"I have a complaint regarding your hiring process that I'd like to discuss with you at your earliest convenience."

"Now's fine. What's the problem?"

"It's alleged that you will not interview or otherwise consider males for positions in your division," Kevin said, carefully.

"Can't interview or consider anyone who doesn't apply for a position, can I.

s.h.i.t! Men just aren't interested in the jobs in my unit."

Kevin blinked and cleared his throat. "Ah, well, I called the personnel office and they informed me that they had sent you a file of a male for the last two positions you posted.

I was told that you did not interview him."

"Could be, I suppose. Probably he didn't qualify."

"Personnel says that he is very well qualified."

Frank a.n.u.se made a face at the telephone. The supercilious b.a.s.t.a.r.d, he thought. Who is he to check up on my hiring?

"They do, huh."

Frank's predilection for hiring only women, preferably young, was well known throughout Belmont. He laughingly referred to himself as the sheik and the girls as his harem in conversations with his male colleagues. His girls referred to him as Jack the Ripper.

Turnover in his department, in all senses of the word, was active.

"Yes," Kevin continued. "In light of this complaint, my office will have to review the records of all of your hiring for the past two years. Would you please have this material ready for my a.s.sistant to pick up tomorrow?"

Kevin spoke firmly, looking down at his crossed fingers.

"All those files? Christ, you think I've got nothing better to do than. . .

Who in the h.e.l.l made this complaint, anyway?"

"The letter came from the chair of the Staff a.s.sociation, Diana Trenchant. Evidently several complaints have been brought to her attention."

"She can go to h.e.l.l and you too, for that matter.

What business is it of yours who I hire?"

"Federal law prohibits discriminatory hiring practices.

This university has to comply to receive federal grants.

My job is to see that the university is in compliance."

"Bull, everyone knows that just applies to women and spa. . ., er, minorities."

"That is incorrect, Mr. a.n.u.se. Anti-discrimination laws apply to anyone who is being discriminated against. Please have those files ready for pick-up," said Kevin and firmly hung up the phone.

Frank looked at the phone for a beat and then walloped it to get a dial tone. He punched in the number for Mark Rogers, the university attorney.

Reaching his party, he said, "Mark, what do you know about the b.i.t.c.h chairing the Staff a.s.sociation?"

Chapter 6

. . ."and sitting next to Ed is Esther Rondell, agriculture."

Frank beamed at Esther who simpered in return. A large woman, Esther wore her white hair in an old fashioned pug at the back.

She had been at Belmont longer than anyone could remember.

She dressed conservatively and was always on university committees.

Esther was at the forefront of every woman's movement on campus.

She was quick to rush to any woman's defense and agree that yes, they were badly treated. This allowed her a podium to broadcast how badly she was used by the university. With all her experience, with all her hard work, she was shafted at every turn, was her cry.

Any serious group of women who might band together to effect change were usually derailed by her and the administration loved it.

An unsuspecting woman who confided in her thinking she was a fellow sufferer found to her sorrow that Esther was only out for Esther.

Any confidence given her was nearly always violated. This queen bee just shrugged and stung them to death.

A cinch, thought Henry.

"Then Professor Jane Astori, physical therapy."

Beside Esther, tiny Jane appeared almost doll-like, even though she was only a little shorter than average.

Her blond hair was worn long and fastened with a barrette at the back.

It swished like a horse's tail whenever she moved her head.

At 42, she had attained her goal of becoming a professor and now had her sights on the department chair. She was adept at playing the system. A political pro.

"Last, but not least, here beside me, is Annette Pringle, zoology," finished Henry.

Annette nodded in recognition of the introduction and then turned her eyes again to the stack of papers in front of her.

She was scared. It was her first committee a.s.signment since her appointment as a.s.sistant professor at Belmont and she didn't want to be here. Everything was wrong about this hearing.

It was plain as could be that Trenchant was being railroaded.

n.o.body at Belmont ever considered student feedback forms anything more than an exercise in futility.

What a nothing, inconsequential charge--yet here she was with the rest of the panel who all appeared to think this was the most serious crime since the Holocaust.

Annette hadn't dared to refuse Henry's request after the way the Vee had questioned her. He had come unannounced to her office to ask her to serve on this hearing panel. He explained to her how important serving on university committees could be and how they beefed up a curriculum vita.

Then, right out of the blue, apropos of nothing he had said, "I understand you and your friend, Joan, live together."

It could have been just an innocent remark, but Annette, with years of suspicion and threats to remember, didn't think so.

He knows, she thought and the thought stuck in her throat and choked her with fear. Her weak protests that she really didn't think she had experience enough yet to qualify for the panel had been swept aside and here she was.

Henry's thoughts were similar. He smiled in triumph.

It really paid to check people out carefully. You could find out the d.a.m.ndest things. Things people were afraid of getting out.

Things Henry could used to control them.

Still smiling, he turned to the papers before him and in rapid order, introduced into evidence, Medical School Dean Broadhurst's letter of charges, a memo from the Chairman of NERD, Dr. Lyle Stone, and the two files containing the material sent out from Belmont to the doc.u.ment examiners.

"These are the items," the Academic Vice President and Chair of the hearing panel committee a.s.serted, holding up the files, "that the hearing is about."

"We will commence by having the university's witnesses sworn in by the court stenographer. The committee will then examine each of the witness, then the accused may cross examine them.