In response to several other questions posed by the panel, Ann Biggot proclaimed that she had no fear of reprisal for her testimony, but every so often a Freudian slip would break out from her careful answers. She was confirming a question from Diana concerning how both of them were often overlooked when departmental journals were circulated. "If I didn't get a journal, I would just take it out of someone else's box," she said angrily, then with a guilty expression, "Maybe I won't be working there next week."
Jane asked, "Does he customarily yell or get angry at people?"
Avoiding the question, Ann replied, "The biggest problem with him is getting him to put his answers down in writing."
She did, however, confirm that she had been asked to testify by Diana and had begged off. "Not really because of losing my job....it was just that it was so serious a charge...."
Ann amply substantiated what Diana had already testified to regarding her many attempts to communicate with Lyle and establish a better relationship. She was also generous with her assertion that Diana was a totally honest person.
"We have had problems sometimes working together, but the one thing I was sure of was her absolute, utter honesty. This charge came as a horrible shock to me, and that is the truth.
"To give you an idea of how much I trust her, there are two people in the department that I would feel right about leaving alone in my office and she was one of them. I wouldn't even trust Lyle."
Throughout the testimony of this witness, the panel continually interrupted the cross examinations of Diana. This happened at especially crucial times when important evidence was on the verge of being brought out or confirmed. One time, to the chagrin of Henry and Frank, it worked in Trenchant's favor.
Henry had interrupted to ask Ann about a rather damning quote attributed to her by Lyle which appeared on Diana's yearly Reappointment Appraisal Sheet. It read, "I believe that she (Diana) is completely ineffective in the summer medical nutrition course and should be replaced."
Ann was adamant that she had not said that. Instead, she insisted, "When the chairman came to me for my input on your appraisal, I told him what you had told me," directing her answer at Diana, "which was that you felt ineffective. I told him that I thought you had tried desperately hard to learn this material. I said to him that you were working assiduously and trying unremittingly but that you and I both felt that you needed at least another year of study to be really proficient."