Page 26 of Legally Mated
“You have a lot of faith in my powers of persuasion, don’t you?” Ravi said. He threw himself into the client’s chair and grinned. “And, you might beright.”
“Of course I was right.” Laine returned his grin. “It’s you,isn’tit?”
Ravi laughed. “Damn straight. So, interesting story.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “Transcript.”
“Really?” Laine took it and glanced down the courses. “I didn’t actually expect you’dgetthis.”
“It’s surprising what you can get with the right name dropped in the right ears.” Ravi watched him as he read through the list of courses and their final marks. “Looks normal, middle of the pack for some, just skated through in a few others, top of the class in the rest. Looks absolutely average to exceptional until you startdigging.”
Laine laid the transcript down and leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure you found a patterninit.”
“Of course I did. I’m not atease.”
Laine chuckled. “Thendon’t.”
“Fine. I wanted to build up to the big reveal, but if you insist on spoiling my fun, I’ll just lay it out for you.” Ravi got up and went over to the little coffee brewer hidden in the corner of Laine’s office. “Have a look at the professors—I made notes beside each course. The courses he barely made it through are more subjective, and they also come down to the same two professors. A few of the middle of the pack courses,” Ravi smirked at the word pack, “People who are known associates of the two low-markprofessors.”
“Then why couldn’t he take the bar?” Laine frowned at thetranscript.
“Well, his marks wouldn’t have been a problem. Money?” The brewer hissed and burbled in the background, filling the room with the scent of Guatemalan darkroast.
Laine shook his head. “The Alpha would have made sure he had the money. The exam is held in the daytime, so curfew isn’t a problem, as long as he could get a seat here or somewhere close. You figure outanythingelse?”
“Can you find out from him who he was friendly with incollege?”
“I can try. He doesn’t like to talkaboutit.”
“I find it hard to believe that he couldn’t get references with those marks,” Ravi said. He picked up his cup of coffee and came back to his seat. “I’m going to look a little farther into the two that gave the lowmarks.”
“It wasn’t for every one of the courses that they taught,” Laine said in disappointment as he scanned the paperagain.
“No, but those are the required ones,” Ravi pointed out. “How do you notknowthat?”
“Georgetown.” Laine pointed at the diploma onthewall.
“Ah.Foreignboy.”
Laine threw him a baleful look and turned his gaze back down to the transcript. “I’ll see what I can find out from him.” He frowned—something on here was troubling, beyond the casual racism or specism of the marks. Something that connected to life outside the university. “Do you mind poking around in this alittlemore?”
“Of course not, but it’s got to take a backseat to myworkhere.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s been five years, a few more days isn’t going to make much of a difference. Thanks, Ravi. I oweyouone.”
“Yeah, well, you keep the job from getting boring. Just, don’t be too obvious about this—Dan’s got a new friend and he’s not too happy about our furrycoworker.”
“New friend?” What was Dan upto? “Who?”
“GilBalding.”
Balding. That was theconnection.
Chapter21
Imetup with Eva in the President’s secretary’s office, while Quin and Holland met with the Chief ofStaff.
She smiled at me and took my arm. “Come on, I booked the Roosevelt room for us. It’s a bit big, but we might as well be comfortable.” She led me back out into the hallway and around the corner into the Roosevelt room. “No windows, so we won’t have any gawkers. There’ll be enough of thoselater.”
“What do you mean by that?” I set my notes down opposite hers at the end of the table and pulled out achair.
