Slough House

Dead Lions / C02

Chapter 2

Book 2 Part One 6685 words POV: River Cartwright, Louisa Guy

Summary

River Cartwright, typing pre-digital death records because the scanner is broken, goes upstairs to ask Catherine Standish what Lamb is up to. Catherine knows only that Lamb had Ho pull a Service file and that Ho alone has seen it; she sends River to Ho’s office, where the two of them talk the technician into admitting the file belonged to Dickie Bow, a long-retired officer who died the previous week on a coach outside Oxford without a ticket. Catherine fills in the rest: Bow was a streetwalker, good at following people, who traded gossip gathered in a nightclub. Meanwhile Min and Louisa inspect the seventy-seventh floor of a new City tower, the venue Webb has secured for the Russian talks, and Louisa privately wonders whether success might buy one of them a way back to Regent’s Park. River and Catherine confront Lamb, who throws a mug at Catherine and orders them out; minutes later his monitor goes off the desk. Lamb then gathers everyone to watch CCTV of the Oxford platform, where River spots a bald man walking away through the rain instead of boarding a train. Lamb gives Shirley the job of tracing him and tells River that Bow was poisoned.

Beats

  • C02S01 · River Cartwright — Roderick Ho maintained his invented online self, Roddy Hunt, while River Cartwright, stuck on data entry, went up to Catherine Standish to ask what Lamb was doing. Catherine told him Lamb had had Ho pull a Service file and that Ho alone knew what it was, and River proposed they ask Ho directly.
  • C02S02 · Louisa Guy — Min and Louisa inspected the seventy-seventh floor of a new City tower, the venue Webb had secured for the Pashkin talks. Louisa worked through the security requirements and privately wondered whether a successful job might return one of them to Regent’s Park and not the other.
  • C02S03 · River Cartwright — River and Catherine coaxed Ho into admitting that Lamb had asked for the file of a 1980s officer called Dickie Bow. Catherine then told River what the file said: Bow had died the week before on a coach between Reading and Oxford, had no ticket, and had been a streetwalker with a sideline in traded gossip.
  • C02S04 · River Cartwright — River and Catherine confronted Lamb in his office and he refused to explain anything, threw a mug at Catherine and ordered them out. Minutes later a crash from his room announced that his monitor had gone off the desk, and Slough House went quiet.
  • C02S05 · River Cartwright — Lamb assembled the slow horses in Ho’s office to watch CCTV of the Oxford platform, and River picked out a bald man walking away up the platform through the rain instead of boarding. Lamb gave Shirley the job of tracing where the man had got off, let the secondment stand, and told River that Dickie Bow had been killed with an untraceable poison.

People

  • River Cartwright — Bored slow horse who pushes to find out what Lamb is doing and spots the bald man on the CCTV.
  • Roderick Ho — Technician with a fabricated online life; holds the file Lamb requested and later runs the footage.
  • Catherine Standish — Lamb’s assistant; supplies River with Bow’s file details and fronts the confrontation with Lamb.
  • Jackson Lamb — Back from Oxford; shows the CCTV, hands Shirley the follow-up and names poison as the cause of Bow’s death.
  • Shirley Dander — New slow horse picked by Lamb to trace the bald man’s onward journey.
  • Marcus Longridge — New slow horse; identifies the train’s likely direction and delivers a folder to Lamb’s office.
  • Min Harper — Seconded slow horse; watches the footage and is told his secondment stands.
  • Louisa Guy — Seconded slow horse; suggests checking for cameras on the trains themselves.

Places

  • Slough House — Ho’s office, River’s room and Lamb’s lair on the top floor, where most of the chapter plays out.
  • The Needle — A new eighty-storey glass building; its seventy-seventh floor is the venue for the Pashkin talks.

Lines worth keeping

“He’d kill me. And he could do it, too. He’s killed people before.” — Roderick Ho, refusing to help River

“Kind of flash for a discreet meeting.” — Louisa Guy, surveying the borrowed boardroom

“Mine either. But it’s got Lamb off his arse, so there must be something to it.” — Catherine Standish, closing the Bow discussion

“Whoever killed him used an untraceable poison.” — Jackson Lamb, final words to River

Threads

  • Plants: The bald man on the platform, Mr B, has an unknown destination; Shirley is sent to trace which station he left the train at.; Lamb’s question about untraceable poisons is left as a puzzle for River.; The Pashkin talks are weeks away, in a tower with a hotel on its lower floors and a service lift behind the stairwell.; Ho’s fabricated identity as Roddy Hunt and his falsified work pattern are described in detail.
  • Payoffs: Lamb’s request for a Service personnel file, raised at the start of the chapter, is identified as Dickie Bow’s.; The abandoned hat and the recovered phone are connected to a man who walked past the camera rather than boarding.
  • Continuity: Lamb’s monitor was destroyed when he tried to insert a CD, and he spent half an hour upstairs before coming down.; Lamb says he will be in late the next day.; Shirley Dander has been given the job of finding where Mr B got off the train.; Min and Louisa remain seconded to Webb, which Lamb cannot prevent.; Catherine Standish was Charles Partner’s PA and found him dead in his bath.; River’s grandfather, David Cartwright, is a Service legend who raised him on tradecraft.

Characters

Places

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