Full Black

CHAPTER 39

Any question that Martin Sevan had called him to the house to do anything but mess with him was immediately put to rest. The piece of paper Lavrov held up was completely blank.

“Fuck you, Marty,” Ralston said as he grabbed his backpack and stood up.

He was halfway to the door before he heard Sevan say, “Get back in here. You passed.”

“I what?” he said, turning angrily to face the attorney.

“You heard me. I said, passed. Now get back over here and sit down.”

“Up yours, Marty.”

Sevan nodded. “Yeah, you’re pissed off. I get it. Now stop acting like a little girl and sit down. We’ve got a lot to go over.”

“Is this some big game to you, Marty?”

The attorney’s face was as serious as Ralston could ever remember having seen it. “This is not a game. This is my career. Hell, this is my life and my family’s lives. You think I’m just going to hand over the kind of information you asked for without knowing if I can trust you?”

“What does trusting me have to do with anything?”

“Luke, do I look like I’m stupid? Larry Salomon is your meal ticket in this town. Nobody likes when somebody messes with their rice bowl. Understand?”

Ralston was following him, but didn’t know exactly where he was trying to go with it.

Sevan shook his head. “This town robs people of their souls. I needed to know that you hadn’t sold yours. I needed to know that you were still the kind of guy who would do the right thing.”

Now Ralston really was confused. “Wait a second,” he said. “That’s what I did at the trial and you hate my guts for it.”

“Hate’s a very strong word.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Marty. Your entire family wrote me off after I refused to testify against those two guys.”

“It was a tough time for our family.”

Ralston looked right into the man’s eyes. “Yeah? Well, at least you all had each other. I had nobody. I loved Ava and still miss her to the point that it hurts. Worse than that, I have to live with always wondering what would have happened if I had only gotten to her faster. Or what would have happened if I had told the producer I was working with at the time that he could fire me, but I had to take Ava away for her own good?”

“What do you want me to say?” asked Sevan.

“Frankly, Marty, I don’t give a damn. I loved Ava. I know you did, too, but your family circled the wagons and I was left out in the cold. I get it. I was just Ava’s boyfriend. You didn’t owe me anything and I didn’t expect anything.”

The attorney looked at him. “We could have handled things better. I’m sorry that we didn’t.”

An apology? That had been the last thing Ralston had been expecting. He didn’t know how to respond, and Sevan seemed to sense that.

“It wasn’t right. We wanted, no strike that, we needed someone to blame for Ava’s death, and when those two animals walked free from that courtroom, we focused our anger on you. I think all of us in time realized that was the wrong thing to do, but you were essentially out of our lives and our pride kept us from seeking you out.”

“L.A.’s a pretty small town, Marty.”

“We just wanted to put all of it behind us. It was easier to just let it go. Picking at a scab doesn’t help it heal.”

Ralston shook his head. “Scab. Nice analogy.”

Sevan tilted his head to the side and raised his palms. “The fact is that I have a chance to try to make things right and that’s why I’ve asked you here.” Gesturing to Lavrov, he added, “That’s why I’ve asked both of you here.”

Ralston retook his seat and turned his attention to the overweight man in the dark suit. He didn’t say a word. He simply set his backpack down at his feet, kept one eye on the window, and waited for the man to speak.

Lavrov looked at Sevan. When the attorney nodded, Lavrov turned his eyes back to Ralston and said clearly and evenly, “I think I know who sent the Spetsnaz soldiers to kill your friend.”