“You want me to pay you $35,000 each to improve the twins’ S.A.T. scores?” Brian Hallinan asked, skepticism coating his voice.

Kip Lassiter shook his head. “You pay me to take their tests, and I promise to get any score you want.” He flashed a smile. For a 20-year-old college dropout, Kip exuded a practiced confidence.

Hallinan made a scoffing sound. But his sons, the twin nitwits Teague and Niles, said in unison:

”Told you so, Dad.”
“Told you so, Dad.”

“Sounds like a con to me,” their old man whined, “and believe me, in the precious metals business, I’ve seen more than a few.”

Kip wondered how idiots like Brian Hallinan made so much money. He’d entertained the same notion visiting other parents whose kids needed their college boards juiced so they could get into Daddy’s alma mater. In this case, Wake Forest. Sometimes, Kip figured, the money was inherited. Other times, these doofuses married into it. And then, he was certain, there was just dumb luck.

They were sitting on the veranda of the Hallinan mansion in Palm Beach, sipping homemade lemonade served in a silver pitcher by a uniformed cook. The place had a dandy view of the Intracoastal Waterway, and you could pop a Champagne cork and hit the Everglades Club. A stone pillar at the front gate had a plaque reading, “Casa de Oro.” Yeah, House of Gold, sheesh.

“Money back guarantee that I’ll get within ten points of the score you request,” Kip said. “If I hit it on the nose, you pay me a bonus. Twenty grand.”

“Maybe we do one at a time,” Brian Hallinan said, nodding sagely, as if striking a good bargain. “Why don’t you see if you can nail a 1350 for Niles?”

“I could, no sweat, but that wouldn’t be smart. Niles scored an even thousand on his first exam. Anything more than a thirty per cent increase, and they’ll flag the result as suspicious. Then he has to re-take it with the Secret Service and a SWAT team watching him.”

“Thirty per cent?” Niles mused. “How much is that?”

“That’d be like a 1230,” Teague helped out.

“No wonder you both bombed the math tests!” their father boomed.

Honestly, Kip thought, the twins’ combined I.Q. would barely equal his own.

Kip’s cell phone vibrated. He checked the display where “58″ appeared. His Uncle Jake calling, “58″ being his uniform number during his short, unspectacular career as a Miami Dolphins linebacker. For the past eleven years, he’d been Kip’s surrogate father and self-appointed guide to living the ethical life. But just as Kip had wandered off from a tour of the Smithsonian, he didn’t necessarily follow his uncle’s guidance. These days, Jake was winding down his second career as a trial lawyer but still lecturing his nephew.

Kip excused himself and walked to the veranda railing. He’d let the three Hallinans hash it out, figuring they’d pay up. It was either that or Sopchoppy Junior College for the twins.

“Had an odd voicemail on the home phone today,” Jake said, when Kip answered the cell.

“Yeah?”

“Bank of America. You must not have changed your contact info when you got the apartment. Anyway, they said they were returning a $35,000 check you deposited because you failed to sign the back.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? What’s with that? A check that big?”

“C’mon, Uncle Jake. You know I have a tutoring business.”

“Uh-huh.” Sounding unconvinced. “Look, Kip, I still have your log-on for American Airlines, and – ”

“What’d you do? Snoop on me! Invade my privacy!”

“What are these flights to Grand Cayman?”

“Business. Mine! And none of yours!”

“Are you a drug dealer, Kip?”

“Ah, jeez, Uncle Jake. I’m a businessman.”

“Integrity. You know what Travis McGee said about integrity?”

“Travis McGee is a fictional character, Uncle Jake.”

“Doesn’t matter. Travis said, ‘Integrity is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will. Maybe all you ever get for it is the largest kick in the ass the world can provide. Crime pays a lot better. I can bend my own rules way, way over, but there is a place where I finally stop bending them.’”

“I know. I know. You’ve told me that a zillion times.”

“I try to live by those words,” Jake said. said. “I’m not seeking perfection but integrity requires that the good I do has to outweigh the bad. I want you to do the same.”

Kip watched a sleek white yacht in the fifty-foot range chug along the Intracoastal. He wanted to be on the boat and not being scolded by his uncle. Hell, he wanted to own the boat!

“You’re really old school, Uncle Jake.”

“It’s the only school I know.”

Kip glanced back at Brian Hallinan and the twins. Hallinan had something in one hand. A book? No, a checkbook! He was opening it. And he had a pen in his other hand.

“Kip, I’m here for you if you need help, or if you’re in trouble,” Jake said.

“I’m cool, Uncle Jake. Got no problems. No troubles. Nothing but blue skies and sunny days.”

---

Cheater’s Game is the 14th book in the “Jake Lassiter” legal thriller series, released April 20, 2020. The above excerpt is a new “prequel” scene to Cheater’s Game.

Jake Lassiter Tackles The College Admissions Scandal

Rich parents will pay anything to get their kids into college. . .
For a price, Kip Lassiter can get the perfect score on any test. . .
And Kip’s heartbroken Uncle Jake must defend an unwinnable case.

Kip has been working with millionaire Max Ringle in a shady scheme to help rich, spoiled kids gain admission to elite universities. Ringle, the mastermind of the fraud, cops a plea and shifts the blame to Kip.

Dr. Melissa Gold, Lassiter’s fiancée, tries to keep the ailing lawyer strong enough for a grueling trial, even as his symptoms of brain damage grow worse. As a fiery showdown with Ringle brings the courtroom to a fever pitch, Lassiter risks everything – including his own life – to fight for his nephew’s freedom.

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

About the author
The author of twenty-two novels, Paul Levine won the John D. MacDonald Fiction Award and has been nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, Shamus, and James Thurber prizes. A former trial lawyer, he also wrote twenty episodes of the CBS military drama JAG and co-created the Supreme Court drama First Monday starring James Garner and Joe Mantegna. To Speak For The Dead was his first novel and introduced readers to linebacker-turned-lawyer Jake Lassiter. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed Solomon vs. Lord series of legal capers. For more information, visit his website at paul-levine.com, or his Amazon Author Page, or follow him on Facebook, or on Twitter at @Jake_Lassiter

All comments are welcomed.