“Jacob did it on his own. And even he claims that he got help…that his mother got him in by pushing the right buttons.”

Martinez said, “But the fact remains that you didn’t need Baldwin.”

“I might have hired him if I cared about the Ivies,” Decker said. “The fact is I’m basically a blue-collar-type guy, and my wife is Orthodox. She cares more about how many nice religious Jewish girls there are on campus rather than the IQ of the student body.”

“Where’s Sammy going?” Marge asked.

“Yeshiva University,” Decker said. “No shortage of gray matter floating around there. Still, my kids have friends who are pushed by their parents. Which to me is funny because my generation was supposedly the do-your-own-thing generation.”

Martinez laughed. “Yeah, aren’t we a bunch of old hypocrites.”

“I take exception to the word ‘old,’” Oliver replied.

Decker said, “Supposedly, even if you go to the right high school, you need people like the Baldwins to assure you get into the right college.”

“Exactly,” Oliver said. “Now you’re a parent, you invest all this money and time and effort into little Timmy getting into Harvard—”

“I thought it was little Jimmy,” Wanda said.

Oliver glared at her.

Wanda smiled back. “Go on.”

“And then, little Timmy or little Jimmy doesn’t get in,” Oliver said. “I can see some unbalanced person taking his frustrations out on Dee and Mervin Baldwin.”

“What can people like Dee and Mervin Baldwin actually do for a kid who just isn’t all that with it upstairs?” Webster said. “No matter how much you drill the kid, if he doesn’t have the raw matter, it isn’t going to help.”

Decker said, “They can practice test-taking with the kid. I’m sure there’s some holdover from one test to another. If you practice enough, maybe you can raise your score a few points.”

“A few points, yes,” Webster said. “But not several hundred points. I know enough about these entrance exams to know that much. As a matter of fact, if you take the SAT, then take it again and improve too much, it looks suspicious.”

Decker said, “But maybe being psychologists, the Baldwins knew how to take the tests to maximize results. Also, since psychologists usually design the IQ tests, I’m betting the Baldwins had a pretty good idea about the contents.”

Webster said, “How could they know better than anyone else? The tests are guarded secrets until they’re posted.”

“I’m not saying that the Baldwins did know. Just that if test-taking was their specialty, they may make it a point to know.”

Oliver blurted out, “Or maybe he actually did know.” He grinned. “Inside info, ladies and gentlemen? It’s happened before.”

Webster said, “It would kill the Education Testing Service’s reputation if an errant test was leaked prior to release date.”