This certainly puts a different light on things, Jane noted as she jotted down the information being squeezed out of Lyle by Diana. She carefully registered in neat script:
1. That the blank SmurFFs were left out in the open for days,sometimes weeks so any body could have had access to them
2. That the completed SmurFFs left in the box, supposedly byradiology students, were separated and given to each instructor;the course critiques went to Ian and Randy
3. No tabulation of the number of critiques was carried out
4. Anyone could come in (etc.)
5. Since the critique form (etc.)
6. Most of the submitted critiques were not dated
The accused was left out of course planning meetings when Ian and Randy met with Lyle, contrary to what he had just told the committee.
None of the documents he had sent to the analysts contained anything detrimental to Ian Heathson, as claimed in his memo to the dean. She re-read what he'd written in the memo, "These fictitious student critiques were very detrimental and personally injurious to two junior faculty members."
Under Trenchant's quietly relentless cross examination, Lyle became flustered. First he claimed that perhaps his language had not been perfect in that phrase but what he meant was that, "manipulation of critiques in general would be detrimental to any faculty member."
Trying to bring him to the point, Trenchant read from a signed, dated student critique that had not been deemed 'suspicious' by Lyle. It had been submitted during the same period as the 'questioned' critiques.
"Quote: 'I think Randy needs to be more than one page ahead of the class in understanding the material. How can you teach what you do not know? I was also offended by the so-called anthropological function' (he gave) 'of the female breasts. I am familiar with some of the literature which support the statement in the handouts,' (in a lecture, Randy had emphasized that the primary function of the female breast was to attract a mate) 'but was not aware that THE NAKED APE, PENTHOUSE MAGAZINE, PLAYBOY MAGAZINE and so forth were regarded as competent medical school publications. The underlying tragedy of this incident is that it demonstrates the ease with which non-scientific hypothesis are disseminated without any thought. This, I think, is a poor reflection on the department and the faculty.' Unquote."
Diana continued, "This is what I would call personally injurious but I do not see this student critique among the 'suspicious' ones—the ones sent out for analysis."
Henry started to sweat along with Lyle who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, his tone hostile. He dodged and refused to answer directly a question asking if he always sent suspicious critiques for handwriting analysis, claiming that in this case, one of his junior faculty had asked him to.
Jane picked up on an item of special importance, and extremely relevant, underlining it several times on her note pad. Because of the negligent handling of the critique process, there was no authentic chain of custody maintained! In addition, neither the SmurFFs alluded to as 'suspicious' nor the so-called handwriting standards were ever authenticated.
According to the testimony she had just heard, each of the so-called 'suspicious' critiques had been discovered when the finder was alone. Furthermore, Lyle could give no proof that any of the 'suspicious' SmurFFs he claimed were found, had ever been placed in the return box provided for the students. In fact, except for the few critiques that were signed, there was no evidence that any of the nearly two hundred uncontested critiques relating to the radiology course were even submitted by the radiology students!
Jane was simply astounded. In all of Lyle's testimony, he had offered no witnesses or evidence that could confirm his testimony that students had been manipulated by the accused. Witchcraft was insinuated, but never proven.
Henry was rapidly becoming unglued. Noting Lyle's declining control and fearing an incipient outburst, Henry interrupted and declared that they would now take a lunch break. How could that idiot sit there and let himself give away that kind of detail on how SmurFFs were handled in his department? Henry knew that this was having a deleterious effect on the panel and he knew that he'd better set things straight while there was still a chance to cover up.
Lunch was catered in the upstairs witness room as the prosecution, Henry and the panel, huddled to socialize and discuss the morning events.
Henry and Frank Anuse excused themselves after the meal and adjourned to the men's room to plan strategy. "We can't say too much to the women now with the other witnesses around but when we get back, you take Esther out somewhere and I'll handle Jane. Annette's no threat, we'll forget her. Anyhow, explain how all that bullshit about the chain of custody doesn't have any bearing at all. Everything rests on the document examiner's evidence. Nothing else counts. Got it?"
"No problem, Henry. I'll set her straight," Anuse said reassuringly. "Christ, Diana really stuck it to Lyle, didn't she?"
