China Wife (28 page)

Epilogue

Linda Shen?'

It was a smile of recognition! The immigration official had been alerted by the airline manifest as to when Linda would be landing at Heathrow and arrangements had been made to welcome her. It was a week after the other participants in the action had returned and faded back into normality; she had had some complex affairs in Shanghai to arrange. It wasn't going to be quite the welcome that Linda would have preferred, but as a former UK Border Agency official herself she was well aware of the way that the Immigration Service went about its business.

With her passport firmly in the hands of the immigration official and accompanied by a petite but tough-looking police-woman, Linda was led away to an office in the underbelly of Terminal 4. Oblivious to everything around him, her son slept peacefully in his buggy.

‘Linda.'

Being confronted by a grinning Julie Kershawe, who had now reverted to her proper role, was the last thing that Linda had expected. She was pleased, wary and reassured all at once.

The tall Afro-Caribbean woman standing next to Julie moved forward to take the baby from Linda. A look of fear followed by a look of anguish said that this was not something that she had expected to happen either.

‘Social Services,' said Julie.

As the social worker left the room and the policewoman
took up a position by the door, Julie and the immigration official sat down, indicating that Linda should too.

Linda knew that it was interrogation time. This
was
something that she had expected to happen.

‘David!'

‘Julie?'

‘I had no idea that you were likely to be in Aberdeen!'

‘Nor me, Julie, but a dramatic helicopter ditching in the sea … well, it's a bit more like my normal fare.'

‘I just spent time in London being debriefed, for what that was worth, then I got sent straight up here.'

‘And you're living in this hotel in luxury at taxpayers' expense – not a bad life to come back to!'

‘I guess we won't go there. How's Susie, David? I didn't really get to know her very well in Canberra.'

‘She's back in China, Beijing. She got herself promoted to the overseas diplomatic staff. Her feet didn't touch the ground before they were shunting her back out there. I guess they think that she's a China expert after what happened, or, keeping her under the Chinese noses to reassure them, more like.'

‘Cynical bastard.'

‘So how is it with you?'

‘Got the promotion I was in line for earlier before my lords and masters connived at my transfer to the Australian Security Service. Big apology; if
you're
cynical, you should try my departmental head.'

‘So what happened about Linda, Julie?'

‘Put her through the wringer the moment she got off the plane, like my lot do. Now she's on leave to sort herself and her son out pending joining me here. Everybody's trying to act as if nothing had happened.'

The interrogation hadn't lasted long. Fully briefed on Linda's
marriage and on her activities on behalf of her late husband and herself, Julie had been sympathetic to the idea of letting her return to the UK and restart her life. She had quickly recommended this to her bosses.

Much of the interview conversation had been about confirming what the various UK and European authorities already knew about the export of private capital from China and the methods by which it was achieved. When it came down to it there was no evidence that Linda had broken any UK or European laws, whatever she might have done in China.

The Chinese authorities demanded the return of the money. The subsequent intervention of Susie Peveral and the efforts of some Treasury whiz-kid in separating the accrued interest from the capital, and quietly funnelling this money into an account in the Isle of Man, at least meant that Linda would have a modest but useful nest egg as a legacy from her marriage and her experiences in China. There was again no evidence in the UK that the money that she had been working with wasn't Mr Shi's, and then hers on his death, despite the clamour from the Chinese Finance Ministry.

The formalities complete, Linda and Julie re-established their former friendly relationship.

‘I never believed you did what the papers said you did.'

‘And I never believed that you went to China as willingly as we supposed,' said Julie.

‘The bastard was great in bed,' Linda responded with a grin, ‘but a shit!'

‘And you shouldn't sleep with shits.'

A fleeting vision of Tariq al Hussaini failed to establish itself in Julie's mind.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Yang Xiaoxia and her husband, Mr David Smith, for their help with the Chinese names and insights into their usage. Any mistakes in the application of this knowledge are entirely down to me.