Wild Justice Part 7

It did not pretend to be otherwise. Even though more emphasis was to be given to recent developments in the field, the radiology course must still devote a great deal of time to the basics.

This was because the students had to be prepared for the courses to follow.

Randy announced that he would use what he wanted, as he wanted and the meeting broke up.

The accused was busy in her office when Lyle burst through the door in his customary manner of no manners.

"What do you mean telling Randy and Ian that they could not use the manual and make the changes they want in it?"

He yelled at her, continuing with threats of what would or might happen if she didn't do as she was directed.

When Trenchant was finally given a chance to answer, she told him simply that the manual was copyrighted and that she had told Ian and Randy that they were free to use it or not as they chose.

They were not to edit it or change the authors.h.i.+p, however.

When his browbeating failed to move her, he left.

Within the hour, Jimbo accosted her in much the same manner.

Becoming a Vee had not changed Jimbo. He was still unable or unwilling to govern his temper.

"You cannot claim copyright to the radiology manual because it is illegal and the university will sue you and put you in jail."

After he had stopped yelling, Trenchant told him the same thing she had told the others.

He left and went into Lyle's office where they were joined by Ian and Randy.

It was decided that they would retype the radiology manual using as much of it as they wanted. "To h.e.l.l with that trouble-making broad," was the decision of the a.s.sistant vice president for academic affairs of Belmont University.

This was done. Without permission, they used large portions of the manual in the fall radiology course, giving no credit to its author.

Diana was not the only author so honored. In the manual, and in other material that these men put together to teach the radiology course, complete excerpts were taken verbatim from four standard radiology texts. No source was cited.

No author was credited. Also, an entire atlas on radiology was photographed. Several copies of these photographs were made and put out in the lab with absolutely no credit given to its authors or publisher.

At least one medical student was incensed by this.

He or she wrote to the publisher anonymously.

The accused learned through the student grapevine that the department got into serious trouble because of this and that Dean Broadhurst was furious.

Lyle blamed Trenchant for blowing the whistle, conveniently forgetting that it was a student who had written the letters.

Chapter 8

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 a.s.serted.

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 repet.i.tious 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 a.n.a.lyst.

None of them questioned why a note in Trenchant's handwriting was made a part of the doc.u.ment that the a.n.a.lysts were to a.n.a.lyze for authors.h.i.+p.

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, ma.s.saged her fingers, the suggestion of a smile floated mischievously over her face.

Panel member a.n.u.se 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 a.n.u.se 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.