White Lines III (28 page)

A knock on her office door caused her to look up. Malcolm stood there, looking like hell. His face was unshaven, his eyes had bags beneath them, and he wore no tie. In fact, Ava noticed that he was rather casually dressed in a pair of Dockers, a T-shirt, and sneakers.

“Hey,” Ava said.

“Hey.” Malcolm's voice was barely above a whisper.

After her release on bail, Ava had called Malcolm personally to deliver the news of Sunny's overdose. Malcolm had broken down, sobbing terribly. Ava had talked to him on the phone for an hour afterward, hoping to get Malcolm to stop blaming himself. He had sounded so hopeless then. Now, two days later, he still looked unsettled and stressed. But at least he had stopped crying.

She didn't bother asking how he was. “You're dressed down today.”

He leaned against the doorframe. “Yeah. I'm doing the same thing you're doing.” He nodded toward the boxes on her desk.

Ava looked surprised. “They fired you, too?”

Malcolm shook his head. “No. I quit. I figured I might as well beat them to the punch.” He stepped into the office and shut the door behind him. He slumped down into one of the chairs facing her desk. “Oh my God,” he sighed. “Ava, how did this happen?”

Ava shook her head, coming up empty.

“This is all my fault.”

Ava shook her head. “We discussed this,” she reminded him. “We all thought Sunny was okay. She had agreed to go into rehab, and then … bam! She just…” Ava tossed a file into one of her boxes and sat in her high-back leather chair one last time. “This is déjà vu,” she said. “The last time we were in an office together, Sunny blew through here like a tsunami.”

Malcolm managed a slight laugh through the tears that welled in his eyes. “That's putting it mildly.” He wiped his eyes.

Ava shook her head. “That Sunny was one of a kind.” She got choked up thinking about the beautiful woman with a penchant for playing with fire.

“I miss her,” Malcolm said. “I miss the time I spent with her. I just wish I could do it all over again.” He seemed to shake himself out of it. “Have you heard anything about her funeral arrangements?” he asked. “Do you think it's okay if I go?”

Ava did know, of course. Sunny's funeral was the next day. But she wasn't sure that it would be safe for Malcolm to attend with Sunny's brothers present. They were aware that he had abandoned Sunny in Mexico, and that perhaps the shame of facing everyone all at once had driven her to the extreme. “You should call her parents and ask them,” she suggested. “I don't think it's my place to tell you whether you should go or not.”

Malcolm nodded. He understood, of course. But the situation was made all the more painful by the fact that he would never be able to say a proper good-bye to Sunny. And he had no one to blame but himself.

“You want to know the truth?” he asked.

Ava nodded, though she wondered if she really wanted to hear this.

“I thought Sunny was the total package. She was gorgeous. Had her own money, one child just like me. A daughter, just like me. Single and successful, just like me. And I convinced myself that she could fit into my world.” He laughed, a bit maniacally. “And she
did
! She fit right in. She danced to jazz music with me, and sipped wine with me, and dressed the part when we went out. She was perfect. I told myself that she was perfect. But, the whole time…”

Malcolm stared at his hands in silence for several long and silent moments. Ava gave him the space to let it out, aware that she was probably the only person who Malcolm could talk to about this.

“She had a secret.” He looked at Ava, questioningly. “You know what it was?”

Ava stared back at Malcolm, unsure how to answer. In her mind she was screaming,
Yeah, I know what it was. She was snorting coke behind your back the whole time!

“The secret was that she had fit into my world, but she had never really let me into her world. She never exposed me to it, not once, until we got to Mexico. And then she showed me.” Malcolm thought about that. The things he could never tell Ava or anybody. “She showed me and I ran. Like a bitch.”

Hearing him quote Sunny, Ava felt sorry for him. He looked so sad. “You made a mistake, Malcolm, but Sunny's death was not your fault. She chose to get high after all of the trouble she found herself in. Nobody made her do it. So stop blaming yourself.” She watched him mulling over what she had just said. He nodded, but Ava wasn't sure that his guilt had subsided at all. “What will you do now?” she asked. “Got another offer lined up?”

