“Then what do you intend to show me?” asked Andie.
“Frankly, as little as possible—just enough to satisfy you that Ava Bazzi is alive.”
Westbrook unsealed the dossier, speaking into a Dictaphone to make a record of the exact time of each step of the process—opening the dossier, removing six sheets of paper markedsecret, and finally placing the documents before Agent Henning.
“What is this?” asked Andie.
“We got it from the Department of Homeland Security. It’s a law enforcement certification in support of a U visa. A U visa is—”
“I know what a U visa is,” said Andie.
A U visa allows noncitizens to stay in the United States if they are the victim of a crime and are providing assistance to a law enforcement investigation. Andie had seen U visas issued to victims of crimes ranging from blackmail to sex trafficking.
Andie flipped through the pages. “Are you saying that the US government issued a U visa to Ava Bazzi?”
“No. Ava Bazzi requested a U visa. It was denied.”
“When did she apply?”
“The date is on the application. Next to her signature.”
Andie flipped to the last page and checked the date. “February of this year,” she said aloud. “Eight months ago.”
“Put another way, sixteen months after your husband claims Ava Bazzi was murdered by the Tehran morality police.”
“What crime did Ava offer to help law enforcement investigate?”
“Torture by the Tehran morality police. Obviously, no US law enforcement agency has jurisdiction over that crime. That’s why the application was denied.”
Andie studied the application for a moment. “This form could have been filled out by anyone. How do I know it was the real Ava Bazzi?”
“Are you accusing the State Department of defrauding you?”
“I’m just being thorough,” she said.And asking the questions my husband would ask,she decided not to say.
“Applications for U visas are processed in two stages. First, the application is reviewed. If everything is in order, then the applicant appears in person at the nearest consulate or embassy to be fingerprinted. This application never made it to step two.”
“There was no fingerprinting?” asked Andie.
“Not in the normal way fingerprints are collected. But turn to the last two pages of the dossier,” said Westbrook.
Andie did. The penultimate page was an FBI report describing the collection of latent fingerprints found on the U visa application and setting forth two very clear prints from a thumb and an index finger. Attached to it was an Interpol fingerprint specimen for Ava Bazzi. Most people are unaware that Iran was a founding member of the International Criminal Police Organization, but Andie knew.
“I presume Ava Bazzi’s prints became part of the Interpol database when she was arrested in Tehran.”
“Correct. The FBI examiner’s conclusion is on the last page.”
Andie checked the examiner’s name. Leslie T. Cahill. It wasn’t anyone she recognized, but every FBI examiner was part of an elite group.
“Based on a comparison of the latent prints on the application to those in the Interpol database, it is this examiner’s opinion that Ava Bazzi is the source of the latent prints to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty,” said Andie, reading aloud from the report.
“Proving that Ava Bazzi had her hands on the application,” said Westbrook.
Andie laid the dossier aside. “Why is this document classified?”
“It’s a sensitive piece of information that bears on active negotiations between the United States and Iran.”
“How so?”