The defense huddled too. They went as a group to the nearby cafeteria. Everyone took the trouble to keep the conversation light and encouraging. They were convulsed at the reaction of the court stenographer which Diana related to them.
"She's probably attended a great many hearings," offered Helen. "What happens in the cloistered halls of Belmont U. would be a bit foreign to her."
Even though it was practically certain by now that they would not be needed to testify until the next day, they all elected to stay. "Hey," Roz insisted, "we want to be here for you and each other. It's bad enough that you have to face them alone in that hearing room."
"You guys are the best, you know that?" Diana said, fondly. "After the hours spent in that room its such a relief to hear human voices again."
When the hearing resumed, Henry cautioned Diana about taking too much time and to stick to the issues. "We are only here to listen to information directly concerning whether you forged those SmurFFs in question. You have wasted too much of our valuable time talking about non-related issues."
And you, you pompous old windbag, encouraged that witness, Lyle Stone to go on and on for hours on unrelated issues yourself, thought Janet, sneaking a quick, compassionate look at Diana and flexing her fingers in preparation for the next words.
Diana almost snorted aloud at Henry's admonition. Composing herself, she said, "I'm finished with my cross examination of Lyle."
Frank Anuse immediately asked, "Lyle, if it is demonstrated that a faculty member falsified information concerning another faculty member using SmurFFs, do you consider that to be amoral and unprofessional?"
"Yes. We are assuming that honesty must prevail among peers and co-workers."
"That's all for now."
"I have just a couple of questions on recross," corrected Trenchant.
Henry, caught with his mouth open about to hastily dismiss Lyle glared malevolently at her.
She smiled back at him then turned to Lyle and asked if he insisted that all faculty be honest.
He avoided a direct answer. "Well, no one thinks dishonesty is a good thing, at least I don't think anybody does."
"I just wondered why you didn't take similar action, that is report to the vice president and bring charges, when the recent blatant plagiarism of Ian and Randy was brought to your attention," Diana said.
Henry, forgetting his assumed role as neutral, quickly snapped off, "we really must keep the testimony on the issue."
Diana smiled grimly. "Thank you. I'm finished."
Henry quickly excused Lyle and announced that the next witness would be the document examiner and rose to get her.
After the door closed behind him, the room was quiet. Its occupants sitting in silent contemplation.
Something had to be done. The group gathered in the conference room were all in agreement on that—but what? The problem was two-fold: what to do about the possibility that Trenchant would bring a plagiarism suit against the department, and how to wipe out years of bad SmurFFs for Ian and Randy.
"You realize that we could just get rid of her by invoking the clause in her contract that designates she's first in the department fired if the department has financial problems?"
"That wouldn't help much, she could still sue for plagiarism. If we fired her, even justifiably, the papers would play the plagiarism stuff up."
"There is another way—by discrediting her first and making the student evaluations invalid."
"How!"
"During my last trip to New York, I heard about some special services that were available."
"Special services? You mean a hit man? That wouldn't help the evaluations."
"No. Something else, entirely. Give me a few weeks and then follow through with what you are presented with. It may be expensive, though. Can I count on some help in that direction?"
"No problem. You come through on this and we'll give you all the help you want."
The others present nodded in agreement and the meeting ended.
He could hear the phone ringing in Anderson's office. Ah, there he was. "Andy, no names, please. I'm on the office phone. You recognize my voice?
"Yeah, sure. How they hanging?"
"Remember our conversation where you told me about the special services guy?
"Yeah."
"Can you put me in touch with him?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks, later."
He got to the appointed restaurant early and asked for the booth reserved for Smith as he had been instructed. It was amazing how those New York City taxi drivers knew a hole in the wall place like this.
Soon, he was joined by a well dressed, obviously well educated man who ordered drinks for both of them.
"I understand that you have need of our services. How may we be of help?"
"I need to have some papers forged. It has to be a foolproof forgery that will not be exposed if the papers are examined by a handwriting analyst."
"That will be expensive, but not impossible. We charge by the number of words and the number of papers or documents you need." The price of each was then given.
"Whew, that is steep."