Malcolm nodded. “Yeah. I'm moving back to L.A.”

Ava's mouth widened in surprise. “What? Really? I thought you hated it out there.”

He shrugged. “One of my former partners opened up a firm. He invited me to come and partner with him. I figured it's time for a change of pace. Maybe I didn't give it a chance the first time. Going back now, I think I'll be more prepared.”

Ava was suddenly sad. She had always liked Malcolm a lot. “I'm sorry to hear that,” she said, honestly. “You'll be missed.” Ava thought about how different things would have been had Malcolm expressed an interest in her when she was pining for him. Back then, Sunny had swooped in and swept Malcolm off his feet. All the while, Ava had stood on the sidelines feeling like that was the position she had always been destined to play. She was always on the bench watching the players in the starting lineup getting all of the action. But not any more. Ava had a whole new outlook these days.

Malcolm inquired, carefully. “How about your situation?” he asked. “Are they still charging you or did you get that worked out?”

“Thankfully, they dropped the charges against me,” Ava said. “But a lot of good that did me.” She tossed a pack of Post-it notes in one of her boxes. “They still gave me the boot.”

Malcolm shrugged. “So what!” he said. “It's their loss. You go somewhere else and start over.”

Ava nodded. “I'm actually thinking of switching gears,” she said. “My little predicament showed me how terrible the criminal justice system is. It's really disgusting. So I'm thinking about going into criminal law. I've been thinking about changing gears for a while now. This may be just the push that I needed.”

Malcolm's eyes widened in surprise. “Really? Wow, Ava,” he said. “Good for you.”

Ava looked at Malcolm. He was dressed like the preppy lawyer that he was. He spoke properly, held degrees from top schools, boasted an enviable stock portfolio. If someone had told her a year ago that she would end up with an incarcerated drug lord instead of a guy like Malcolm, she would have laughed in their face.

“You know,” she said, “I had the biggest crush on you at first.”

Malcolm smiled weakly. He was surprised by Ava's revelation. “Yeah? You never said anything.” He looked at Ava through new eyes. She was beautiful. He had never taken the time to really notice that, too preoccupied with the work they did, the hours they billed.

“I know.” Ava laughed. “I was shy. I kept waiting for you to make the first move, but that never happened. And then you took one look at Sunny and fell head over heels.”

Malcolm nodded. It was true. Sunny had stolen his heart from the moment he laid eyes on her.

“I was just sitting here thinking about how different our lives would be if you and I had gotten together instead of … the way that things turned out. You wouldn't be heading back to L.A. with all these regrets, and I wouldn't be ruining my career and my reputation at the same time.”

Malcolm nodded, seeming lost in thought.

Ava laughed at the absurdity of it. “It makes no sense,” she said. “I spent so many years judging my sister and judging Sunny for the men they chose, and the lifestyles they lived. And now here I am in this mess.” She shook her head, threw up her hands. “But I'm not gonna let it get me down. Life goes on.”

Malcolm stared at her. “I'm sorry, Ava.” He tried to find the right words to express what he was feeling. “I'm sorry we both wound up like this. I guess we bit off more than we could chew in our relationships and it cost us our careers.” He laughed. “I'm leaving town, you're stepping into a new career. So I guess it's a new start for both of us.”

Ava nodded.

“I'm gonna miss working with you,” he said. “And I think you're an amazing woman. I wish you well wherever you go in life.” He looked into her eyes. “I'm so sorry about Sunny,” he said. “I know you keep saying it's not my fault, but … I know that I could have done more. I could have helped her.” He wanted so badly to go to Sunny's funeral, but knew that he wasn't welcome there. His relationship with Sunny had ended the moment he boarded the flight back to America, leaving her to fend for herself. There would be no long good-byes, no time to hash things out, no forgiveness. It left him feeling exceedingly sad.

Ava stood up and Malcolm met her at the midpoint of the room. He held his arms wide, and she hugged him. “Keep in touch,” she said. “Knock 'em dead out there in L.A.”

Stepping back from their embrace, he smiled down at her. “Listen,” he said. “Next time you're in L.A., give me a call.”

