Rhinoceros Read Online Free Page A

abroad a lot. Had a big man sion built inside an old abandoned quarry up on the Downs. Place went up in no time. Imported German workers.'
    'Can you describe this Rondel?'
    'Only saw him once. Drove a red Bugatti along this street as though it was Le Mans. Only caught a glimpse of him. Blond hair, youngish. Has a helipad by the mansion. Arrives there by chopper.'
    'Any idea where he flies to?'
    'Girl who lives here worked as a stewardess once at Heathrow. Told me she'd seen him boarding a Gulfstream. Think that's what she called it. Private jet. Big job.'
    'Any chance of our driving to his place from here? Now?'
    'You could.' Pole sounded doubtful. 'When you meet the A27 after leaving Alfriston you turn left. If you're not careful you'll miss the turning to Eagle's Nest - that's what Rondel calls his palatial place. A short way along you come to a turning off left - just before you reach another one signposted Byway.'
    'I remember that turning,' Paula interjected.
    'One hell of a road . . . pardon me,' he said to Paula. 'Unmade, it twists and turns up over the Downs. Get to the top and the road levels out, then starts to go down. That's where Rondel's place is, way back to your left. Right inside the quarry.' He frowned as a car's headlights appeared, driving into the village, the lights on full beam. They flashed twice, then were doused. The car stopped, Bob Newman jumped out.

    'Monica called me just as we'd finished dinner,' Newman explained as he drove along the A27 with Tweed beside him.
    Behind them Paula was driving Tweed's car, thinking she should have been in front to guide them. Would Tweed spot the turn-off?
    'Called me on my mobile,' Newman continued. I'd met Mark Wendover at Heathrow, parked him at the Ritz, took him for dinner to Santorini's.'
    'Tell me later, we're coming to the turn-off. There are things you should know . . .'
    Tweed talked non-stop, providing Newman with all the data about Lisa at Lord Barford's mansion, his arrival in Alfriston, what he had found there.
    As he was talking, Newman's skill as a driver was tested to the limit as the track they had turned on to kept switching back and forth on itself in a series of bends.
    Left, then right again, then left. All the time they were ascending rapidly, along a potholed track where many cavities had not been filled in.
    Behind them Paula too drove with ease and skill, revel ling in the warmth inside her car. Using a gloved hand, she cleared a hole in the steamed-up glass of her side window. The view she looked down on was staggering.
    From the base of the Downs flatlands of frost-covered fields stretched away endlessly to the north. Then she saw a caterpillar of lights crawling westward, realized it was a local train which had to be returning to its depot. She felt the whole of England was spreading out before her.
    Tweed was telling Newman he had found Lisa an extraordinary personality. He described her, emphasized her intelligence, voiced his puzzlement as to what her real role was and why she was so anxious to meet him again.
    'Nearing the summit,' Newman warned. 'Didn't you tell me Pole said that the road levelled out, started to go down and Rondel's house was on the left?'
    'He did,' Tweed confirmed.
    They crested the rise suddenly. Newman slowed down and behind them Paula, gazing through her windscreen, almost gasped. On the other side of the Downs a vast panorama came into view. To east and west were vast slopes of rolling hills. A distance away to the south the sea, caught in the moonlight, glittered like an immense lake of mercury sweeping into the Channel. The road began to drop. They pulled up. Newman freewheeled a few more yards, stopped. He left the engine purring to keep the interior warm, jumped out after Tweed and joined Paula, who had already left her car.
    'There it is,' said Newman. 'Weird-looking. Expen sive.'
    'Look at the name,' said Paula.
    A large aluminium plate was engraved with the name in front of a high wire fence. Eagle's