"Yes it is. But you want foolproof. Ordinary forgers are a dime a dozen, but we employ only the most expert. These are people who are trained in document examination. They know what a document examiner looks for and what tips them off to call something a forgery. For example, if a person is trying to disguise his or her handwriting, they make it bigger, wider, smaller or larger.
"Our forgers, as trained document examiners, look for unique or individualistic handwriting characteristics and make sure these are included in their forgeries. They first find all the characteristics, even the microscopic ones, of the individual's handwriting just as a document examiner does. Then they utilize this knowledge in making a foolproof forgery.
"All this takes time, of course."
"How do you recruit these people? I should think it would be difficult since they work fairly exclusively for attorneys or police, don't they?"
"Well, I certainly can't share our methods but I will remind you that money talks. These people are paid very well for what they do and they know they are protected. I hope you are not so naive that you believe all lawyers and cops are honest!
"They are easy to recruit because they may have worked for years for very little. That's why to get the best, you have to pay for it."
"OK, here's what I need. I was hoping to have a dozen or so of the following messages copied onto these blue forms, but I'm going to have to settle for these three short ones. I understand from the man that introduced us that this will never be traced back to me?"
"Correct. I am only a broker. I do nothing criminal—you do nothing criminal. The forger never sees either you or me. Someone else takes the material to her or him. That's another thing that makes our service so excellent. I will use a former document examiner who is the same sex and about the same age as the person you want blamed for these documents.
"Now, the first thing we need is as many examples of this individual's handwriting and printing that you can get your hands on. We want originals, not copies. However, be sure you make copies since you will not get the originals back. They will be, 'consumed' perhaps is the best word for it, in the forgery process. Most commercial document examiners will accept copies of standards to work from and this is to our, and your, advantage. You might get one sharp enough to be suspicious if given enough original standards to compare with our forgeries."
The waiter never came back to bother them. They sat in the secluded booth and planned out the three documents to be.
A few weeks later.... "Mr. Smith? Yes, thank you for returning my call so promptly. Yes, the merchandise was as you represented. The professionals have authenticated it." He listened briefly, then said, "We are going to need two more. I neglected dates on the previous order and we have to show repetition of this practice.
"All right. I'll meet you there in one hour with the accessories and balance of payment for the previous order."
After hanging up the phone, he opened his briefcase and extracted a small packet of bright blue, Belmont Student Feedback Forms and a sheet with the typewritten messages that had been created to be forged onto them. He looked to see that the rest of the contents were in place, then returned everything to the briefcase and left the room carrying it.
The document examiner was seated, sworn and proceeded to give her qualifications which were concerned with her training, the number of years in the profession and clients.
Alice Stebbins was quite short. Her features gave her age as around fifty and holding. She dressed severely, in browns and blacks which made her look perky and birdlike. Peering at the hearing panel over her half glasses enhanced the bird image, but it was destroyed when she opened her mouth.
Her voice, far from a peep-peep one might expect, was deep and strong. She had learned well that when one was giving expert testimony, one presented a confident, assured bearing.
Further questions from the chair led her through the evidence and she readily identified all but two of the seven 'suspicious' critiques as being written by Trenchant. Her language was laced with the correctness of one accustomed to giving court appearances. She prefaced much of her testimony with the caveat, 'in my opinion'. Her attitude of selfassuredness belied this qualification.
"Also, in my opinion, those two most probably were written by her. Certainty was not possible since they contained printing and I was not given enough or recent enough exemplars of Dr. Trenchant's printing."
Using two large easels, she demonstrated various letters and combination of letters photographed and enlarged from the standards or exemplars and from the 'suspect' documents.
This kind of testimony was familiar to Janet. She faithfully recorded the words being spoken and knew that standards or exemplars are writing and printing that are authenticated. That is, that are definitely established to be written or printed by the person in question. Customarily, they are taken in the presence of the document examiner so the examiner can swear to their authenticity.
Using these visual aids, the document examiner pointed out the similarities existing in the way the letters were formed—making her case that the documents in question, the 'suspect' SmurFFs, had indeed been written by Trenchant.
Clearly, her presentation was well done and the panel was most engrossed and fascinated by the process she delineated.
The panel was eager to question her further. Like most professionals, they were deeply interested in a discipline they knew very little about.
