Finder's Fee
The numbers don't lie...but the players just might.
Living in Greenwich Village, Tepper is a pretty stand-up kind of guy. As a stand-up guy, he helps his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Darmsetter, whenever he can. He also keeps the vow with his poker playing friends Fish, Bolan and Quigley that they will not check the winning numbers against the Big 3 Lotto tickets they ante in their 'last man standing' five card draw poker games, 'the last man standing' taking the entire pot of tickets. Being a stand-up guy is one of the reasons why his girlfriend Carla loves him. On the night that he plans to propose to Carla, but not before the regular poker night at his apartment, he finds a wallet on the street with no money and little identification in it, let alone no photo ID, but he still goes to whatever measures he can to locate the wallet's owner, who, according to the sole piece of ID, is a fireman named Avery Phillips. Just before his friends and Avery arrive at his apartment, Tepper also finds in the wallet a Big 3 Lotto ticket, a $6 million winning ticket for the draw that just happened that night, he having checked the numbers against their vow. He goes through mixed emotions about what to do, the money which would set him and Carla up for their lives. Having switched his own ticket with Avery's by the time his friends and Avery arrive, Tepper ends up out of necessity spending much of the night with the four, with his guilt sometimes getting the better of him. Avery's suspicious behavior also leads Tepper to believe that he may not be everything he appears on the surface, especially as the police are on the lookout in the neighborhood for a suspect of an undisclosed nature. Others may factor into what happens between Tepper, Avery and the $6 million ticket...
