The Professor (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #1)(10)
“Thank you, Professor, I... thank you so much,” she managed, shaking Tom’s hand, her voice cracking with emotion as a tear began to run down her cheek. “This will help out so much.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, smiling at her and putting his hand over hers to stop the shaking. “Now, let’s talk about...”
“Uh, Professor,” a male voice interrupted, causing Tom and Dawn to both turn toward the door.
Dean Richard Lambert peeked his head around the corner of the door, which Dawn must have left cracked when she entered.
“Sorry to... interrupt,” the Dean said, looking at Tom. “But I need to speak with you about Friday’s Board meeting.”
“OK,” Tom said, turning back to Dawn Murphy, whose face had gone beet red. “Ms Murphy, here’s your first assignment. Read the section in my book on the Daubert standard for the admissibility of expert testimony. Then research all Alabama state cases decided within the last year on that subject. I want to see what you’ve found by next Friday. If you have any questions, my office hours are 10 to 12 in the morning or 2 to 3.30 in the afternoon, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.”
“Yes, sir.” She smiled, her face still red, and walked past the Dean out the door. Tom smiled after her. There was nothing he enjoyed more than an eager, hungry student. However, his smile faded as he met the gaze of Dean Richard Lambert.
“So what’s this about on Friday?” Tom asked, once the Dean had shut the door.
As much as Tom had liked Deans Heacock and Jackson, he felt the opposite about Lambert. There was something about Lambert’s brown eyes and nasal voice that turned him off. As a trial lawyer and then a trial team coach for forty years, Tom had always been able to identify the genuine article. And whereas Dawn Murphy from Elba, Alabama was as genuine as homemade peach cobbler, Richard Lambert came boxed and packaged, as artificial as the turf at the old Astrodome. There was also the fact that, in the eighteen months since Lambert’s hire, four of Tom’s longtime colleagues had either quit or been forced to resign. Lambert clearly wanted new blood, and he seemed to have a way of getting rid of folks who didn’t fit his vision.
“Tom, the Board has a number of things it wants to discuss with you on Friday,” the Dean said, not looking at him but out the window. He paused. “The first of which is the incident at Nationals.”
Tom glared at the Dean. I should’ve known. “It’s been nine months, Dick. How long is the Board gonna beat that dead horse? It was just an unfortunate incident that happened in the heat of the moment. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”
“I know...” The Dean paused, looking down. “I know you think that, Tom, but you put your hands on the kid. You were the instigator. There’s video of it. The damn thing’s on YouTube, and the title of the clip is ‘Alabama professor assaults student and gets payback’. I think it’s had over fifty thousand hits.”
Tom squinted at the Dean. “Assault?”
“That’s what it says. People watch that stuff, Tom. They form opinions, and it reflects badly on the school. Look...” Dean Lambert sat down and pushed a piece of paper across Tom’s desk. “The Board has drafted an apology for you to sign. Something we can release to the media. Just sign the thing, OK?”
Tom looked down at the document and his eyes scanned the words on the page. The apology had him accepting all of the blame for the incident and apologizing for his “lapse in judgment” and for the “inappropriate manner in which he had touched Rick Drake”.
“Dick, if the school needs me to apologize, then let me do it in my own words. This is too much. I mean, I regret very much that the altercation with Rick happened, but I don’t think I acted inappropriately by grabbing his arm.”
Dean Lambert crossed his arms. “We need you to sign it, Tom. And... there are some other things.”
“What ‘other things’?”
“We’ve been getting complaints about McMurtrie’s Evidence. A lot of the students think it’s too hard to read. Students have called it ‘the Bible’ for a long time, but now I’m hearing them complain that it’s just as long and as hard to read as the Bible. The Board wants to know whether there’s any way you can make it more user-friendly.”
Tom didn’t say anything, just continued to glare at his boss.
“And you can’t be kicking kids out of your class any more, Tom. I know all about what happened with Jonathon Tinsel. With this Drake thing on YouTube and still on everyone’s minds, you just can’t be doing stuff like that.”
“He wasn’t prepared for class,” Tom said. “I’ve always handled kids that way. What if they show up to court unprepared after they get out of here?”
“We just can’t have it, Tom. Not in the world we live in. Some might view that as abusive.”
“Abusive? Are you–”
“Tom, the Board is worried that you might...” The Dean stopped, looking down at the carpet.
“Worried that I might what?” Tom asked. He could feel the heat on his face.
The Dean raised his eyes. “That you might have a Woody Hayes or a Bobby Knight incident. If you’ll grab a kid by the arm, what’s next?”
Tom crossed his arms, and squinted at the Dean. “That’s bullshit, Dick, and you know it. I’ve been here for forty years, and I’ve never hit a student. I’ve never done anything but lay it on the line for this University.”