Page 123 of Grave Danger

“Upsetting to you as what? Her once-a-fortnight lover?”

“I knew Ava very well,” said Nouri.

Jack studied his expression, drawing on his years of experience as a trial lawyer to discern what “very well” meant.

“There are those who say you’re lying about that affair,” he said, but he otherwise kept his conversation with Farid to himself.

“How I knew Ava is not important,” said Nouri. “I felt terrible about what happened to her. And to Yasmin. When I heard that Zahra left Farid and took Yasmin with her, I wanted to help them. I owed Ava that much.”

“How did you help?”

“It started with money,” said Nouri. “When I found her in Miami, Zahra had no work visa.”

“It’s tough cleaning houses and getting paid under the table,” said Zahra.

They were no longer holding hands, but Zahra was still sitting quite close to him.

“Obviously, it grew beyond financial support,” said Jack.

Zahra blushed, and Nouri smiled a little.

“Yes. Obviously.”

Jack looked at his client, conveying a mixture of anger and disappointment. “You’ve been nothing but deceitful, Zahra. I believed in you.”

“And I believed in you, Jack. But I don’t believe in your system of ‘justice.’ Look where it got me.”

Jack was in no frame of mind to defend the Western system of justice. He wanted only answers. “If the two of you are so close, how did Nouri end up being a witness for Farid at the hearing?”

“Our plan backfired,” said Nouri.

“What plan?” asked Jack.

“When Farid filed his lawsuit against Zahra, I was in Tehran. We agreed that I should go to Farid and try to talk him into dropping the case.”

“How did you plan to make him do that?”

“Farid is a proud man,” said Nouri. “Ava’s infidelity is not something he would want to be made public.”

“At least we thought he wouldn’t,” Zahra added.

Jack was already confused. “But Farid had already divorced Ava for abandoning him and Yasmin and fleeing the country. Why would he care if you called her an adulteress?”

“The Iranian government needed to explain Ava’s sudden disappearance,” said Nouri. “It’s one thing when the government speaks in its own self-interest and tells you that your wife fled the country. It’s another thing when a man looks you in the eye and says he slept with your wife.”

“But Farid didn’t drop the lawsuit,” said Jack.

“No. Clearly, he wasn’t moved by our threat to embarrass him over Ava.”

“Well, it’s worse than that,” said Jack. “He actually took your threat, turned it against you, and used your testimony to help prove his case at the hearing. His lawyer argued that Ava’s adultery was one more reason for her to abandon her family and flee the country in shame.”

“True, Farid’s lawyer made that argument,” said Nouri. “But we do not believe it was at Farid’s behest.”

Jack fully understood the implication of Nouri’s words, which only confirmed what Farid had told him. The Iranian government wasn’t just paying Farid’s legal bills. It was calling the shots.

“This is all very interesting,” said Jack. “But you’re lying.”

“Excuse me?” said Zahra.