I, for one, didn't find
that document examiner particularly convincing."

"How can you say that?" Anuse blurted. "She had impeccable
credentials. She's allowed to testify in court. Never been refused,
she said. Mark told us that handwriting is as exact and individual as
fingerprints."

"I'm not convinced," returned Jane. "She had no independently
researched data on her success vs failure ratio. You heard her say,
'in her opinion,' she was 100% correct. Bull. Nobody's perfect."

Glancing at the two other women, Henry observed them nodding their
heads in agreement. Trenchant had made some other good points, he
thought. She picked up on the lack of original standards and cited
that rule in the faculty handbook that forbade an individual's
personnel file from being revealed to others without the individual's
permission. Damn the woman. This hearing was supposed to be a lead
pipe cinch and all it had been so far was trouble. I'd better call for
Mark to come over and talk to them. Perhaps even have him testify.
Mark could say the right things to bring the women around....if only he
didn't bore them to distraction first.

As he walked toward the phone, he couldn't help but feel a bit
chagrined that his own letter had been read back to him--the one he'd
sent Trenchant outlining the rules for the hearing. He had meant for
it to be intimidating. Didn't think she'd find anyone who'd dare to
testify.

Downstairs, Diana and her witnesses were lolling about in comfort,
eating and drinking the results of a MacDonald's run that Roz and Helen
had made.

She had been telling them about Lyle's testimony when James suddenly
jumped to his feet crying, "say again!"

Repeating herself, Diana asked, "What's the problem."

"No problem. You said he testified that the new evaluation forms were
sent up from the dean's office on the tenth of December last year,
right? And he found the 'suspect' evaluations sometime during that
same week?"

"That's what he said. What is it, James? You look so excited!"

"Don't you remember? Don't you remember what happened to you
Thanksgiving Day last year--the injury to your wrist, your right wrist?
You weren't writing anything until a couple of days before Christmas
and even then it was painful for you. You were wearing that wrist
support all the time for well over a month."

"My God, I had forgotten that. Are you sure of the dates? I just
remember the December labs were hell