Ava nodded. “You got it,” she said. She knew that she was lying. She would never look Malcolm up. This was their last good-bye, and she watched him leave her office to finish packing up his belongings. Ava was glad that she hadn't been the one to suffer the misfortune of dating Malcolm. What he had done to Sunny—abandoning her in Mexico when she needed him most and then turning into a blubbering crybaby when the shit hit the fan—was enough to show Ava that Malcolm wasn't the man she desired. Neither was Zion. She had been enamored by his lovemaking, his swagger. But there was nothing sexy about sitting in jail. The time she had spent in police custody had been enough to take the bloom off the rose. Ava wanted out. By any means necessary.

*   *   *

Jada and Born sat in Maury Pendelstein's office, waiting for him to get off the phone. They had come here after Born's ominous meeting with the stranger in the bathroom at McDonald's. Maury had been one of the first people Born called. As his attorney for the past two decades, Maury was trustworthy and had seen it all. He could tell from Born's tone of voice during their phone conversation that he was very upset by his run-in with the man earlier. So he had insisted that Born and Jada come to meet with him immediately. They had waited for Ava to return from packing up her Midtown Manhattan office. As soon as she got back, Jada had briefed Ava on the latest developments and insisted that Ava and Sheldon lock themselves inside the house. “Don't even answer the phone unless it's me whose calling,” Jada said. Then, together, she and Born jumped into the Towncar Maury sent for the two of them. Jada's car was still in police custody, and Born's had four flat tires. He'd had it towed from the McDonald's parking lot. Their tormentor had succeeded in shaking up their lives in no time.

Maury got right down to business. “The children are secure?” he asked. “Since this guy mentioned Ethan by name, I'm concerned. Clearly, he's already done his research.”

Born nodded. “I called Anisa and told her to stay inside, keep the doors locked, and the security system armed.”

Jada nodded, too. “Same here. Sheldon is with my sister.”

Maury nodded, satisfied. He sat back in his chair and looked Jada in the eye. “So, from what Marquis has shared with me, there's a man out there who is very unhappy with you.”

Jada toyed with her hands, ashamed. She was sick of her past coming back to haunt her, and she wondered whether the rest of her life would involve these constant reminders of who and what she had once been. For years, it seemed that every time she turned around there was some aspect of the old Jada coming back to the surface like an old skeleton she thought had long ago been buried.

“Any idea who it might be?” Maury asked.

Jada shook her head. “I've been thinking about it ever since Born's accident,” she said. “Then, I got this note in the mail the same day.” Jada passed the cryptic note to Maury. “There was a crack vial inside of it. I threw it out.” Jada watched Maury read the note.

He glanced at her when he was done. Jada could detect the question in his eyes before he asked it.

“Did you have a drug problem in the past?”

She nodded. “It was a very long time ago.”

Born could sense her discomfort and embarrassment. He reached over and squeezed her hand, reassuringly.

Maury read the note again. “Back then, who was your dealer?” he asked.

Jada cringed a bit, but took a deep breath and answered the question. “Well … there were a few people. When I first got hooked, I was getting it from a guy named Lucas. Then I worked for a guy named Charlie in exchange for drugs.” She hated rehashing this, but knew that it was necessary since they were being terrorized. “Lucas was in jail, last I heard. And Charlie is an old man. I doubt that he has anything to do with this.” Jada thought back to the not-so-good old days. “Then I got involved with Sheldon's father. He used to give me crack to smoke,” she said. “But Jamari has been dead since Sheldon was a baby. It can't be him.” She skipped over all of the times that she had stolen from Born in order to get high. Not only wasn't it relevant, but it was an ugly old wound to reopen.

Maury scribbled notes on a legal pad, listing the names of everyone Jada had mentioned. He glanced at Born. “Did you describe the man that you met today to Jada? Maybe his physical appearance rings a bell.”

Born nodded. It had been the first thing he'd done. “Yeah. No such luck.”

Jada frowned. “He said that the man looked … interracial.” She shook her head, not recalling any of her old acquaintances that might fit the description.

“Maybe Arabic or something. I couldn't tell really.” Born was frustrated that he couldn't offer a better description.