"Is handwriting analysis reliable?" Anuse knew what her answer would be and wanted to pin this down first, but the question backfired on him.
"Yes," she answered confidently.
The panel hassled her for specifics. These were researchers who were consistently challenged to prove or disprove their own theories and then defend them. Statistics were their life.
"How have you measured your success rate, what percent of the time have you been right?" They questioned.
"In other words, have the courts accepted my qualifications?"
"No, not qualifications—evaluations. How many times are you right and how many times are you wrong?"
"It isn't looked at that way. The judge or jury look at the whole case, not just your presentation."
"I understand that the courts allow your testimony. I want to know the percentage of error in your analysis," asked Jane Astori, leaning forward.
"None."
"None? Has this ever been calculated?" demanded Esther Rondell.
"No. But there is research going on."
Jane and Esther looked at each other in blank astonishment and then back at the document examiner, disdain and disbelief fighting each other for expression on their faces.
Attempting to save the situation, Anuse asked if the courts accepted handwriting analysis to be as accurate as fingerprints.
Her answer dripped confidence. "Yes."
Janet sensed that the women on the panel were not about to let this polite exchange continue. The very forces at work over the eons that compelled women to defer to men, rewarded them for fearlessly attacking other women. The confident, assertive demeanor manifested by the analyst would not have been questioned coming from a man, but they would not let a woman get away with it.
She knew from countless demonstrations she had witnessed that women may band together at times with the force of a mob to attack another woman. This behavior was and is still produced by the same motivation. Men in power foster it and reward it.
Esther began the attack. "There are many letters on the display you have shown that are very different from the standards. The T's look very different."
"What T?"
"Those." Pointing, "those T's have a straight...."
"Certainly some letters will be different, but with my training, I am able to see similarities you are missing," Alice Stebbins replied, confident of her own superiority. "If there is a large sample of writing you may be able to see differences in each letter. The samples given me were so small that this was not the case, however, I did have enough material to compare with the unique handwriting characteristics shown in Dr. Trenchant's standards to make a positive identification."
"How consistently do other document examiners agree with you or agree with one another?" This from Annette.
"I don't know."
"Do handwriting examiners oppose each other in court?"
"I don't know that. I suppose you could find anyone to do anything. Assuming that there are two document examiners, it would depend upon which one makes the most persuasive argument."
"I see," Jane's smile was victorious. "It's not a question of being correct in your analysis as much as your ability to make a jury think so."
Henry hurriedly asked loudly, "I understand you are court qualified. What do you mean by that?"
"Every time I have gone into court, my qualifications have been accepted by the court. I have never been denied. That is what is meant."
The chair indicated to Trenchant that she might ask questions of the document examiner.
First, Trenchant confirmed all of the documents given the examiner and again made the point that many of these had not been given her before the hearing as had been sworn to by Lyle and also written in a letter to her by the chair.
She next established that all of the exemplars that the analyst worked from were copies. Continuing her questioning of the witness, she asked, "You must be aware that people in your profession pretty much insist on seeing original standards?"
Alice dodged adroitly. "I saw the originals of the questioned documents."
Trenchant pursued. "But only copies of the standards."
Alice allowed, "correct," to escape between clenched teeth.
"You have been testifying throughout saying that I wrote the standards you used. I put it to you. Is this something you were told, or do you know of your own knowledge that I wrote those standards you used to compare with 'suspect' SmurFFs?"
"What was that?" Anuse interrupted.
"I'll ask the question again. Please let the witness answer. Specifically, did I write those standards in front of you so you know positively that they were written by me."
"No. I assumed that the exemplars that I was given were authentic exemplars or standards of your own writing."
"Just as you assumed that I wrote the questioned documents?"
Diana paused just long enough for that to sink in, then asked, "It has been pointed out that some of us see many dissimilarities in the exhibit you have shown us. Don't these carry any weight?"
"If, in my opinion, the similarities outweigh the dissimilarities, or vice-versa, that would be the basis for my opinion," Alice answered, then forcefully added, "my opinion is based on training, not assumptions."
"Thank you very much, Ms. Stebbins. I'm glad that we clarified that the standards were assumptions."
