Brad Thor - Full Black

He arrived two hours early. After driving by the front of the house and not seeing anything that gave him cause for concern, he found a place to park his bike and then secreted himself in a ravine along the side of the house. He had a perfect vantage point from which to surveil Martin’s property as well as that of his immediate neighbors.

Ralston didn’t know how much animosity, if any, Ava’s father harbored toward him over her death. For all he knew, the man despised him and was planning to set him up and hand him over to the police. He had to accept that as a possibility. He could very well be walking into a trap. From his vantage point, though, the only people he had seen in or near the house were the gardener and the housekeeper, both of whom he had met before. That was it.

At a quarter to twelve, a black Aston Martin Rapide pulled into the driveway and stopped near the entrance to the house. Ralston watched as Martin Sevan exited the vehicle, retrieved his briefcase from the backseat, and walked inside. His movements were calm and unhurried. He didn’t glance around furtively as if trying to pick out nearby police spotters who might be poorly hidden and who could give the entire sting away. He looked like any businessman who might have come home for lunch. So far, so good, thought Ralston.

He decided to remain in the ravine a little while longer. Five minutes later, a white Acura pulled into the driveway and parked right behind Martin’s Aston Martin.

From behind the wheel, a heavyset, middle-aged man wearing a dark suit climbed out of the car. Unlike Sevan, this man was a bundle of nervous energy. He was visibly uncomfortable. He took a long, slow glance around his immediate area before turning toward the house. Walking up to the front door, he depressed the button for the bell and waited to be admitted. Ralston didn’t know what to make of the man. He was definitely jumpy about something.

At five minutes after twelve, having seen no further activity, Ralston decided he needed to make a decision. Actually, he needed to make a move. The decision had already been made. He hadn’t come all this way just to turn around and leave. He had no idea who the second man in the house was, but he assumed he would soon find out. With no police surveillance that he could detect, he had no choice but to make his way inside.

He looped around the back of the house. Skirting the swimming pool, he found the patio doors unlocked. Martin Sevan and the man in the dark suit were sitting in Sevan’s home office waiting for him.

“Hello, Marty,” Ralston said as he stepped into the room.

Sevan was in his late fifties. He was short, but powerfully built. His black hair was slicked back and he had the same penetrating green eyes as his daughters. He had removed his suit coat and his shirtsleeves were rolled halfway up his thick forearms. It was the first time the two men had seen each other since the trial. “Hello, Luke,” Sevan responded. “How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been better,” he replied, knowing that lawyers never asked a question they didn’t know the answer to.

Sevan didn’t bother responding. Instead, he introduced the man in the dark suit. “Luke, I’d like you to meet Aleksey Lavrov. Aleksey, this is Luke.”

Ralston shook the man’s hand and Sevan invited them to sit. “Anybody need a drink?” he asked as he poured himself one.

“Yes, please,” said Lavrov. His English was heavily accented. The collar of his shirt was too tight and fleshy rolls of fat spilled over the top. Despite having put on a suit, presumably for the meeting, he hadn’t managed to get the knot of his tie all the way up and his top button showed by about a half-inch. He was sweating and his narrow eyes purposefully avoided Ralston’s gaze.

“Luke?” Sevan asked. “Something for you?”

“No thanks, Marty.”

Sevan poured a drink for himself and one for Lavrov and then took a seat behind his large desk while the other two men sat in upholstered chairs on the other side facing him. “So?” he said, drawing the word out.

Ralston remained quiet. This was Marty’s show and he was going to run it any way he saw fit. Ralston just hoped that having Lavrov present meant that he had the information he needed.

“I made a couple of phone calls on your behalf, Luke,” Sevan stated. “The LAPD are very interested in speaking with you.”

“We’ll get around to talking sooner or later.”

“I’m sure you will. What about Mr. Salomon?”

“What about him?” asked Ralston.

“Is he okay? Unharmed?”

“He’s a little shaken up, as you might imagine, but he’s doing okay, all things considered. Why?”

Sevan pursed his lower lip as he shook his head. “Just making sure, that’s all.”

“I told Alisa he was okay.”

“She told me you did.”

“So why are you asking?”

“Because, Luke, I’m a litigator. A big part of what I do is reading people. I wanted to hear you say it. Or more important, see you say it.”

Ralston didn’t like being put under the microscope, but it was he who had come asking for the favor, so he bit his tongue. “Larry Salomon is alive and well.”

“You know one of the theories that the LAPD detectives are pursuing is that you kidnapped Salomon,” stated Sevan.

“Well, that’s a pretty stupid theory.”

“Is it?”

“For crying out loud, Marty. If I was going to kidnap Larry Salomon, I would have been a lot more creative and wouldn’t have left calling cards with my name on them all over his house and property,” replied Ralston.

“Reasonable or not, it’s one of their theories. They definitely have you pegged as the person who did all of the killing.”

“All the killing? Two of Larry Salomon’s associates were already dead when I entered the house. If I hadn’t done what I had, Larry would have been killed as well.”

Sevan put up his hands and with a wry smile said, “Don’t shoot. I’m just the messenger.”

Ralston wondered if he was being played with and decided to get to the point. “Alisa tells me you can help.”

“Interesting. All I told her was that you shouldn’t have asked her for that kind of favor. I explained that if you wanted something like that, you’d have to come to me.”

Sevan was playing with him. “Well, here I am, Marty. You didn’t need me to come all the way up here, especially with the police and God knows who else looking for me. You could have told Alisa to tell me to go to hell. But you didn’t. You wanted me to come see you. Therefore, I can only assume you wanted to tell me to go to hell in person, or you want to help me. Which one is it? Are you going to help me?”

“Let me ask you a question instead,” replied the attorney. “What would you have done if you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those two scumbag drug dealers were the ones in the alley that night. What if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had been the ones who had killed Ava. Would you have testified then?”

“No.”

Sevan arched his eyebrows. “No? Why not?”

“If I could have positively identified the people in that alley, they never would have made it to trial. I would have killed them both myself,” said Ralston.

The attorney smiled at the man in the dark suit, Lavrov, as if to say, Be careful with me, I know dangerous people. He then turned his focus back to Ralston. “You still sound very passionate. Almost genuine.”

“Fuck you, Marty. I didn’t come here to take your crap. If you want to hold me responsible for what happened to Ava, if you want to blame me-after all you know I tried to do for her-then at least have the guts to say so. But don’t you dare impugn my integrity and question how I felt about her and still feel about the people who did that to her. Don’t you fucking do that.”