Full Black - Brad Thor [95]
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.”
Sevan sat quietly, as did Lavrov, who was being made very uncomfortable by what he was hearing. Finally, Sevan said, “What if I told you, you were right?”
“Right about what?”
“Right about the men in the alley that night. What if I told you that I had tracked down the men responsible for murdering Ava?”
“I’d say you’re lying.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because,” replied Ralston, “if you’d found them, you’d have already turned them in to the police.”
Sevan opened the drawer in front of him and removed an envelope. Slowly, he slid it halfway across the desk.
“What’s this?”
“The names and addresses of the two men who murdered Ava.”
Ralston looked at him. “And you’ve just been sitting on this information?”
“Let’s say I’ve been trying to decide what the right thing is to do with it.”
Was Sevan nuts? Talking about taking out Ava’s killers in front of Lavrov?
The attorney seemed to be reading his mind. “Mr. Lavrov is trustworthy. Don’t worry about him.”
“You don’t want this on your conscience, Marty. Give whatever you have to the police.”
“Even if it means Ava’s killers only get life in prison, or worse, walk free?”
“Marty, you’re an attorney, for God’s sake. You’d throw that all out the window for revenge? All of this?” Ralston asked, looking around the luxuriously appointed office. “Your family already lost Ava; they couldn’t stand to lose you, too. Don’t be a fucking idiot, Marty. Whoever’s names are in that envelope, give them to the cops. You may hate my guts, but one day you’ll thank me. Sometimes, revenge is a dish that’s better never served.”
Sevan looked at Lavrov. “I told you, didn’t I?”
“Told him what?” said Ralston.
Sevan shoved the envelope the rest of the way across the desk so that it came to rest in front of Ralston. “Open it.”
Ralston was tempted, but at the same time he knew that if he read what was inside that envelope and those people ended up dead, he’d be one of the prime suspects. Having Lavrov witness the entire thing just gave him a bad feeling. “Not interested.”
Sevan’s eyebrows arched again. “I think you should open it.”
Ralston leaned back in his chair. His body language was answer enough.
The attorney looked at Lavrov and said, “You open it.”
Lavrov glanced at Ralston