Chapter 45

The taxi left Jack at the end of the private road, and the taillights faded into darkness. Jack could hear the ocean, even

feel the salt in the air. Urban light pollution was nonexistent on Jupiter Island, and the thick tropical canopy blanketed

the stars, making it impossible to see beyond the glow of the cottage porch lights. Jack went to the front door and rang the

bell.

Zahra answered and invited him inside. “Yasmin tried so hard to wait up for you, but she fell asleep.”

“I’m sure she’s exhausted,” said Jack. “Better that we talk out your surrender in private anyway.”

“About that,” she said as they entered the kitchen.

Jack stopped and did a double take: they were not alone. Even though Jack recognized the man seated on the stool at the granite-top

island, he wasn’t sure he believed his eyes.

“You remember Nouri,” said Zahra.

Jack had cross-examined Nouri Asmoun about his alleged affair with Ava Bazzi. “Of course I remember him. What’s he doing here?”

“Nouri is a friend,” said Zahra.

“A friend of yours ?”

“I think it would be helpful for the three of us to talk,” she said.

Jack hesitated, his mind still processing what his client had sprung on him. Zahra walked around to the other side of the

kitchen island and sat on the stool next to Nouri. He took her hand, and their fingers interlaced.

Jack blinked hard. “You two are—”

“Friends,” said Zahra, interrupting.

“Good friends,” said Nouri.

Jack took a seat on the barstool opposite them. “Mr. Asmoun—”

“Please,” he said cordially. “Nouri.”

“Nouri,” said Jack, not sure where to start—where the lies began. “I’m guessing you’re not an investment banker from Tehran.”

“I am a banker,” said Nouri, “though I’m not strictly ‘from Tehran.’ I have dual citizenship with the UK, which makes travel

easier. I’m in the US quite often.”

“When did you get your UK passport?”

“About a year ago.”

“That’s when we met in Miami,” said Zahra. “Nouri found me in Miami, I should say.”

“Why was he looking for you?”

With the exchange of a quick glance, Zahra and Nouri seemed to agree that the explanation should come from him.

“What happened to Ava was very upsetting to me,” Nouri said.

“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.

“Nouri, as I recall your testimony from the hearing, your affair started six months before Ava disappeared.”

“Yes. I’m not proud of it. But this was not a onetime indiscretion.”

“Shame on me as well,” Jack said cryptically.

“For what?” asked Nouri.

“I don’t often miss the opportunity to hammer a lying witness, but I missed this one.”

“Meaning what?” asked Nouri.

“You claim it was a six-month affair,” said Jack. “Ava, Yasmin, and Farid didn’t move back from London to Tehran until two months before she disappeared.”

Jack was relying on the flight information in the detailed timeline Bonnie “the Roadrunner” had created for him after Nouri’s testimony by videoconference—“ Just in case you have to cross-examine Mr. Asmoun again. ”

The color drained from Nouri’s face, but he quickly recovered. “Well, the affair started in London. I just told you: I have

dual citizenship.”

“Yes, and you also said you got your UK passport about a year ago, right about the time you came to Miami and found Zahra.

Long after Ava disappeared.”

There was only silence.

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “You’re lying,” he said. “Both of you.”

“We’re not lying,” said Zahra. “Nouri is confused. There are a few... inaccuracies. Let me explain.”

“No, let me ,” said Jack, as matters were coming clear to him. “Nouri went to Farid and threatened to tell the world he was sleeping with

Ava unless Farid dropped his lawsuit. I believe that much: you threatened him. But the basis for that threat was a lie. You

never slept with her, did you, Nouri?”

It was more of an accusation than a question, and Nouri seemed to accept the fact that Jack had left him no wiggle room.

“No,” said Nouri. “I didn’t have an affair with Ava.”

Jack’s glare shifted to his client. “Zahra, I understand that you desperately wanted to keep Yasmin. But Ava was your sister. After all she went through, the best plan you could come up with was to paint her as an adulteress? What kind of person does that?”

Zahra inhaled sharply. “What kind of person? You really want to ask that question?”

“After I trusted you, I think it’s a fair question.”

Zahra’s eyes lit up like burning embers. “Let me ask you this: What kind of mother would cut off her hair at a public protest

and risk being arrested and taken away from her daughter? What kind of person is that ?”

“I’m not here to judge your sister.”

“No! Of course you aren’t. No one judges Ava. No one questions her actions. It’s always, ‘What’s wrong with you , Zahra?’ ‘What kind of person are you , Zahra?’ ‘Why can’t you be a better role model so your perfect sister can be even more perfect?’ Well, let me tell you this. Ava was not perfect!”

“Zahra, that’s enough,” said Nouri.

“She was anything but perfect,” said Zahra, her voice rising. “Do you want to know what she was, Jack?”

“Enough,” said Nouri.

“She was evil!”

“Zahra!”

“I’m telling you, my sister was an evil woman!”

There was a small voice from the hallway, just outside the kitchen. “Mommy, why are you yelling?”

Jack and Zahra were locked in a stare-down. Jack had seen her crack once before, and had attributed it to the stress of the

case. This was different.

“Mommy?”

Jack had more to say, but not in front of a seven-year-old girl. Zahra climbed down quickly from the stool and went to Yasmin.

Jack and Nouri stayed at the island, seated in silence as Zahra led Yasmin back to the bedroom, their voices fading in the

hallway.

Jack had plenty of questions for Nouri. He asked the most obvious one.

“What are you doing here, Nouri?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

“I’m here to tell Zahra she needs to surrender to the authorities.”

“And I’m here to tell you she’s not going to do that.”

“That’s a problem,” said Jack. “With me here, the FBI is going to expect Zahra’s cooperation.”

“We can deal with the FBI,” Nouri said with confidence.

Jack had heard enough. “There is no ‘we,’ Nouri. As soon as Zahra comes back, she and I are going to have a conversation—without

you. Then, one of two things is going to happen. Either Zahra walks out that door with me and surrenders to the FBI. Or I

walk out that door with Yasmin, and the two of you can hide out in the dunes with the sea turtles and the beach mice and deal

with the shitstorm you seem determined to create. Got it?”

Nouri answered in a flat, even tone. “Sure, Jack. Whatever you say.”

The words said one thing, but Nouri’s cockiness said quite another. Jack stared back at him coldly. It was a look he’d perfected

over years of representing incarcerated clients who had nothing more to lose and bullied everyone, even their lawyers, just

for the fun of it.

“You’re not going to screw this up, Nouri. Not on my watch.”

Jack let the warning hang in the air for a moment, then pushed away from the counter and went to see his client.