Lyle droned on and on with a litany of sins attributed to
Diana Trenchant, carefully circling the truth. "Whatever problem
the department had, she was usually responsible," he asserted.
The folds of paper falling from the court stenographer's machine
stacked higher and higher. Janet was beginning to look very tired.
The `suspect SmurFFs' were introduced and Lyle identified them.
"Yes," he intoned, "When I spoke to Trenchant and told her she had
the option to resign and nothing further would be said or done to her,
I gave her all of the handwriting evidence, all of these SmurFFs,
at that time."
Now, Henry allowed questions from the rest of the committee
who started to slowly wake up after enduring Lyle's long and
repetitious testimony. Nearly 20 minutes was spent answering
their inane questions regarding how many courses were involved
and who found the `suspect' critiques. Most of their questions
had been answered previously in the material given them--
the dean's letter and Lyle's memo.
Esther, however, alertly noticed that some of the SmurFFs
in question had no dates and inquired how these could be said
to come from a certain year.
The answer given was a model of obfuscation. Lyle replied,
"The critiques from those two years came in a packet to me from
Randy and Ian. Those were the years that Trenchant was indeed
involved in teaching this course."
Satisfied with the answer apparently, Esther questioned
why one of the suspect SmurFFs had a note stapled to it.
Diana sat up in her chair. This was a question she wanted answered.
Lyle replied that it was a note from Trenchant and that he had stapled it
to the evaluation prior to sending it off to the handwriting analyst.
None of them questioned why a note in Trenchant's handwriting was made
a part of the document that the analysts were to analyze for authorship.
Annette wondered if she understood correctly. Did Lyle
say that he kept all of the critiques in his office?
When Lyle answered yes, she asked how it would be
possible for Diana to submit falsified ones.
The silence in the room was deafening. Janet, lifting her
hands from the keys, massaged her fingers, the suggestion
of a smile floated mischievously over her face.
Panel member Anuse finally came to the rescue with a cuing
question and a long discussion ensued as to how SmurFFs were
handled in the department and what happened to them.
Many of the answers give by Lyle were false. Diana made a note of these.
The chair now looked expectantly at Professor Jane Astori.
So far things had gone very well. Everyone had been on cue
and except for those two surprise questions. . .well, they were
fielded quite adeptly. His chest expanded with pride in his ability
to bring this thing to a smooth conclusion. Now it was time for
Jane to ask the questions that would delineate the magnitude
of this crime. That would certainly figure in the Attorney
General's evaluation of the hearing.
"Since all of the comments on the suspect SmurFFs refer to Randy,"
Jane began, "I'd like the details of how this could impact on Ian."
Well, Jane had come through all right. A little too direct
for comfort but then, she hadn't the gift of subtlety that he,
Henry, had acquired. At any rate, Lyle was well prepared and
the gates opened and the Ian story poured forth. How hard he
had worked at the course. What it had cost him in research
time and time away from loved ones.
In answer to further questions from Jane, he covered everything.
All the trips to the dean's office in Ian's behalf. He emphasized
that the disparaging student critiques suddenly got better when Trenchant
was no longer in the course.
Over and over, he stressed that it was all the faultfinding
SmurFFs that were coming in that were the problem. What was
the reason for it?
He, Lyle, felt that Ian was doing a fine job. Well, the situation
had caused them many a sleepless night. And on and on. . .
Several times Jane tried with her questions to bring Lyle back
to saying how the SmurFFs in question, the ones he thought Diana
had written, hurt Ian. Henry had impressed on her that it was
important that Lyle be given the opportunity to link the harm
caused by Trenchant to Ian as well as Randy.
Whatever the reason, Lyle was acting awfully dense, she thought,
or else he thinks it's vital to get all this other stuff in first.
I've certainly given him the question often enough, let someone else try.
She put down her notes, leaned back in her chair and nodded to Henry
that she was finished.
Frank Anuse took over the questioning. He wanted to know the reason
that Ian's SmurFFs got better when Trenchant was not in the course.
"Well, you see, these suspect SmurFFs in those packets there,
these few are just the tip of the iceberg. Diana Trenchant,
during the years she was in the course, influenced the students
to write bad evaluations about Randy and Ian."
There it was. Stark and real. Diana was not just accused
of creating SmurFFs--she was accused of witchcraft.
Jane jerked upright in her chair and stared at Lyle aghast.
Was he really accusing Diana of that level of control over
medical students? Preposterous--one woman, all by herself,
had influenced hundreds of medical students over a period of years
to do as she dictated. There's more to this than I've been told. . .
this isn't about forging seven SmurFFs. What on earth is going on here,
she pondered. . .
Finally, Henry noticed Janet who had been trying to get his
attention for some time. "We'll take a ten minute recess
and when we come back, Trenchant may cross examine Dr. Stone.
You may leave the room. I'll summon you when we are ready,"
he ordered, taking in Janet and Diana with the same disdainful glance.
The committee huddled and Lyle Stone joined them. So much for impartiality.
Janet and Diana left, both breathing an audible sigh of relief
as the door shut behind them. Stopping at the soft drink dispenser,
the court reporter glanced around carefully then said sotto voce,
"What a farce. Unbelievable."