The Clinic by Jonathan Kellerman

Finally, Milo showed him the empty bag. Spike jumped for it, shook his head, and scattered drool.
    “Enough,” said Robin. “You’re increasing the humidity.”
    Spike gazed up at her with big brown eyes. The Orson Welles look—genius disturbed.
    “Stay,” she commanded quietly. The dog obeyed and she added, “Darling.” Slipping her arm around my waist, she said, “So what’s new, Milo?”
    More than just good manners. We’d talked more about the murder last night.
    “Plodding along,” he said. “Thought I’d borrow Alex tonight. If you don’t need him.”
    “I always need him. Just make sure you return him in one piece.”
    “One piece, fueled, washed, and waxed.”

    After he was gone, I turned to the transcripts of the conduct committee.
    The documents were red-stampedCONFIDENTIAL on each page and preceded by the University’s lawyers’ warning that publicizing the contents could bring civil prosecution. Next came the lawyers’ assessment of blame: sole credit, Professor Hope Devane.
    But two other people had sat as judges along with her: an associate professor of chemistry named Julia Steinberger, and a psychology graduate student named Casey Locking.
    I turned the page. The format surprised me. Face-to-face confrontations between accuser and accused. Hope’s academic version of a talk show?
    Case 1:
    Deborah Brittain, a nineteen-year-old sophomore French major, accused Patrick Allan Huang, an eighteen-year-old sophomore engineering major, of following her around in the college library and making “lascivious and suggestive” expressions. Huang denied any sexual interest in Brittain and said she’d “come on” to him by requesting help operating the library’s search computers and repeatedly telling him how brilliant he was.
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    Brittain said she had indeed asked for help from Huang because “he looked like the kind of guy who’d know about computers,” and had complimented his proficiency because that was “good manners. Why can’t a woman be nice without getting harassed?”
    PROF. DEVANE: Any answer to that, Mr. Huang?
    MR. HUANG: My answer is she’s a racist, figuring an Asian guy would be a techno-geek and then taking advantage of me.She buggedme, not the opposite. Coming on all friendly, so, yeah, I asked her out. Then she shuts me down and when I don’t want to be her data slave anymore she gets pissed and files on me. What a hassle and a half. I didn’t come to college for this.
    PROF. DEVANE: What did you go to college for?
    MR. HUANG: To study engineering.
    PROF. DEVANE: There’s more to learning than what goes on in the classroom.
    MR. HUANG: All I want to do is study and mind my own business, okay? What this is about is she’s a racist.
    MS. BRITTAIN: He islying ! Heoffered to help. All I needed was a start, I didn’t know the program, I was fine after that. But every time he saw me, he’d slither over. Then he asked me out and wouldn’t take no for an answer—several times. I’m empowered to say no, right? Why should I have to put up with that? It got to a point where I didn’t even want to go to the library.
    But I had a paper to write on MoliÈre—what’s he doing there, anyway? Engineering books are in the Engineering Library. He obviously hangs around to hit on women.”
    More he-said, she-said, no witnesses. Devane asking all the questions, Devane summing up—pointing out that Deborah Brittain had come to her “suffering from extreme stress.”
    She affirmed Brittain’s right to study anywhere she pleased, free of harassment, advised her gently to be aware of racial stereotypes that might “elicit miscommunication. Though I’m not saying that’s what happened here, Ms. Brittain.”
    Then she lectured Patrick Huang about respecting women’s rights. Huang said he knew all that.
    Devane suggested he think about it, anyway, and warned him that he’d face suspension and possible expulsion if anyone else complained about him. No disciplinary actions