Now at the lodge which still marked the entrance to the estate, George thought she had been right. He could not stay in the place and put money into the pockets of the developer who had caused such desecration. Even while he was working on an investigation, he would not do it. Much better to sleep in the car somewhere and find another way to meet Greg Frank’s girlfriend. But even as he hesitated, he knew these were moral scruples he could not afford. This place had some relevance in the relationship between Duncan James and Greg Franks. Besides, he had managed to persuade Gwen to come to Rashwood Park to eat with him, and she knew more about seabirds than anyone else in Britain. He drove up the pink gravel drive and parked in front of the hotel.

He had worried when he had booked the night at Rashwood Park that they would not allow him into the dining room in such casual clothes, or that at least his attire would make him conspicuous, but his anxiety was unfounded. It was not that sort of hotel. The guests seemed rather to pride themselves on their informality. They sat in the bar in tracksuits, with towels round their necks, and talked about handicaps and forehands and weights. It was much worse, George thought, than pretentious young men talking about art. Even Molly would concede that.

The receptionist behind a pine desk in the entrance hall wore an orange jumpsuit. All the staff, it seemed, wore orange uniforms.

“I telephoned earlier,” he said when at last he caught her attention, “and booked a room for tonight.”

She nodded distantly, so he thought at first she still had not heard him, but when she gave him his key, she smiled a toothy and unnatural leer—as much part of the corporate design, George thought, as the uniform, and for one dreadful minute he was afraid she would tell him to “have a nice day.” His bedroom had a colour television, miniature bar, and shower, none of which he wanted. He would have preferred a real bath and a pile of thick warm towels. The bed had a duvet—an import from the Continent which he detested. Already suitably angry, he went downstairs to meet Gwen Pullen and to find Greg Franks’ girlfriend and the Mr. Barnes who was responsible for such a monstrous building.