Rhinoceros

the gloves he'd put on to deal with the body, grabbed hold of the handle, tried to force it to rewind the chain. It wouldn't move an inch.

'We can't leave the chain dangling over the street,' said Tweed.

'We can't do anything else,' Harry told him. 'We just want to get the hell out of here so Newman can drive us to the river, wherever it is. You go down now and get into the car. I'll close the doors.'

'Where are Lisa and Paula?' Tweed asked Marler who had just re-entered the room.

'In a restaurant in the pedestrian street. Lisa's OK now. I'll go and fetch them.'

'Don't say anything about what's in the boot,' Tweed warned.

'And you get out of this damned room,' Harry growled.

When they had gone, he was very careful closing the double doors. He didn't want them giving way and collapsing down into the street. He gave a sigh of relief when he'd closed them. Leaving the room, he stood outside on the top step and pulled open gently the door he'd broken. It was still held by the hinges and swung shut without any trouble. It might be splintered but he couldn't do anything about that. He used his torch to see his way down. The last thing he needed now was a sprained ankle.

As he walked over the flattened street door Marler arrived with Paula and Lisa. Tweed had the car door open for them to get inside. Lisa looked up at the hook at the end of the chain swinging just above her head.

'What's that?'

'Don't ask silly questions,' Harry said quietly. 'Get in the car. We're leaving Flensburg.'

Guided by Tweed, who had the street plan open on his lap, Newman drove round the end of the hafen – or harbour – and along Hafendamn. They had entered a new world. The town was across the water from them and there were hardly any buildings on this side of the water. Instead, they had a view of little old houses across the water, houses freshly painted and well looked after.

'The body's in the boot, isn't it?' Lisa suddenly asked.

Tweed turned round and looked at her. She seemed to be her normal self. Her brain was ticking over very well. 'Yes, it is,' he said. 'We lowered it, using an old hoist, into the boot. Inside a canvas sack. Then I couldn't manage to haul the chain back up again, the one you saw hanging over the street.'

'How are you going to get rid of it?'

'Dump it in the harbour, which is why we drove round here.'

'So it will be gone.' She sounded relieved. 'For ever…'

A little further on they passed a cluster of fishing craft, then some pleasure boats. No one was about on the barren shore. Newman drove on and then slowed. A group of ramshackle huts and sheds stood just off the road on the harbour side. He stopped behind them, masked from the houses on the distant shore opposite.

'Did you see what I saw?' he asked.

'Yes,' Harry replied. 'A large old rowboat. Ideal for the purpose. Let's get on with it…'

At Tweed's suggestion Paula left the car with him and they strolled further along the road. Behind them Lisa followed with Nield. It gave a reason for the car stopping, just in case someone across the water had noticed. Marler had stayed behind to help Newman and Harry.

They first inspected the rowboat, lying behind the first hut.

'Looks pretty ropy,' Newman observed. 'The bottom could fall out.'

'We'll have to risk it,' replied Marler, opening the boot.

Between them they lifted the heavy weight out of the boot, transferred it to the inside of the boat. Harry checked the top of the sack. When the sack had been lowered to within six feet of the boot it had ripped itself away from the hoist's hook. That was when the hoist stopped working. Harry decided the top of the sack was very secure.

'It's a narrow beach,' Newman reported, 'but it's made up of pebbles and stones. They could rip the bottom out before we reach the harbour.'

Harry had found a pair of old rubber boots behind the hut. He managed to get them on. He got back to the others in time to hear Newman's remark.

'So,' he told them, 'we carry the boat to the water. I'll take the stern, one of you takes the port side, the other the starboard. Do let's get on with it.'

In the blazing heat it was a physical ordeal as the three men slowly carried the boat with its cargo towards the water line. When they reached it and the prow was in the harbour, Newman and Marler, still holding on, moved further back. The boat was in the water when Harry, in his boots, kept pushing, then gave it a mighty shove. He nearly went under as the slope shelved steeply. He stepped back quickly, joined the others on the shore as they watched.

'Lord,' said Newman, 'it's keeping going, heading for the far shore. This harbour leads out into the Baltic. There could be a current keeping it moving.'

It was another nerve-racking experience as the boat drifted steadily across the harbour. Newman took out a pair of binoculars and scanned the opposite shore. No one was in view in front of the neat little houses but there was a restaurant with people sitting outside at tables. Luckily a deep blind obscured their view. Not that this would make any difference if the boat reached the shore.

'Sink, you devil. Sink,' Harry growled.

It must have heard him because at that moment, watching the boat through his binoculars, Newman saw the bottom give way, the sack plunging down out of sight. With no bottom, the boat began to break up and soon was no more than shards of driftwood.

'I vote we move off,' said Harry. 'Where has Tweed got to?'

He looked along the road and the four strollers were quite a distance along it. Paula turned round and Harry waved frantically for them to come back fast.

The strollers changed partners for the walk back. Tweed joined Nield while Paula and Lisa followed a distance behind them. Tweed had diought one advantage of walking away was that Lisa wouldn't see what happened to the body. Despite her outward calm he felt sure it would take several days for her to get over her hideous experience with Delgado.

'Lisa,' Paula said quietly, 'there is something I've wanted to ask you and this is a good opportunity. If you don't mind.'

'Ask away.'

'When you were badly concussed and in the clinic back in London you tried to tell us something. You made such an effort I really admired you. What you said was Ham… Dan… 4S. We eventually worked out Ham meant Hamburg and 4S meant the Four Seasons Hotel. But what did Dan mean?'

'I said that? I've got no recollection of this.' Lisa looked at Paula. 'I can see the Hamburg bit and the hotel. Even though it's all gone from my memory.'

'Could Dan have been Danzer, the chauffeur to one of the partners controlling the Zurcher Kredit Bank?'

'Never heard of Danzer. Chauffeur to which partner? The one with the gold-rimmed spectacles?'

Paula almost missed a step. Lisa had, they thought, no knowledge at all of the partners. And the only time Paula had seen Milo wear gold-rimmed spectacles was when he had paid the bill at the Fischereihafen restaurant down by the Elbe docks. She had to say something.

'I don't know which partner he's chauffeur to – Danzer, I mean. It's a detail.'

But as they walked back all Paula's earlier doubts about Lisa flooded back into her mind. She was badly shaken.

The Sikorsky helicopter was within half an hour of taking off from its remote location at Hamburg's airport. All four VIP passengers were aboard. They were waiting for permission from the control tower to start their flight. The aircraft was luxuriously equipped with leather armchairs and the armed guard had brought down the wide aisle a trolley of every kind of drink imaginable. Gavin Thunder had asked for a stiff brandy.

He was seated next to the American Secretary of State, squat and with a high-domed forehead and a hard face expressing great intelligence. Not surprisingly, the Prime Minister of France and the Deputy Chancellor of Germany sat together several rows ahead.

'You seem nervous, Gavin,' the American remarked.

'I'm not too keen on helicopters.'

'Use them frequently. Useful for short urgent trips in the States. Something important in that case in your lap?'