Slough House

Spook Street / C04

Chapter 4

Book 4 Part One 4745 words POV: Roderick Ho, Moira Tregorian, Louisa Guy, Catherine Standish, Diana Taverner, Narrator

Summary

Lamb’s text reaches Slough House — he will be late in, having spent the night identifying Cartwright’s body — and Roderick Ho reads it on the stairs while preparing to cannibalise River’s computer. Moira Tregorian, the new recruit, tries to break the news and fails: Louisa Guy refuses it three times, leaves, returns and nearly attacks Moira before Marcus Longridge sits her down. Shirley Dander reads the text aloud and Louisa fastens on its wording, ‘Cartwright’s body’ rather than River’s, and argues Lamb may have meant the grandfather. Lamb himself has gone to Catherine Standish’s flat in St John’s Wood, where he tells her in person, works through her denials, mocks her stalled resignation and her drinking, and finally names the bathroom as David Cartwright’s; he then asks whether she means to keep the Old Bastard in her bedroom forever, and she shuts the door on him and reopens it. On the South Bank, Diana Taverner orders Emma Flyte to collect and isolate the analyst Giti Rahman, producing a warrant signed by Claude Whelan, and Flyte insists the Dogs are not a private army but takes the job. Back in River’s office, Louisa’s theory meets Marcus’s objection that River would have surfaced, and JK Coe, who has barely spoken, says he thinks that is probably so — the referent of his sentence is left unstated.

Beats

  • C04S01 · Roderick Ho — Ho reads Lamb’s text on the stairs and tells Moira Tregorian that River is dead, then repeats it to Louisa Guy, who says no three times and closes her office door. She comes back and nearly attacks Moira; Marcus Longridge takes her elbow and sits her in a chair. Ho’s plan to swap River’s computer for his own is interrupted and then abandoned.
  • C04S02 · Catherine Standish — Lamb arrives uninvited at Catherine’s flat in St John’s Wood and tells her, before anyone else, that River has been shot twice in the face. She takes it numbly, watching a man walk his dog in the street below, and registers the parallel with finding Charles Partner dead in his bathroom. Lamb will not say whose bathroom until the end of the scene, then names David Cartwright’s.
  • C04S03 · Diana Taverner — By the Globe, Taverner tells Flyte that David Cartwright is still missing and that a car has been reported stolen a mile from his house. She then orders Flyte to collect and isolate the analyst Giti Rahman, who has found something the Park cannot afford to have broadcast. Flyte demands authority; Taverner produces a warrant signed by Whelan, then takes it back and sets the reporting chain.
  • C04S04 · Catherine Standish — Catherine makes Lamb tea and he works through her defences, arguing that one shot might be accident but two in the face cannot be, and needling her about the resignation letter she has sent to HR three times. She insists the old man was confused and frightened. On his way out he asks whether she wants someone to come and fetch the Old Bastard from her bedroom; she shuts the door, then opens it again.
  • C04S05 · Narrator — The slow horses gather in River’s office and pool what they know, which is little; Louisa stops Ho from touching the computer and refuses to accept that River is dead. Shirley reads Lamb’s text aloud and Louisa seizes on ‘Cartwright’s body’, arguing it may mean the grandfather. Marcus points out that River would have surfaced by now, and JK Coe, who has barely spoken, says he thinks that is probably so.

People

  • Roderick Ho — reads Lamb’s text and starts swapping River’s computer for a better one
  • Moira Tregorian — new Slough House recruit who has to break the news and is nearly attacked for it
  • Louisa Guy — River’s colleague, who denies his death and then fastens on the wording of Lamb’s text
  • JK Coe — hooded and near-silent, who asks what Lamb wrote and offers the section’s last word
  • Shirley Dander — arrives with Marcus, snatches Ho’s phone and reads the text aloud
  • Marcus Longridge — restrains Louisa and organises the office
  • Jackson Lamb — texts the office and tells Catherine in person, then needles her about the hidden old man
  • Catherine Standish — at home in St John’s Wood, receiving the news and concealing David Cartwright
  • Diana Taverner — meets Flyte by the Globe and orders Giti Rahman’s detention
  • Emma Flyte — takes the order but demands a warrant and a chain of command
  • Giti Rahman — Park analyst on the hub, to be collected and isolated
  • Claude Whelan — First Desk, whose signature appears on the warrant
  • Charles Partner — Catherine’s former boss, recalled as found dead in his bathroom
  • David Cartwright — the Old Bastard, established as being kept in Catherine’s bedroom

Places

  • Slough House — where the staff gather in River’s office
  • Westacres — the bombing, invoked as the reason for the Park’s red alert and stretched budget
  • Regent’s Park — Regent’s Park headquarters, source of the warrant and of Giti Rahman’s posting

Lines worth keeping

“Will be late in. Up all night identifying Cartwright’s body.” — Shirley Dander, reading Lamb’s text aloud from Ho’s phone

“The Dogs aren’t a private army” — Emma Flyte, resisting Taverner’s order on the South Bank

“You sent a text?” — Catherine Standish, shocked that Lamb broke the news to the office by message

Threads

  • Plants: Louisa’s reading of the text — ‘Cartwright’s body’, not River’s — keeps the possibility that the dead man is the grandfather.; Lamb knows the Old Bastard is in Catherine’s flat, which makes her a safe house keeper for the rest of the day.; The warrant for Giti Rahman is the third sheet of a supposed triplicate, so its authority is arguable.; Giti Rahman has uncovered information that could bring the Park down if she broadcasts it, and is put beyond reach before she can.; Catherine’s resignation has stalled: she has sent the same letter to HR three times and Lamb keeps being asked to ratify it.
  • Payoffs: The triplicate papers Whelan signed without reading in the previous chapter turn out to include the warrant Taverner shows Flyte.; The nickname ’the O.B.’, explained by Lamb at the end of the previous chapter, is used as shorthand for David Cartwright throughout.; Lamb’s identification of the body is converted into a text message, delivering the news to the whole office at once.
  • Continuity: Lamb’s text reads exactly: ‘Will be late in. Up all night identifying Cartwright’s body.’; COBRA is under way when Slough House wakes; Marcus says it is barely ten.; Catherine lives in an art-deco block in St John’s Wood and is still drawing a salary.; Taverner meets Flyte before ten on the South Bank; Flyte reports only to Taverner, and Taverner reports to Whelan in confidence.; Giti Rahman is on the hub and asleep in a sleeping pod when the order is given.; River’s office is treated as Coe’s now, though he makes no claim on it; Ho is halfway through swapping the computer.

Characters

Places

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