed his computer with a hammer, according to the Wall Street Journal. Good idea — hard-drive recovery experts say physical destruction is the only way to truly erase computer data. Not that you'd hire this guy as your security expert. [Inquirer]

The panelist asks, "Why was Mr. Nye apparently the only one to consider the negative publicity that might be generated...wasn't your job there to act upon this concern?"

Dunn says she didn't hear about this e-mail until her lawyer read it in the Washington Post today. During the investigation, she says, there was no indication that anyone else had concerns.

Another panelist is livid. "There was some lawyer from some shoebox outfit in Mass. that people ended up relying on."

Watch the hearings live [C-SPAN]

• Ann Baskins, former HP lead counsel who resigned today
• Kevin Hunsaker, HP ethics director
• Anthony Gentilucci, former HP head of global investigation
• Ron DeLia, manager of Boston firm Security Outsourcing Solutions and outside investigator for HP

Meanwhile, chairwoman Patricia Dunn and HP lead outside counsel Larry Sonsini agreed to answer questions, showing that they believe they can escape the blame if they point to the more immediate culprits.

Former HP executives invoke right not to testify [Reuters]
Dunn grilled by Congress [CNET]

First up is testimony from ex-chairwoman Patricia Dunn, who says she didn't even know what pretexting was until former board member Tom Perkins told her about it this June.

Pretexting, as Dunn now knows, is calling a company impersonating a customer so the caller can get that customer's account information. In this case, investigators under Dunn's command pretexted AT&T to get call records for Perkins's personal phone.

Dunn's former lawyers could back up her story, as they claim they felt the whole investigation was legal. The Congressional panel clearly doesn't think so, as they've asked everyone today how lying to get people's personal records, planting spies at news offices, and planting e-mail-tracking software on a reporter's computer seemed legal.

Dunn expresses 'deep regret' over leak probe [CNNMoney.com]

• Hewlett-Packard's chief in-house lawyer, Ann Baskins, resigned and won't appear in today's Congressional hearing. Her lawyer says Baskins always thought the investigation of HP board members and outside reporters was legal. [NY Times]
• Chairwoman Patricia Dunn yesterday repeated her claim that no one told her these investigations could be illegal. She also says she didn't hire the investigators who impersonated people to get their private phone records; they already worked for HP when she ordered the investigation. Because that...makes...such...a...difference. [NY Times]
• HP stock is up as investors admire how CEO and now-chairman Mark Hurd is handling the situation, as well as the actual company, which is making major bank since he took the helm in 2005. [Wall Street Journal]
• Business blog DealBreaker, which is holding a Pat Dunn Sympathy Watch, promises to cover today's Congressional hearings, which should include testimony from Dunn and from the investigators. Sez DealBreaker, "Expect some tough questions...like: so you thought stealing the phone records of your board members was legal?" [DealBreaker]

H-P is now charting the right course, with Mark Hurd firmly at the helm. There is no better indication of his commitment to doing the right thing than the appointment of Bart Schwartz as counsel to review and revamp H-P's security processes. "Bart is an outstanding lawyer and investigator with excellent judgment and immense integrity," former FBI director Louie Freeh told me. "He will act independently and provide to H-P a 'best practices' architecture for investigations and procedures which is thorough, fair and sensitive to privacy requirements."

The lawyer, Viet D. Dinh, says Hurd's role in the scandal was mitigated, HP lawyer Larry Sonsini acted ethically in the protection of his client (though others accuse him of knowingly green-lighting an illegal investigation), and reveals that Perkins sent Hurd an e-mail blaming now-ex-chairwoman Patricia Dunn for the whole thing and fearing that she'd pack the board with supporters when he left. Looks like Dinh agrees with everyone else's take: Dunn's the bad guy, and as her replacement, Hurd can save HP.

Dunn and Dusted [Wall Street Journal, sub required]

At least twice when he had the opportunity — at meetings in July 2005 and in March 2006 — Mr. Hurd failed to ask critical questions about the methods in the leak investigation.

But some people close to him suggest — though they do not know for certain — that he failed to focus on the leak investigation partly because he was focused on getting the company fixed and partly because he regarded the search as the project of Patricia C. Dunn, the chairwoman.

At Hewlett-Packard, a Chief Wounded by Divided Attention [NY Times]

• CEO and now-chairman Mark Hurd (pictured here in his "Dad will make it all okay" glasses) will internally investigate HP's shady investigation, distancing himself from the scandal that got his predecessor kicked out.
• He'll also appear before a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which "invited" him but was just given the right to subpoena if necessary.
• Dunn will appear before the same committee.
• HP stock could continue to recover, as it already has since Hurd announced Dunn's resignation.
• California Attorney General Bill Lockyer will continue investigating who broke the law when hired investigators impersonated phone customers to get their records.
• HP will find a different outside counsel for that investigation. News source Cal Law reports that HP fired Wilson Sonsini, law firm of Silicon Valley power lawyer Larry Sonsini, from this case while retaining it for other work.

HP chair Dunn resigns [Mercury News]
Hewlett Chairwoman Dunn Resigns [AP at New York Times]

Now Hurd needs to fend off accusations of his own involvement. So far, all that's been implied by public evidence is that Hurd knew some of what Dunn was doing, not that he was actually involved.

Hewlett Chairwoman Dunn Resigns [New York Times]

HP CEO Allowed 'Sting' of Reporter [Washington Post]

Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Mark V. Hurd approved an elaborate "sting" operation on a reporter in February in an attempt to plug leaks to the media, according to an e-mail message sent by HP Chairman Patricia C. Dunn.

BusinessWeek (Tuesday):

Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and the company's general counsel [Larry Sonsini] have agreed to testify next week before a House panel investigating the affair.

SF Chronicle:

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday gave the chairman of its oversight and investigations subcommittee the power to issue subpoenas in connection with the HP hearing.

And:

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that HP's investigative team even considered infiltrating the newsrooms of Cnet and the Wall Street Journal by deploying investigators posing as clerical employees and cleaning crews.

Right, so now Hurd, the last good guy left in charge at HP and the board chairman-to-be, is implicated in the scandal that forced his predecessor Dunn to resign. We'll see what he has to say tomorrow in an HP press conference.

HP CEO Allowed 'Sting' of Reporter [Washington Post]
Hewlett-Packard to hold press conference [BusinessWeek]