Anuse promptly went into a damage control frenzy trying to destroy the point made that the exemplars were not authenticated. He would probably have succeeded had not the examiner been so haughty, so confident. At least three of the panel were not convinced by her testimony.
Janet chuckled to herself. She didn't particularly like the fact that many women never figured out their intolerance of their own sex, but she was delighted to see anything working in Diana's favor. Evidence was evidence and courts made it clear that you couldn't manufacture it. Evidence had to be proven authentic. She knew that a judge would throw this case against Diana right out on the testimony of this document examiner.
There was a delay while Alice Stebbins was escorted out. During this time, Janet rested her fingers and recanted her previous thought. Actually, she amended, it would never have gotten this far. It would have stopped back when it became obvious that there was no chain of custody established for the seven 'suspect' SmurFFs.
Henry called the dean of the medical school, Sam Broadhurst, MD, and asked him to identify himself and his position at Belmont for the record, as the witness before him had done.
The dean was a swarthy complected, strongly built individual. At 52, his reputation as a ruthless administrator was well known. Just as well known was his reputation for fairness. Where he was faulted was the way he backed up, no matter what, the medical school chairmen (there were no women) who along with him were called 'The Boy's Club' by the rest of the medical school faculty.
The Boy's Club often went on retreat. At these meetings, held in luxurious surroundings, policies and plans were decided and everyone fell into line, or else. There were those among the faculty that believed that Sam Broadhurst demanded from the chairs, and took himself, an oath in blood. This was because they invariably backed each other up publicly even though privately, they didn't.
Henry knew that the dean was not happy with the way the Trenchant situation had been handled. The dean was royally pissed that Lyle had gone over his head to Mark and himself instead of keeping the matter in the medical school and dealing with it there. He was further incensed that they had decided to charge Diana and terminate her before he was even apprised that the situation existed. By the time he was brought into the process, it was to late for him to do anything but go along with it.
So Henry wasn't surprised when the dean made it quite clear that he was not consulted until the central administration had already decided to terminate Diana. This was so obvious that everyone in the room realized that he was just doing his job within the system but that didn't mean that he liked it.
Having thus vented his spleen about the way the affair had been handled, Dean Broadhurst clearly and forcibly added his opinion to that of Lyle's in almost a carbon copy of Lyle's relevant testimony. Clearly and succinctly without the wandering, self serving side trips taken by Lyle, the dean cast the party line with all the skill of the accomplished angler he was.
All right. Well done, thought Henry, with transparent relief. At least things were going all right thus far with this witness.
Esther took over the questioning and asked, "Would five or six SmurFF critiques out of around 200 have enough weight to influence your process of evaluating faculty performance in a course?"
The dean sidestepped, "The ones in question were pretty damning comments."
Esther persisted, "Have you seen the other evaluations? I mean the ones that are believed to be authentic student feedbacks?"
Here Dean Broadhurst intentionally contradicted Lyle's testimony. "No. The student comments are summarized by the department secretaries and I see the summaries. There is also a summary of the positive and negative comments and a summary of the numerical evaluation."
Jane looked at Henry to see his reaction. She remembered that Lyle had testified that all the SmurFFs were given to, and reviewed by, the dean.
Perhaps, Sam Broadhurst thought to himself, it is all I can do for her. The panel has the information, if they choose to hear it. If there was manipulation of the evaluation process, it wasn't a product of five 'suspicious' ones out of some two hundred that were considered valid.
Statistically, the evidence stunk and he knew it. He also knew a lot more. Two of his children had gone through the medical school when Diana taught in the radiology laboratory. The dean remembered the many occasions he had seen fit to compliment Trenchant on her teaching, saying that he was giving her this critique first-hand from one or the other of his children.
Perhaps, thought the dean, if witchcraft was the real charge, the panel would insist that it be proven.
Or maybe not. The administration appeared to be out for blood and he was sure that Lyle was still licking the wounds of a few short months ago....
He had Lyle on the carpet. He had summarily called him down to his office to read him the riot act.
"Here are the letters I've received from three top publishers of medical texts. Each one of them protests the plagiarism that a medical student told them your people have committed in preparing course material.
"I went to the radiology lab after I received the first letter and talked to some students. Although no one wanted to admit to contacting the publishers, they did show me the areas in their manual and notes that had been copied directly from different texts without citation.
