“Yes, Lieutenant Sharaf, I am sure.”
Her father smiled weakly and lightly placed a hand on her cheek.
“Then we had better get down to business before I change my mind.”
He pulled his hand away and shook his head, as if trying to put the moment behind him. Then he sighed yet again, sounding tired and grumpy.
“Everyone be seated. We might as well stick to English, so Mr. Keller can assist us. The practical question is how you’re going to handle this interview. These things are tricky, like sailing a dhow in a choppy sea. When the wind shifts, you had better shift with it, or you’ll wind up dead in the water. But I do have confidence in your abilities, Laleh.”
“I know. I have always known that, in spite of everything.”
“Good.” Sharaf nodded, a glimmer of pride in his eyes. The exchange was intimate enough to make Sam want to look away. Halami beamed at the old cop, her first sign of affection for him. She then left the room to let them carry out their business.
They worked quickly. Sharaf spoke for half an hour about what questions to ask, while Laleh took notes. Sam added a thought here and there. Then she was ready to go. A guard had been assigned to drive her, using not the battered blue van but a white Audi parked in the rear.
“We’ve checked the streets,” Halami said. “No sign of surveillance.”
“Not that you’re qualified to make that judgment,” Sharaf said.
“These men are. Trust me.”
“But can we trust
Halami stared him down and put a hand on her hip.
“Sharaf?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and let me finish.”
He said nothing in reply.
“It will take forty minutes, maybe longer, for Laleh to reach the secure location. The address is known only to the driver and two others of us here at the Beacon of Light.”
“You’re sure you’ve told no one else?”
“Only Charlie Hatcher. He visited her a little more than a week ago, on the night he arrived.”
Sharaf turned to Sam.
“Did you know this?”
“No. I went to bed early that night. We were both exhausted from the flight, or so I thought. I guess Lieutenant Assad was right.”
“I don’t think so. He just believed Charlie could have gone out after I went to bed. He practically scolded me for not staying up.”
“Because he already knew you were working for Nanette, his business partner. You were their eyes and ears.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“Please, gentlemen,” Halami said. “Do you want to hear the plan or not?”
“Continue,” Sharaf said.
“Assuming that Basma is willing to talk, Laleh may be there an hour, even longer. The return trip will take another forty minutes. So maybe two and a half hours in all. In the meantime, you gentlemen are welcome to join us for dinner, but I suggest that you make other arrangements for sleeping.”
“I’ll call Ali,” Sharaf said. “He is lining up accommodations.”
“Safe Houses R Us,” Sam said. “Hope it’s better than the place he found for me.”
Laleh stood to go. Sam expected a tearful farewell, but Sharaf seemed to deliberately avoid it by keeping his seat. He opened his phone in his lap and punched in Ali’s number. From the intent look on his face, the policeman was working overtime to block the father’s entry to the scene. Laleh smiled gamely, as if she understood. Then she mouthed a silent “good-bye” to Sam and was on her way. By the time she had disappeared down the hallway, Sharaf was talking to Ali as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Or maybe he was trying to drown out the sound of the shutting door.
Sam waited for the conversation to end, then spoke up.
“We should play the rest of Patel’s recording,” he said. “See what they said in Russian.”
“Not here. Not anywhere in this house. Mrs. Halami might be right about her government visitors. Maybe they did plant a microphone somewhere.”
“In which case we’re dead anyway.”
Sharaf frowned.
“Okay. Then I will tell you the real reason. I am too nervous. In my current state of mind I can only think in one language at a time. I would get half the translation wrong if I tried it now. Later, when we are at Ali’s safe
