Chapter 21
Jack left the courthouse but didn’t go back to the office. With the afternoon off, he drove to Miami International Airport
to pick up Andie. She was standing on the sidewalk outside arrivals. Jack knifed his way through the traffic jam and pulled
up to the curb.
“Move along,” a traffic cop said as he approached Jack’s vehicle.
Jack rolled down his window. “I’ve been here ten seconds.”
“You want a ticket, bud?”
Jack had almost forgotten how much fun it was doing pickup at MIA.
Andie quickly threw her carry-on in the back seat and climbed into the passenger seat. Jack pulled away from the curb and
merged into the far-left lane, the so-called fast lane, which was slower than walking.
“It was a pinkie swear,” said Andie.
Jack had no idea what she was talking about. “What?”
“I was not holding hands with Isaac. Your friend Dennis saw us doing a pinkie swear.”
She was starting to make sense, but it still didn’t quite compute for Jack. “How did you even know I talked to Dennis?”
“Because Dennis’s wife cheated on him, and misery loves company.”
Jack stopped for the line of suitcase-toting pedestrians on the zebra crossing.
“I’m still confused.”
“Jack, the last time you picked me up at the airport was before we were married. I knew you wanted to talk, I knew Dennis
would call you, and I knew what he was going to say.”
“But how? It’s like you have ESP or something.”
“It’s not ESP. Dennis pulled Isaac aside on our way out of the bar. He said he saw us holding hands, and that Isaac was lucky he’s FBI or he’d punch him in the mouth.”
Jack knew she wasn’t lying, since he could easily verify it with Dennis. The traffic started to move, and their car crept
forward.
“Did you think it was even possible I would cheat on you?” Andie asked.
“Not really.”
“Not really, as in no way? Or not really, but maybe?”
“No maybe about it.”
But Jack wasn’t sure she believed him. He wasn’t sure he believed himself. “Okay, so I admit it. The fact that it was Isaac
made what Dennis said a little more believable.”
“Isaac is just a friend. A good friend.”
“Pinkie swear?” He offered up his finger.
Andie rolled her eyes.
Jack didn’t drop it. “What is that, the new FBI motto? Fidelity. Bravery. Integrity. Pinkie swear.”
“You’re a riot, Jack.”
“Seriously, what were you and Isaac pinkie-swearing about?”
“I can’t tell you without breaking the Rule.”
“You mean our rule?”
“Yes, our rule. The Rule. The stupid fucking rule that keeps us from talking to each other about the most important thing
in our lives outside our family. The rule that has landed us in marriage counseling.”
Jack followed the road signs and steered onto the busy east-west expressway. “Then break it.”
“Fine. But if I’m going to break the Rule, I’ll break it big-time.”
“What does that mean?”
“Forget about the stupid pinkie swear. I’m going to tell you how I know Ava Bazzi is alive.”
“I pretty much proved that false in court today.”
“Oh, believe me, I heard all about it.”
“More pressure from the State Department?”
“Jack, you are jeopardizing negotiations to release an American citizen who is being held in an Iranian prison.”
“I’m helping my client keep her adopted daughter safe.”
“By proving something that isn’t true? Is that your idea of help?”
“Not even Farid believes Ava Bazzi is still alive.”
“Then Farid is wrong. And you’re wrong.”
“And you know this because...”
“Because I’ve seen the State Department’s confidential dossier on Ava Bazzi.”
Jack drove in silence.
“There,” Andie added, “I said it.”
Jack was holding the speed limit, thinking, as traffic heading to the cruise ships or hotels on Miami Beach sped past him.
“Are you going to tell me what’s in the dossier?”
Andie looked out the passenger side window. “An immigration document was filed under Ava Bazzi’s name eight months ago.”
“That could be a fake.”
“The application has Ava Bazzi’s fingerprints on it.”
“Those could be fake too.”
“The FBI verified them.”
“Maybe the FBI faked them.”
Jack sensed the weight of Andie’s glare. A quick glance in her direction confirmed it, and then his eyes returned to the road.
“What?” he asked.
“I just shared the contents of a classified dossier with you, and your only response is that it’s a fake? Not just that it’s
fake, but that both the State Department and the FBI are in on it.”
“I’m not saying you’re part of it.”
“Oh, well, that’s a relief,” she said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“You’re being used, but you’re not in on it.”
Her jaw dropped. “That is the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me. How could you think I would let myself be used like that?”
“That’s not—I’m not saying you’re letting it happen.”
“I’m too stupid to even know I’m being used? Is that it?”
“No! You’re totally not hearing me.”
Jack was struggling, and he was intimately familiar with “the first rule of holes,” when digging yourself into one: Stop digging! But he couldn’t stop.
“Andie, here’s a true story. In the middle of my videoconference with the State Department, a thought popped into my head:
I see a federal conspiracy under every rock. That’s my flaw. But you have the opposite problem. You refuse to accept that
not everyone in the federal government is made of the same material you are.”
“Can we just stop talking about this, please?”
“Why?”
“It’s not healthy. You sound more like a nutjob conspiracy theorist than you realize. I’m starting to think we were better
off under the Rule.”
“No. This is healthy.”
“Jack, just stop talking and drive.”
They rode in silence. Jack steered onto the Rickenbacker Causeway toward Key Biscayne. He could see the blue-green waters
of the bay, the speedboats skimming along in the shadows of the signature Miami skyline, the windsurfers gliding just off
the sandy beaches. He loved living on the Key. It never failed to work its magic on his state of mind, making everything chill.
It seemed to be working on Andie, too.
“By the way,” she said, “I would never cheat on you.”
“Good to know.”
“I might kill you. But I would never cheat on you.”
Jack tried a bad Jimmy Stewart imitation. “Well, lucky for you, I, uh, happen to know a good country lawyer who, uh, could
get you off on a defense of, uh, temporary insanity.”
“That is the worst Tom Hanks imitation I’ve ever heard.”
Jack didn’t bother correcting her. “I’ll work on it,” he said.