The Yacht Party (Lara Stone)

‘Could be my the first of the day,’ smiled Lara.

‘You like moules frites?’ he said with a look of confusion.

‘Yes. No, I meant I’m heading to Paris this afternoon. I’m checking on Sandrine’s flat for Jean and Marion.’

‘The flat?’

A look of concern crossed Eduardo’s face, then it was gone.

‘Stefan’s going to join us at the pub, I hope you don’t mind?’

Before Lara could respond, Eduardo strode ahead and she had to trot to keep up.

‘So Stefan’s your right-hand man?’ she said.

‘He was the first journalist I invited to join Le Caché. I’d say he was more a co-founder rather than a deputy.’

‘He’s Dutch, right? So what brings the conference to London, rather than Holland or Spain?’

‘Why is the City of London the number one global financial hub rather than Frankfurt or New York?’ he said glancing across. ‘It’s because it’s in the middle of the time zones and because English is the universal language and our journalists come from Sydney and San Francisco. It would have been easier for me to have headquarters in Madrid, but not for anyone else. Which is why we’re moving the main Le Caché office to London, Shoreditch. I’m relocating here too.’

‘I didn’t know that,’ said Lara. ‘That’s exciting.’

‘Sandrine was excited about it too.’ He said it with a sad smile.

Lara stopped.

‘Sandrine was going to move to London?’

‘We talked about it. But you know Sandrine. I’m not sure that was the level of commitment she was comfortable with.’

Over the years, many men had fallen in love with Sandrine but all of them, with the exception of Patric, had been very much one-sided affairs. She wondered if Eduardo and Sandrine’s had been that way too. Perhaps he didn’t even know.

Inside the pub, they ordered the moules then joined Stefan at a corner table.

‘So what did you think of this morning? Are you going to join us?’ Lara laughed at Stefan’s bluntness. The truth was, Lara had enjoyed herself. Despite going in as a sceptic, she had loved the buzz of the conference and the excitement of being surrounded by like-minded people.

Stefan and Eduardo were passionate, smart and driven but handsome and charming too. It was a combination that took people places. She had seen the same thing happen with Alex Ford; she had known Alex would make it to the very top the very first day they had met.

‘Look, this is all very flattering,’ said Lara. ‘But I’m not here to talk about joining Le Caché. I’m here to talk about Sandrine. She was going to discuss a new story she was working on at the conference.’

Eduardo nodded. ‘That’s right. But all I know is that there was a link to Jonathon Meyer, the financier who died recently.’

‘Did you look into it?’

‘A little. The problem is that Meyer’s world is – was – so secretive. He lived in Monaco, had a fund for ultra-high-net worth investors and threw networking parties for billionaires on his yacht Pandora, but no one really knew anything beyond that. I thought it was a classic Vanity Fair-style investigation, a glimpse into the lurid world of the super-rich, not the sort of thing Le Caché would get involved in.’

‘Why not? Didn’t you trust her to have found something more newsworthy?’

Eduardo met her gaze. ‘I always trusted Sandrine.’

‘So if Sandrine thought she had a great story then she did. Surely we owe it to her to complete her work.’

Stefan looked sympathetic but not entirely convinced.

‘But where do we start? Sandrine didn’t put her notes on the Le Caché server; we’ve asked a few colleagues and no-one seems to know anything about it.’

Lara looked at him.