"They also showed me the notebooks filled with diagrams that had been copied from a published atlas. Again, nowhere in the book was there any mention of, or credit given, to the source. Hell, your guys didn't even get permission to photograph the material!"
The dean continued telling Lyle that quite a sum of money would have to change hands with the publishers to keep this thing quiet.
"It must be her," Lyle whined when he could get a word in. "She must have put the students up to writing the publishers." The dean knew who he meant. Lyle was a chronic complainer. "Did Trenchant put your boys up to plagiarism too?" ridiculed the dean. "I understood from you that she was no longer in the radiology course."
"She's not, but the students from previous years have told this year's students about her and they all go to her when they don't understand something.
"She's really a menace to Randy and Ian. One day she even got a classroom and held a review just before an exam. I got wind of it and sent Ann Biggot to audit. Ann said that most of the radiology class showed up. The students told Ann afterwards that they had been the ones to ask for the review.
"Now you know how that must have hurt Ian's feelings. His reviews were only attended by a handful of the students and no one came to Randy's."
"You should be able to handle a situation like that. Tell her to stop it if you think it undermines your faculty."
Lyle was not a happy camper. He left, enraged. As soon as he reached his office, he called for Ian.
"Ian, I know you've got a lecture in a few minutes so I'll be brief. After the lecture, I want you to tell the students that they must not consult Diana anymore because she is not involved in teaching radiology and is much too busy to be bothered.
"Also, you lay it on the line about your job. You tell them that unless your critiques improve, you are out. Work on their feelings. Most of the students like you and would hate to have you lose your job on account of them.
"After you finish that, you and Randy get in here. I want to talk to you both about that lab material you plagiarized."
When the panel had finished its brief examination of the dean, Diana simply said, "I have no questions." She understood the constraints he was under and appreciated how much he had tried, in spite of them, to help. He had given the panel some vital information. The question was, did they hear it? Dean Broadhurst was excused and the next witness was called.
Randy Fecesi sat in the witness chair and raised his hand for the oath with alacrity. He was going to enjoy this.
A wispy, rather nondescript person, his main aim in life apparently was to live up to his name. He sported a crew cut which bristled, much like his ever present bad temper, above bright beady eyes which were forever darting around undressing every female in sight.
Although he had some talent in research, having received a sizable grant, his conceit and arrogance got in the way of establishing a rapport with students. It also prevented him from really understanding how very little he knew about radiology.
Henry had spent a great deal of time with Randy preparing him for today. It had been a harrowing ordeal. Perhaps the actual testifying would be more harrowing, Henry thought as he nervously reviewed to himself what he had learned about Randy from Lyle.
Randy had come to Belmont from a college in Ohio having sufficiently outstayed his welcome there. As is true in most college administrations, faculty sexual misconduct was considered mere professorial peccadillo and was studiously overlooked. If a woman student appeared to be on the verge of making a fuss, administrators had a remedy called 'The Grievance Procedure'. Administrative personnel talked to the woman and were able to subtly or directly lead her to understand that problems would arise in her matriculation if she persisted with charges of sexual harassment or rape.
If this didn't work, a brief investigation identified her friends and she was appraised of situations that might affect them should she remain recalcitrant. Most didn't.
This was all done under the aegis of Academic Freedom, mused Henry. The principle of academic freedom evolved years ago. It sheltered serious scholars from the whims and avarice of the shifting politicians and their politics. Now it was made better use of. We administrators use it as a tool to circumvent trouble. Nearly all institutions, battling the emergence of women and other minorities into the collegiate arena, use it to maintain the status quo and rightfully so, Henry decided. Academic freedom was used to shield the many ways we avoid compliance with both federal and state laws. If we opened ourself to public scrutiny, we'd never get anything done.
Universities are, were and should be a law unto themselves. They can tolerate only those who are willing to make sometimes painful compromises. Those who could not, and were compelled to fight for so-called human rights and the original meaning of Academic Freedom, soon left or were not reappointed.
