Meghan Ross: Con Artist in Training

Pilot (Part 2)

"Home isn't home?" Harvey asked as he shut the door behind Meghan. "Is that code for something?"

Mike went on to explain that she was just a friend's sister who was staying with him for a couple of days. Home was the library in their cover stories, but in reality, it was wherever their older brother had decided was a safe place to meet privately and talk that day. Then he explained the weed and how he was running from undercover police.

"How the hell did you know they were the police?" Every word of Mike's story had him impressed. Like any New Yorker with the belief that New York City was the best city on Earth, Harvey believed the NYPD was the best police force around. To have someone like Mike, with only the test taking and purchasing of what was then an illegal substance, pull one over on a trained task force.

"I read this novel in elementary school, and it was the exact same thing."

"You read a novel... in elementary school."

"What? I like to read."

"And why'd you ask them what time it was?"

"Throw 'em off." It was as simple as that. "What kind of drug dealer asks a cop what time it is when he's got a briefcase full of pot, right?"

If Harvey was impressed before, the standards of someone, who wasn't Mike, doing so had risen. "We should hire you. Geez, I'd give you the twenty-five grand as a signing bonus."

Mike wanted to take it, and even expressed his interest in doing so. But it was dashed by one word, followed by another word. The second word brought back to mind one of the many events he wished he could forget.

"Unfortunately, we only hire from Harvard. And you not only did not go to Harvard law school, you haven't even gone to any law school."

Mike didn't enjoy using his brain to manipulate the outcome of things. While it helped pay the bills, it broke him every time he had to put a wrong answer down to make it look like something the real person would have given. But, for him, this was different. Yes, he was manipulating the outcome, but he didn't have to give wrong answers on purpose. He was finally doing something with his mind that was currently making him happy. "What if I told you that I consume knowledge like no one you've ever met, and I've actually passed the bar?"

If Meghan were here, she'd enjoy the show, he thought. She loves messing with people's minds.

"I'd say you're full of crap," Harvey retorted.

"That's a Barbri legal handbook right there, right? Open it up. Read me something. Anything."

Harvey started reading from it only to hear Mike's voice over his own, quoting the paragraph verbatim. What came next could have been called a battle of wits between a law school graduate with courtroom experience and someone who only ever had access to the textbooks via public library. That is until Mike revealed he didn't look anything up online as Harvey had expected him to, but rather had a game of Hearts open. Sometimes having a con artist for an older brother paid off. He had seen through Harvey's intentions.

"Sorry. If you want to beat me, you're gonna have to do it at something else."

Mike soon went into his dream, this time, not intending for the outcome he wasn't expecting. He passed the bar without going to law school, subsequently winning a bet. He described how he was knocked into a different life because he listened to Trevor only to later find out that the test answers were not just sold to the dean's daughter. The money used to by the answers was to get Trevor out of a jam with his dealer.

"I lost my scholarship, I got kicked out of school, I... I got knocked into a different life. And I have been wishing for a way back ever since."

Mike was glad that Meghan hadn't been brought up after she left. Harvey told him this job was going to require long hours. He could handle that. When Meghan wasn't suspended from school she'd be there for at least eight of those hours. Then with Edith. All he'd have to do is make sure she had somewhere to go, like Neal's or Mozzie's, on those days so she wouldn't feel like he was abandoning her. This job was for him, but it was also for her. It could pave the way to a better, higher education provided he passed the school's background checks.