"I searched the defendant's electronic diary. An electronic diary is like an electronic pocket organizer. Most electronic diaries have programs that allow you to enter information, such as addresses and telephone numbers.
"The defendant has one of the more expensive types of electronic diaries that are actually programmable. This means that the owner of the diary can change the programming. He can buy or create programs that decide what the diary does.
"I was searching the electronic diary for any references to the explosion. I tried different character search strings, which simply tell the computer what words or phrases to search for. The first character string I tried to search under was 'bomb.' That was unsuccessful. Next I tried 'detonate,' but that was also unsuccessful. Eventually I succeeded when I used the search string 'explosion.'
"I also searched for any references to the date of the explosion. As you know, the bomb exploded on Sept. 5. I searched using the terms Sept. 5, and 9/5. I found several references to the date 9/5. It was not easy to find because the date had been encrypted. This means that instead of finding the date, there was a code for the date. It's exactly the same thing as when spies send a coded message.
"To decipher or decrypt the data, you need to know the key. In computer language, we call this the key field. In this case, the key field for the date was the word 'pres.' I guessed this because the defendant's first name is Bill.
"Now that I have explained how I found the hidden messages, I will describe what they said."
You pause and look to the prosecutor for approval. "Much better," he says. "Even I understood that."