Randy Fecesi was, despite his foibles, a prime commodity. He was funded. This made him much sought after since colleges were looking to capture research dollars. There was good reason for this, Henry noted. Because it paid better, colleges and universities had stopped putting the emphasis on teaching and instead, looked for research potential. This meant that candidates for a tenure-track position were not looked at for their teaching experience but for their ability to bring in research dollars.
Competition was fierce among these institutes of higher learning and much was done to attract suitable candidates. Headhunting became a profitable business in academia.
For the last ten years, teaching had taken a back seat at Belmont. Crowded classrooms attested to the lack of adequate teaching space. Much of the space formerly assigned as classrooms had been rebuilt into laboratories. At the medical school, prospective recruits were lured by promises of plenty of laboratory space, unremitting stroking and very light teaching duties.
The reality was that once the entrant was hired, adulation ceased. For Randy, this was a problem. In addition, he hadn't even tried to clean up his act and Lyle did nothing except encourage him to be pond scum, thought Henry. Randy expected the medical students to worship him and instead they found him appalling because of his lack of expertise in the subject he taught and for his repeated, haughty demonstration of it.
Having his way with women took a beating too. Usually, he ignored any female who didn't fit his image of perfect enough for him to notice. However, if he needed something, he would approach these females in a sexual manner and was usually rebuffed.
Since Lyle had already established Trenchant as the whipping girl of the department, Randy readily fell in with this designation and laid all his problems at her door. When she refused to photograph the pictures in a radiology atlas, he was furious. He ran to Lyle and claimed that she was obstructing his efforts to modernize the course. He neglected to tell Lyle that she had said she would be willing to do it if the publisher gave written permission.
Lyle, of course, encouraged him to proceed with his innovations and just ignore her. Randy took this to mean that he had carte blanche and it led to his plagiarizing her laboratory manual as well as the published texts and atlas of other authors.
Henry brought his attention back to the hearing just as Jane was asking Randy to explain how he had found the 'suspicious' critiques.
He answered, leaning forward toward her in his eagerness and excitement, "In looking through the student critiques I found these that didn't seem to be right. That is, the comments were not expressed the way a medical student would.
"I also saw that the handwriting was different. Not the way students write but like the handwriting of old people. So then I went back and looked through other years for similar handwriting." He explained that he, Randy, had found all three SmurFFs which he had brought to Lyle and asked that they be sent to a document examiner because he thought these were written by Trenchant.
Responding to a very leading question from Anuse, Randy agreed, "Yes, these evaluations had been very harmful to me in that they tended to undermine my confidence in my ability to teach radiology and could affect my reappointment."
Esther broke in, "Five evaluations out of nearly 200?"
"Well most of the 200 were pretty bad." Suddenly realizing how this sounded, he quickly amended, "You see, it was the kind of comments that tipped me off that they were not real student feedbacks. They didn't sound the same. She was making these kinds of comments to the students—exerting influence on them to write the derogatory remarks. That's what was undermining my confidence."
Anuse brought him sharply back out of harm's way by asking if there had been trouble between him and Trenchant.
This opened a floodgate of accusation and crocodillian remorse. He had no idea why she would be so resentful of him since he had gone out of his way to be nice to her. "Once, I even complimented her on the cute sweater she was wearing. Instead of acting normally, she complimented me on my cute shirt. Go figure!"
Pressed to answer what he thought might be her reason to sabotage him with fictitious student evaluations, he lost it. Although he had been carefully coached by both the chairman of NERD and the university attorney, all that training went out the window. The mask slipped and his answer was pure, vitriolic, undiluted, vintage Randy.
Perhaps it was because he sensed a kindred spirit in Frank Anuse. "Well," sneered Randy, "you know broads, they get crazier than ever at that age and...."
Oh, God, thought Henry and nearly shouted, "It's getting late," over the rest of what Randy was about to say. "This would be a good time to adjourn for the day. All right?"
He glanced around quickly, stood up and was halfway to the door before anyone could disagree. Damned idiot, he thought to himself. He'd see to it that this boy got a talking to and had his priorities straight as well as his head before he came back the next day.
Henry kept his bad mood at bay with difficulty during the drive home by thinking only of his comfortable chair and a huge drink....or two before dinner. He had just entered the door and placed his briefcase on the hall table when his wife's voice floated down the stairs, jarring the hell out of him.
