The Ivy: A Lara Stone Mystery (Lara Stone Mysteries Book 3) by Tasmina Perry

Author:Tasmina Perry [Perry, Tasmina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911297420
Publisher: Sunflower & Co
Published: 2022-11-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

‘Of course, today it’s the Gaza Strip, tomorrow it's going to be Iran or the Central African states, all of them dominos waiting to fall,’ said Darius, stroking the lapel of his pale blue suit. ‘When the world is run by Wall Street and the Hang Seng when policy is dictated by people who profit from war, how can we possibly even dream of world peace?’

Lara had stopped listening to Darius ten minutes ago. The man had been holding court at the ‘after-show’ party as if he were John Pilger himself. Pontificating about the situation in Palestine, giving on-the-ground anecdotes as if he had spent the last six months on the frontline dodging mortar shells – when in fact, he'd spent the majority of the time at his manor house in Sussex. Lara wasn't sure Darius had ever been to the Middle East – he preferred cocktail parties to foxholes.

Lara murmured an ‘excuse me’, then wandered away and helped herself to a Gin Fizz: the cocktails had certainly been a success. In fact, the whole first day of the symposium had gone amazingly well. Alex’s talk on the politics of the newsroom had been a particular triumph, vividly evoking the crazed energy of the ‘news rush’ with anecdotes about royal babies, terror attacks and sex scandals. Even though he sometimes dismissed newsprint as a ‘thing of the past’, after Alex had finished, Lara knew that everyone in the auditorium still wanted to be a part of it - and how much Alex still believed in it.

Legendary American writer Francis Barbier had given a change of pace straight after Alex’s talk. With snow-white hair and a desert-lined face, Barbier’s voice was barely a whisper but drew the attention as he quietly told a hushed audience the story of being kidnapped in Colombia and held in the jungle by rebel forces. Befriending one of his guards, Francis was offered the possibility of escape but instead chose to have the young soldier smuggle a report of his capture to the AP office in Bogota, written on the back of a soup can label. When Barbier finished his story, the applause was so deafening that Lara had to put her fingers in her ears.

Lara tried to imagine Harry here. Imagined how much he would have enjoyed it. She accepted how difficult it must have been for him in his final few months, but if only he could have seen this, seen what he had created—seen the fire in the students’ eyes, and the queues outside the door. Perhaps, just perhaps, he might have reconsidered.

‘Can I help you with anything else this evening?’

Lara turned to see Mary. She was beginning to think of Mary as ‘her assistant’, but after tomorrow, Lara would be back to a plain old ‘visiting fellow’, and Mary would be back to being Doug’s secretary. Lara could admit she would miss the craziness of the past few days, their frantic planning and ball juggling.

‘You’ve done more than enough, Mary,’ smiled Lara, touching her new friend on the shoulder.

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