He sat down. The man in the suit nodded once.
Dr. Voss looked at her notes. "The committee would like to review the submitted evidence at this point." She looked at the committee's administrator. "Please display the first video file."
The cafeteria video played on the screen at the front of the room.
93 seconds of Ren finishing a bowl of soup in a dining hall that had gone very quiet. 70 people visible in the background. All of them still. All of them having registered the same thing at the same moment. The footage did not capture the slap itself, but it captured its aftermath, undeniably, in the behavior of every person in that room.
The room was quiet while it played.
Dr. Voss looked at Derek. "Mr. Stole, the committee notes that this footage shows a dining hall of approximately 70 students responding in a manner consistent with witnessing a significant incident. Is it your account that this response was provoked by a misunderstanding?"
Derek's jaw moved slightly. "The situation was confusing for everyone."
"Confusing," Dr. Voss repeated. Her voice carried no particular inflection. She made a note. "We'll move to the second video."
The courtyard footage played. It was 41 seconds.
You could see Briggs approach and make contact. You could see the specific sequence of Ren's response. You could see clearly that she had not initiated anything, that her technique had been precise and controlled, and that Briggs had been left uninjured on the ground for approximately 10 seconds before he stood up. You could see Derek standing behind this.
You could also hear, at the edge of the audio range, a voice that the committee would have no difficulty attributing. The words were not all clear. But the word "withdraw" was clear, and the word "stop" was clear, and the tone was clear, in the way that some tones are across any quality of audio recording.
The man in the suit leaned toward Derek and said something under his breath.
Dr. Voss looked up from the screen. "The committee will take a 5-minute recess to review the audio documentation from the text message submitted by the complainant."
During the recess, Derek leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling for a moment. Then he looked at the man in the suit. Whatever passed between them was not visible from where Ren was sitting. But she noted that the man in the suit's expression had changed. The prepared quality had given way to something more calculating. Something reassessing.
She noted that, too.
Dr. Voss called the room back to order. "The committee would like to call Mr. Seth Drummond," she said.