The Return by Evelyn Anthony

Author:Evelyn Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

6

Sheila Campbell, accompanied by Ruth Paterson, arrived by Concorde exactly on schedule at Charles de Gaulle airport. Sheila enjoyed flying; she said it gave her time to work in peace and was privately amused by Ruth’s nervousness; the surreptitiously swallowed tranquillizer was an unexpected sign of human weakness. Sheila made no concessions to other people’s neuroses; Ruth had had to travel everywhere with her, in all varieties of planes, including a four-seater where the secretary had been literally sick with fright. Sheila’s view was uncompromising. If she could do it, so could anybody else. She set out on the trip after a well-publicized press conference and TV coverage. The disappearance of the top Soviet diplomat during his French visit was a godsend to her publicity men. She answered questions about her own stay in Paris, emphasizing that she was going on a fact-finding tour to inform the American public of the climate of opinion regarding détente with the Russians and whether this involved anti-American manoeuvring on the part of the French government. She gave the impression that she expected to find that it did, without actually saying so. Questioned about the sensational kidnapping of Grigor Malenkov, Sheila felt she would be in the right place at the right time if anything broke. Then, as she anticipated, the woman reporter of a popular daily with States-wide syndication asked if she would be staying with her daughter, Countess Yurovskaya, and her new son-in-law. Sheila gave a dazzling smile, and replied that she didn’t believe in mothers-in-law intruding on newly married couples, so she would be going to the Ritz. Just before they landed she glanced at Ruth, who was dozing beside her. She had fortified herself with a drink, and the effect on top of the pill had anaesthetized her. She dug her sharply in the ribs.

‘Wake up,’ she said. ‘We’re landing in a minute.’ She put her sheaf of papers together, and Ruth locked them away in her briefcase. Sheila examined herself quickly in a small mirror, used her lipstick and powder, and pulled a small silk beret at a smart angle on her head. There might be photographers at the airport so she got ready for them, but it was doubtful. The French papers, like the world’s press, had been devoted to the disappearance of Grigor Malenkov.

Sheila watched the aircraft come down over the city; the announcement of imminent landing was made, the ‘no smoking’ and ‘fasten seat belts’ flashed above them.

The rumour had reached Washington the night before she left. Malenkov hadn’t been kidnapped. He had engineered his own escape and was going to defect to the West. The American Embassy in Paris was on standby to receive him. She hadn’t mentioned it to Ruth or to anyone else. The possibilities were huge, politically incalculable so far as Soviet-American relations were concerned. But at all costs if Malenkov wanted asylum, then he must be taken in by the United States; both France and Britain were on tiptoe in case he veered in their direction.

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