Page 133 of Grave Danger

“Farid, for Yasmin’s sake,pleasedon’t hang up. It’s Jack Swyteck.”

There was a brief silence, which made Jack think he’d lost him at hello. Then hope.

“I’m here,” said Farid. “Is Yasmin with you?”

“Yes.”

“Let me speak to her.”

Zahra shook her head—a firmno.

“She’s asleep,” said Jack.

“Wake her up. I want to talk to my daughter.”

Jack looked at Zahra, who took a moment to respond.

“I’ll check on her,” said Zahra, and she left the room.

“Zahra is getting her,” Jack said. “It’ll be a minute.”

“Is Nouri there?” asked Farid.

Jack didn’t answer.

“I know Nouri is there,” said Farid. “The FBI told me.”

Nouri seemed to have lost interest in the wizard-behind-the-curtain charade. “Yeah, I’m here, Farid.”

“Did Nouri tell you how we met, Jack? He flew all the way to Tehran to tell me that if I filed this lawsuit against Zahra, it would come out in the courtroom that Ava slept with him.”

Jack had to prevent the call from devolving into tit-for-tat. “Let’s not rehash the past, Farid.”

“Nouri even showed me proof that he was sleeping with Ava,” said Farid. “He showed me a pair of her shoes. He told me she left them in his apartment.”

Nouri moved closer to the speakerphone. “Don’t push me, Farid. Or I’ll end this call, and you can forget about talking to Yasmin.”

Farid was undeterred. “I’ll bet you didn’t show those shoes to the Iranian government, did you, Nouri?”

“Last warning,” said Nouri. “I’ll hang up.”

“I’ll bet you didn’t show them Ava’s wedding ring either, or any of the other things she was wearing on the day she was arrested by the morality police. Because if you showed those things, you would have to explain how youreallygot them.”

Nouri grabbed Jack’s phone and, with the push of a button, ended the call.

There was silence in the room. But for Jack, things were beginning to come clear—and the prison video was making even more sense.

“The plastic bag that changed hands in the video,” said Jack. “The one the guards gave you when they handed over Ava.”

“What about it?”

“It contained Ava’s belongings, didn’t it? Her street clothes. The shoes you showed to Farid to make him think she had been to your apartment.”

Nouri was silent.

“And the wedding ring you put in the pipe you hurled through my office window.”

More silence.