Slough House

Spook Street / C07

Chapter 7

Book 4 Part One 4353 words POV: Shirley Dander, River Cartwright, Claude Whelan

Summary

At Slough House Shirley Dander reports that David Cartwright made three or four official trips to France in the early nineties, always near Poitiers, logged against a retired agent codenamed Henry whose status reports never altered; Lamb suggests Henry may have existed to justify travel by a man who was First Desk in all but name, and Shirley adds that Cartwright travelled with a body-watcher, Bad Sam Chapman. In Angevin River is taken in by Natasha Reverde, who sees Bertrand’s face in his and describes the commune at Les Arbres — Russian, English, German and Czech residents, an American called Frank whom everyone obeyed, children raised there without school. She tells him of her son Patrice, fathered by Yevgeny in the summer of 1990 and left behind when she fled to Paris, and of a boy called Yves she dislikes; she gives him photographs and he pockets one, lying that he will tell her if he finds Patrice. He uses his credit card at a cash machine, putting himself back on the map, and heads for London. At the Park Taverner insists the Service had no involvement in Westacres and names the two other missing cold bodies: Paul Wayne and Adam Lockhead.

Beats

  • C07S01 · Shirley Dander — Shirley reports that David Cartwright made three or four official trips to France near Poitiers in the early nineties, recorded only in expenses claims and status updates on a retired agent codenamed Henry. Lamb reframes Henry as a cover allowing a man who was First Desk in all but name to travel, and Shirley adds that Cartwright never travelled alone: his body-watcher was Bad Sam Chapman. The team ends the section with a name to chase and Lamb briefly impressed.
  • C07S02 · River Cartwright — Natasha Reverde, who sees Bertrand in River’s face, describes Les Arbres in 1990: a commune of Russian, English, German and Czech men run by an American called Frank, with children — eventually six or seven boys — raised on the premises and taught by the Frenchman Jean. She tells her own story, pregnant at eighteen by Yevgeny, leaving for Paris, returning years later, and being threatened off the property by Frank; she shows him photographs, including Bertrand as a boy and a child called Yves whom she regards with distaste or fear. River pockets one photograph, lies that he will tell her if he finds Patrice, then uses his credit card at a cash machine and takes a bus towards Poitiers, Paris and London.
  • C07S03 · Claude Whelan — Back at the Park Taverner briefs Whelan on how the cold-body programme was mothballed and stored, and renames the identities ‘product’ so that the term itself cannot give them away. Whelan tries to establish whether the aim is prosecution or concealment; Taverner answers by insisting the Service had no involvement in Westacres, only that its product was misappropriated, and he falls in line. She then names the two remaining cold bodies — Paul Wayne and Adam Lockhead — and has them searched at low priority, which ties River’s dead intruder directly to the Service and to Westacres.

People

  • Shirley Dander — reports the Cartwright trips and the file on Henry.
  • Roderick Ho — drinks something labelled smart water and is mocked by Lamb.
  • Jackson Lamb — reframes Henry as a travel cover and guesses Bad Sam Chapman.
  • Marcus Longridge — draws the inference that Henry has become unstable.
  • Louisa Guy — objects that the assassin cannot have been Henry on age grounds.
  • JK Coe — asks why Cartwright was visiting France in the first place.
  • Moira Tregorian — kept out of the meeting, set to sorting Park memos by urgency.
  • Molly Doran — the source of the records Shirley reports.
  • David Cartwright — the subject of the French trips, absent from the scene.
  • Sam Chapman — Cartwright’s body-watcher on the French trips.
  • River Cartwright — poses as Bertrand’s cousin to draw out Natasha’s account.
  • Natasha Reverde — local woman who describes Les Arbres and her lost son Patrice.
  • Patrice — Natasha’s son, left at Les Arbres and last photographed at ten.
  • Bertrand — Frank’s son, the boy in the photographs whose face River shares.
  • Frank Harkness — the American who ran Les Arbres and made its law.
  • Yves — a boy at Les Arbres whom Natasha dislikes or fears.
  • Claude Whelan — accepts Taverner’s framing and orders the missing product found.
  • Diana Taverner — names Wayne and Lockhead and controls the investigation.

Places

  • Slough House — where Shirley presents her findings in Ho’s room.
  • Les Arbres — the commune where Natasha met Yevgeny and the boys were raised.
  • Regent’s Park — MI5 headquarters, where Whelan and Taverner hold their briefing.
  • Westacres — the bombed shopping centre Taverner insists the Service had no part in.

Lines worth keeping

“Old man Cartwright made a number of trips to France in the early nineties” — Shirley Dander, opening her report to the slow horses in Ho’s room.

“I became a prostitute, and that is not something I feel shame for.” — Natasha Reverde, explaining her years in Paris to River.

“Robert Winters we already know. He’s the only one to make a mark on the world so far.” — Diana Taverner, listing the cold bodies before naming Paul Wayne and Adam Lockhead.

“We are spies, remember?” — Diana Taverner, defending the switch from ‘cold bodies’ to ‘product’.

Threads

  • Plants: Bad Sam Chapman is named as Cartwright’s travelling companion, a person not yet questioned.; Henry may be a fiction invented to justify travel, leaving what Cartwright was really doing in France unexplained.; Frank, Jean, Yevgeny and the other men of Les Arbres are unaccounted for after the fire.; Yves is singled out as a boy Natasha fears, and River notes that five-year-olds grow up.; River carries away a photograph of Frank, Jean, Patrice and Yves.; Paul Wayne remains an unidentified name with a cold-body identity in circulation.; The off-site facility beyond Paddington and its shooting war are mentioned but not explained.; Whelan’s earlier marginalising of a potential danger is recalled in his mouse-and-dragon image.
  • Payoffs: Adam Lockhead is named as one of the three missing cold bodies, which explains how he could pass as River and why he was sent.; Bertrand is identified as Frank’s son, and the narrative confirms Frank’s son is the corpse in the bathroom.; Shirley’s call to Molly Doran in the previous chapter produces the Cartwright travel records and the Henry file.; River’s resemblance to the dead man is explained by Bertrand’s paternity and upbringing at Les Arbres.; The Les Arbres fire from the previous chapter is placed in the timeline of the Westacres bombing.
  • Continuity: Cartwright made three or four trips to France in the early nineties, before the Channel Tunnel, always near Poitiers, all official and expensed.; The status updates on Henry said only ‘stable’ or ‘no action necessary’.; Yevgeny was in his thirties when they met in 1990; Natasha was eighteen when Patrice was born, and the last photograph she has of him shows him at ten.; Natasha now runs a house-cleaning business with three employees, having returned to the village after ten or eleven years away once her father had died.; There were six or seven children at Les Arbres in the end, all boys, the eldest two there from the beginning.; Molly Doran lost a bet to Shirley and supplied the records.; River uses his credit card in Angevin, then travels by bus to Poitiers, by train to Paris and on to London.; The three cold bodies are Robert Winters, Paul Wayne and Adam Lockhead, all entered into the system at low priority.; Whelan holds the titles First Desk and Chief Exec; Taverner is the subordinate briefing him.

Characters

Places

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