Wild Justice | Page 9

it was something like being in a fish bowl. Someone suggested
shutting the curtains but Helen objected.
"No, don't. I want to watch for them to come in. I'm going to take their
pictures."
There was general laughter at this and Andrea slapped her on the back,
"go gittum, Helen."
Roz advised the other witnesses not to be intimidated by the panel.
"Hey, I've known most of them for years and they are no better than we
are." She had held a full time job at Belmont for nearly two years. Roz
had been around and was no spring chicken so the group nodded and
took comfort from her.
She, like some of the other witnesses, was also taking courses in the
nursing school. One of these courses was taught by Diana Trenchant.
"Look, here they come now," Helen yelled as a group of men came into
the hall through the open front door. She grabbed her camera and shot
out of the room.
One of the men broke from the group and came into the witness room
saying loudly, "Who are you and what are you doing in here? This
room is reserved."
"We were told this was a witness room and we are witnesses," said Roz,
flatly. "Who are you?"

Glaring at Roz and throwing his entire body into an intimidating pose,
the man said angrily, "I am the Academic Vice President, Henry
Tarbuck, and I reserved this room for the university witnesses."
"That's OK then," said Roz cheerfully and completely unimpressed.
"We are university witnesses.
Diana stepped forward. "Is there a problem?"
"Oh, it's you. You were supposed to go to a room upstairs."
"We asked and we were directed here," interjected Roz. Smiling up at
Henry innocently, she continued in a child's sing-song voice, "finders,
keepers."
"Well. We'll see about that," was the disgruntled, graceless retort.
As he turned to leave Trenchant stopped him. "I have requested an
open hearing which you have denied me. I again ask that the hearing be
open."
"No, absolutely not. The hearing is closed."
"A closed hearing is to protect the rights of the accused. As the accused,
I waive that consideration and again request that the hearing be open
and that any person who wishes may attend."
"No." The Vee closed the door of the witness room behind him with a
indignant slam.
"Now there's a sweetheart," murmured Roz. "Hey, did you guys notice
we got our own phone in here?
An obviously annoyed Henry Tarbuck sought out the custodian,
Lorraine. "I ordered that downstairs room to be held for the university's
witnesses," he barked at her.
"Not me, you didn't. I was told to open two rooms for the hearing
witnesses. That's all." Lorraine, all four feet of her bristling, stood up

on her toes and duplicated the Vee's tone, jaw to jaw.
Always outmatched when encountering any female who did not smile,
cringe, grovel or otherwise conform to his `typing', Henry turned away
from her and fumed his way to the hall phone booth.
Reaching his secretary, his tone took on the whine of a young boy.
"Lynn, something terrible has happened. That woman took the good
room, the one with the good chairs and the telephone. I'm using the
booth in the hall! How could this happen?"
"I don't know, Henry. I told the custodian over there to reserve the two
rooms as you directed me. I don't recall that you gave me specific
instructions as to which room was for which group."
"I assumed th. . ."
Henry broke off as he caught sight of the dean and two medical school
faculty coming in the door. "I'll get back to you and get this
straightened out. Got to go.
"Right this way, gentlemen. We've had a slight mix up in the waiting
rooms and I apologize in advance for any inconvenience it may cause.
I'm going to have a phone put in soonest and some decent chairs!" Still
talking, Henry led the men upstairs.
Downstairs, Helen returned from a self appointed scouting mission,
breathless and amused. "Oh," she panted, "you should see the room
they have. It's a lecture hall--hard chairs and blackboards all around.
We sure lucked out by getting here first."
"We sure did but our luck was in having Lorraine as custodian in
charge. Obviously, we were supposed to get the upstairs one and I'll bet
you dollars to donuts that it's been bugged," asserted Roz.
Helen had recovered her breath by now and readily agreed. "Yeah, I bet.
You know that Vee, Jimbo, was so threatening. I took his picture and
he came right up to me and demanded to know my name and what I

was doing there and. . ."
"Oh, he's a pain in the ass all the time," Roz interrupted.