Page 96 of Grave Danger

“She cried at first. It was such an emotional release for her to unload her secret.”

“What secret?”

“Ava was different from the other women. What I mean by that is that she played a different role in the information network. A special role.”

“Meaning?”

“Ava didn’t just pass along information to other women in Iran. She was on the front line of gathering information about what was happening in Iran and getting it to the outside world.”

Andie hesitated. Farid’s story was going in a direction she hadn’t anticipated. “Tell me how that worked.”

“She was saving all the text messages to a thumb drive and passing it along to her contact in Tehran. Her contact than passed it along to whatever channels were available.”

“Who was her contact?”

“I have no idea. I’m not sure even Ava knew. She told me she did blind drops. Never met her contact. Could have been a Western journalist. Maybe Amnesty International or some other human rights organization.”

Andie’s imagination led to other possibilities, especially on the heels of a visit from the CIA.

“I should have told her to stop what she was doing,” said Farid. “It was too dangerous. But I didn’t. I was actually... proud of her.”

Andie studied his expression closely. She wasn’t sure if Farid was being truthful or deserving of an Academy Award.

“You said you knew why Ava fled the country.”

“Well, I don’tknow. I have my own idea.”

“Tell me.”

“When Ava was arrested, the morality police took her to Evin Prison.”

“I’ve heard of it,” said Andie.

Evin was for political prisoners. It held so many students and intellectuals that an entire wing was nicknamed “Evin University.” Reports of human rights violations in Evin were legion.

“Evin is notorious for its methods of interrogation,” said Farid. “They would have beaten every bit of information out of Ava if she had not escaped. The names of every woman in her text-messaging network. Hundreds of them. They all would have been arrested—or worse.”

“So, you believe Ava fled to—”

“To protect those women.”

“That’s your theory?”

“It’s more than a theory. Can you imagine how difficult that must have been for Ava? She left her daughter behind. But she left knowing that Yasmin would be safe with me.”

“So, naturally, you divorced her and married her sister,” she said with a healthy dose of skepticism. “I’m not buying it, Farid.”

“I was given no choice,” he said, a hint of desperation in his voice. “Divorcing Ava fit with the government’s story that Ava was an unholy woman who abandoned Yasmin and me.”

“The regime forced you to divorce Ava. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes, exactly. After your wife is hauled off to Evin and you are left to raise a daughter on your own, it is the regime that holds all the cards.”

“But the regime didn’t force you to marry Zahra.”

“That’s true.”

“Then why did you?”