Laura Lake and the Luxury press Trip
Page 5
The dark cropped head nodded.
‘And tried to push me off the cliff.’
The dark cropped head hung guiltily down.
‘And tried to poison me. Thank God I left the papaya. But I still don’t get it, Rosie. Why are you in disguise?’
‘I’m the PR for Coconut Cay,’ Rosie said, her glasses flashing purple.
‘Yes, but what for? Why would the, ahem, jilted fiancée of James Redmond’s son want to work for him on the very island where Merlin got married?’ Perhaps Georgia, sorry Rosie, had been driven mad by the experience.
Perhaps? There was no perhaps about it, Laura thought as Georgia now bore down, brown eyes wide and crazed behind her lenses. ‘Because,’ she hissed, ‘finally, I was in a position to destroy him.’
Laura could feel things moving in her mind. A picture was forming, but she could not yet see it. ‘Destroy him?’ But Rosie had looked anything but powerful in the company of the billionaire. On the contrary. And she had been completely hopeless at her job.
Oh, wait. Completely hopeless. Now Laura could see, it had all been deliberate – the mix-up over the exclusive, the professional incompetence. Georgia had meant to be the worst PR in the world.
‘I get it!’ she exclaimed. ‘You were bad on purpose. You invited horribly spoilt and entitled journalists on purpose. To be as nasty as possible about the place.’
It was clear now why Carinthia’s no-show had been so unwelcome. ‘And I tried to help you. But you didn’t want help.’
‘No, I didn’t want it. I want to destroy Coconut Cay!’ Rosie snarled. Her eyes behind her glasses were spitting fire.
Laura took a deep breath. ‘I understand,’ she said. ‘He made your fiancé marry someone else. That was a terrible thing to do.’
‘Merlin was the love of my life,’ Rosie said simply. Her dead voice and the utter lack of expression on her face was more moving than any passionate outrage could have been. It betrayed complete desolation, absolute lack of hope. Despite her situation, Laura felt deeply sorry for her. But before she could express it, Rosie spoke again. ‘I hate Redmond,’ she went on. ‘He made Merlin drop me like a burning loo roll and marry that witchy actress just because she was famous. He thought it would be good publicity – for him. I was only a junior doctor. Not starry enough.’
‘A doctor? But now you’re a PR.’
Rosie shrugged ‘I did a course. It’s hardly rocket science. Specialised in upmarket travel. That’s how I knew who to ask.’
‘Clever,’ said Laura.
The compliment seemed lost on Rosie. She clenched her fists and her face reddened with fury. ‘So that’s why I want to destroy James Redmond. But first I have to destroy you!’ She sprang towards the wall again, finger outstretched to press the switch.
Cold horror shot through Laura. ‘Hang on!’ she yelled desperately. ‘You won’t destroy him this way! Only yourself!’
Rosie hesitated.
‘If you kill me you’re bound to get found out. Then you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison!’
Rosie let her arm drop.
‘And the others are going to give the place a good review now anyway.’ Laura spoke rapidly over her thumping heart. ‘So he’ll get what he wants.’
Rosie turned. Her face was the picture of desolation. ‘I planned it so carefully,’ she said bleakly. ‘But it’s all gone wrong.’ Sparks jumped once more from her eyes. ‘Thanks to you!’
She made for the wall again, finger outstretched. She seemed to have made up her mind to destroy Laura at least. Something clearly had to be sacrificed. Rosie was going down with all guns blazing.
Laura, however, was not. Not if she could help it. ‘I can help you!’ she shouted. ‘You can still have your revenge. We can do this together.’
Rosie’s finger was millimetres from the switch. Her head turned slowly, suspiciously in Laura’s direction. ‘Do what together?’
Laura smiled. ‘What all billionaires fear most... an expose.’
London, a month later
‘His signature dish is wok-fried Haribos with foie gras and truffle.’
Syrie, Society’s food editor was raving about a new restaurant. Her voice came floating over to Laura as she sat at her desk flicking through the issue just arrived from the printers. Her heart was light and she was grinning from ear to ear. To see her work in print was always her favourite part of her job.
‘It’s got murals by Jack Vettriano and the music’s curated by a cutting-edge Lower East Side DJ...’ Syrie paused. ‘Or is it the other way round?’ She looked around musingly and suddenly seemed to focus on what Laura was doing. She sprang to her feet. ‘OMG! Is that the new issue?’
Laura nodded. Syrie came bounding over, her gazelle frame in its houndstooth shorts belying the number of restaurants she went to each week, sometimes each day. ‘Glory be,’ Syrie exclaimed, flicking rapidly through with fingers sparkling with jewels. ‘Doesn’t the Redmond piece look amazing?’
Laura could only agree that it did. The headline, ‘AT THE COURT OF KING JAMES’, sprang out in brilliant red capitals from the glossy cover. Inside, Carinthia had awarded Laura’s scoop an unprecedented six pages.
Syrie was reading the end paragraph: The recent shock split of Willow Bailey and Merlin Redmond has meant that Rosie is now seeing her former fiancé once more. ‘It’s tricky, given the long hours I work at the hospital,’ she says happily. ‘But we’ve got time on our side now. Neither of us is going anywhere.’
Nor was James Redmond, of course. Thanks to what Laura’s investigations had turned up, he was in prison pending a fraud trial.
Carinthia came drifting past. She paused and picked up the new magazine with an almost bored air, as if she had seen it all a million times. Which she had of course, Laura knew. But she was never bored. Carinthia’s heart beat faster than anyone’s at the prospect of a good story, even after years at the helm. That was what made her a great editor.
‘Yet again I get to scoop all my rivals!’ she exulted, preparing to waltz off to yet another four-hour lunch. ‘This’ll get us another award, you mark my words.’
Laura marked them, and the fact that it would probably end up in Carinthia’s office with all the others. But who cared? The story was what counted. And that was indubitably hers.
‘Just one thing,’ Carinthia said. Her head was on one side and she was regarding Laura speculatively. ‘Remind me not to send you on a press trip again. I’m not sure travel writing’s really your thing.’
THE END
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Laura Lake will return in Laura Lake and The Celebrity Meltdown, coming spring 2018
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First published
in the UK in 2017 by Head of Zeus, Ltd.
Copyright © Wendy Holden 2017
The moral right of Wendy Holden to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781784977658
Author Photo: Laurie Fletcher
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