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....