"That you, Henry? Hurry up now and get dressed, we're due at the Bakers in half an hour."
Henry groaned. "Not tonight, shit!" Then almost immediately, he recollected that the Bakers were giving a party and it was most important that he be present. No help for it, he'd have to bite the bullet. Casting a fond look at his Lazy Boy as he passed the entrance to the living room, he ascended the stairs feeling like a doomed man mounting a scaffold.
"You look like death warmed over," his wife, Kate, announced caustically, as she met him at the top of the stairs.
You're no raving beauty yourself, Henry thought. Kate was an athletic, slender woman of forty-two. She neither thought herself beautiful or required that others did. Henry often lamented the fact that with all the money they had, she could afford to go to one of the many body shops and get some or all of her sagging flesh lifted, but Kate opted to live naturally and age gracefully. He was continually after her to at least wear makeup but she adamantly refused.
When they were married, Henry didn't mind the over a decade age difference between them. Kate was an exciting woman—an exciting, rich woman. Her money had been the deciding factor in asking her to marry him and it was one reason he stayed married to her. The other was that he basked in the prestige her place in society lavished on him.
"Go on in and get your shower and hurry up. We're going to be late as it is."
"Oh, hell, it doesn't matter if we're a bit late for this. Everyone understands that I'm really busy with this damned hearing," Henry grumbled as he made his way to the ornate bathroom.
When he entered his bedroom a few minutes later wrapped in a towel, Kate called through the connecting door from her room to ask how the hearing was going. Her innocent question brought the whole disgusting mess back, along with the foul humor that went along with it.
Henry set down heavily on his bed. "What a day. You wouldn't believe the absolute stupidity of that NERD chairman and his little boy bad, Fecesi. You'd think after all the trouble they took to have this hearing take place that they would at least be prepared. But no, Lyle couldn't even remember how many Smurffs were involved—two or three. As if that wasn't bad enough, he let that damned woman, Trenchant, tie him up in knots on cross examination.
"Then Fecesi testified. He's the guy that actually found these suspicious SmurFFs and I was told that he'd been well coached. Mark and Lyle both had gone over and over his testimony with him. The trouble is, the guy is the pits. A horny, crass bastard if I ever saw one. He put on a world class demonstration of constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth. If I hadn't adjourned the hearing when I did, there's no telling what else would have come out of that foul throat of his.
"Now, add to all of that, those stupid broads on the panel got teed-off at the document examiner and apparently aren't convinced now that Trenchant wrote those evaluations at all. The only one I can depend on is Frank Anuse." Henry buried his head in his lap and massaged it with both hands.
Kate looked at him without pity. "Serves you right. You and the rest of those sanctimonious bastards trying to railroad that woman. Seven SmurFFs, for God's sake—it's a greater crime to spit on the grass.
"As for Fecesi, he's got his brains in his crotch just like the rest of you. The only difference is that he doesn't pretend otherwise—he's a little too direct for you, isn't he?
"Since this whole thing started, I've had more people ask me what the real reason is for going after Diana Trenchant because they just can't believe the SmurFF crap. Everyone on campus knows the SmurFFs are a joke. Nobody, but nobody takes them seriously."
Henry defended himself vigorously. "Well, it is serious and the SmurFF thing is not all there is to it. That woman has been using her influence over the past three or four years to injure the other faculty in the radiology course," Henry defended himself vigorously.
"Influence? A lecturer with influence? Who did she influence, the dean? The Pope?"
"No. The students. That's why these guys in the course were so hurt by all this. Their yearly evaluation by the students—nearly all the student feedback for them, and the course they directed, were really bad. And, it's her fault. She manipulated the students to write those bad critiques."
"Pshaw. She manipulated medical students? Since when? You know, Henry, you can't have it both ways. You claim that your witnesses are stupid and loathsome, then blame Trenchant when the medical students agree with you."
"You just don't understand. She had a chance to resign and didn't take it. Now I'm the one in charge of giving her a fair hearing and I'm not getting any cooperation from the very people who want to get rid of her."
"Fair hearing, Henry? At Belmont, that's a contradiction in terms and you know it. Hurry up and get dressed. I'll get the car and meet you out front."